The "Dark-Light" Of The Soul?

When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." (John 8:12, New International Version)

"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden." (Matthew 5:14, New International Version)

"Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!"  (Matthew 6:22-23, New Living Translation)

What if the "light" within us is darkness? Can persons be so lost, so far from the plumb line, that they are functioning as children of light when in fact they are lovers of darkness?

Yes. Remember the plea of the condemned soul: "But Lord, didn't we do many mighty works in Your name?" (see Matthew 7:21-23)

Today, let's consider the comments of a few Christian scholars concerning Matthew 6:23... with earnest prayers for the help of God concerning the state of our own souls. Spirit of God, give us grace to hear and obey You!

From Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary (italics mine):

"Worldly-mindedness is a common and fatal symptom of hypocrisy, for by no sin can Satan have a surer and faster hold of the soul, [than] under the cloak of a profession of religion... Christ counsels to make our best things the joys and glories of the other world, those things not seen which are eternal, and to place our happiness in them... It is our wisdom to give all diligence to make our title to eternal life sure through Jesus Christ, and to look on all things here below, as not worthy to be compared with it, and to be content with nothing short of it. The worldly man is wrong in his first principle; therefore all his reasonings and actions therefrom must be wrong. It is equally to be applied to false religion; that which is deemed light is thick darkness. This is an awful, but a common case; we should therefore carefully examine our leading principles by the word of God, with earnest prayer for the teaching of his Spirit. A man may do some service to two masters, but he can devote himself to the service of no more than one. God requires the whole heart, and will not share it with the world. He who holds to the world and loves it, must despise God; he who loves God, must give up the friendship of the world." 

From Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible (italics mine):

But if thine eye be evil,.... If thou art of a sordid disposition, of an avaricious temper, if the sin of covetousness prevails over thee,

thy whole body will be full of darkness: thy judgment will be so influenced by that sordid principle, that thou wilt not be able to discern what is agreeable to the law of God, or human reason; what is fitting to be done for thyself, for God, or for thy fellow creatures; all the powers and faculties of thy soul will be enslaved by it, and all be intent upon, and employed in the gratification of it: thy mind will be always sad and sorrowful, harassed and distressed; and thy estate, and condition, will be most miserable and uncomfortable:

if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! as it is in the body, so it is with the mind; as when the eye, the light of the body, is put out by any means, all the members of the body are in entire darkness; so when the light of reason in the mind is so far extinguished by any prevailing iniquity, particularly the sin of covetousness, so that it is wholly influenced and governed by it, what irregular actions is it led into! What deeds of darkness does it perform! and what will be the consequence of it, but utter and eternal darkness, if grace prevent not! 

From the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary (italics mine):

But if thine eye be evil—distempered, or, as we should say, If we have got a bad eye.

thy whole body shall be full of darkness—darkened. As a vitiated eye, or an eye that looks not straight and full at its object, sees nothing as it is, so a mind and heart divided between heaven and earth is all dark.

If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!—As the conscience is the regulative faculty, and a man's inward purpose, scope, aim in life, determines his character—if these be not simple and heavenward, but distorted and double, what must all the other faculties and principles of our nature be which take their direction and character from these, and what must the whole man and the whole life be but a mass of darkness?