Glad you stopped by, Aprile! Happy to hear that you’re enjoying it.

To think that God has incorporated common language, casual and typical expressions to covey His mind to man says something about God’s character.

Thanks, my mistake. 🙂

χαίρε, Ματθαῖος!
Thanks! Most of my thoughts on Matt. 6:22-23 were based on the article by Jim Myers that I linked to in that discussion; maybe I should make that a little more clear in the post. 🙂

You’ve raised an excellent question about Luke 11:34! I’m not sure I have an answer for that one. I’m inclined to think that Jesus was creating a bit of a play on words using the same idiom to mean something slightly different. I don’t think that the two passages (or “meanings” of the idiom in the two passages) are mutually exclusive though, because our actions (generosity/miserliness) most certainly will affect our spiritual condition (light/darkness). (cf. Matt. 25:31-46)

The context of Luke 11:34 is that the “evil generation” was looking for a sign from Jesus to prove his divine authority. But Jesus, κατὰ τὸ εἰωθὸς αὐτῷ, didn’t give them what they asked for; instead he rebuked them for ignoring the obvious light shining right in their eyes, and persisting in asking for further “proof” of his authority. If I could paraphrase the passage, I think it might go something like this:

“I (Jesus) am the Light that came into the world. I came to shine, so you won’t find me hiding my light under a bushel, but instead I shine out from the lampstand for everyone to see. If your eyes were good/healthy, you’d be able to see that I AM who I say I am. Since you obviously can’t see very well, (and keep asking for more “signs”) you’d better check whether your eyes are OK, because if your eyes are bad, your whole body/life is going to be negatively affected. Even the GENTILES (Ninevites and “the queen of the south”) could recognize God at work, and repent; while you, the evil generation, do not!”

Perhaps this was a bit of a “slam” at the Pharisees who did surely “give alms” as all good Jews did, (a good eye), but were intent on killing Jesus, who was their promised Messiah (proof that the “light in them” was actually darkness)!

John 9:39-41 has some similar imagery about eyes/sight and spiritual condition too. Here’s the NET note #110 sn on Jn. 9:41:

Because you claim that you can see, your guilt remains. The blind man received sight physically, and this led him to see spiritually as well. But the Pharisees, who claimed to possess spiritual sight, were spiritually blinded. The reader might recall Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in 3:10, “Are you the teacher of Israel and don’t understand these things?” In other words, to receive Jesus was to receive the light of the world, to reject him was to reject the light, close one’s eyes, and become blind. This is the serious sin of which Jesus had warned before (8:21-24). The blindness of such people was incurable since they had rejected the only cure that exists (cf. 12:39-41).