<p>1:12 <i>For our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and Godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we behaved ourselves in the world- and more abundantly toward you- </i>&quot;Holiness&quot; is a poor translation; most manuscripts read &quot;simplicity&quot;. And this is the word Paul will later use about the 'simplicity' required to support the Jerusalem Poor Fund. The word means both simple and generous. I&rsquo;ve always sensed that the more complex a person, the harder it is for them to be generous. But we are all commanded to be generous to the Lord&rsquo;s cause, knowing that nothing we have is our own. And I am not only talking to wealthy brethren. <i>All</i> of us have something, and all of us can give something to our brethren. Consider how the poor believers of the first century such as Corinth amongst whom there were not many rich or mighty, Paul reminds them collected funds for the poor brethren in Judea. The Greek word translated &ldquo;simplicity&rdquo; occurs eight times in the NT. Five of these are in 2 Corinthians, written as it was in the context of Corinth giving funds for the Jerusalem poor. Consider how the word is translated:<br />- Paul had &ldquo;<i>simplicity</i> and Godly sincerity&rdquo; (2 Cor. 1:12)<br />- They had &ldquo;<i>liberality</i>&rdquo; (2 Cor. 8:2)<br />- &ldquo;<i>Bountifulness</i>&rdquo; (2 Cor. 9:11)<br />- Their &ldquo;<i>liberal distribution</i>&rdquo; (2 Cor. 9:13)<br />- He feared lest they be corrupted from &ldquo;the <i>simplicity</i> that is in Christ&rdquo; (2 Cor. 11:3).</p><p>Evidently Paul saw a link between generosity and the simplicity of the faith in Christ. It doesn&rsquo;t need a lexicon to tell you that this word means both &lsquo;simplicity&rsquo; and also &lsquo;generous&rsquo;. The connection is because the basis for generosity is a simple faith. Not a dumb, blind faith, glossing over the details of God&rsquo;s word. But a realistic, simple, direct conviction. This is why Paul exhorts that all giving to the Lord&rsquo;s cause should be done with &ldquo;simplicity&rdquo; (Rom. 12:8- the AVmg. translates &lsquo;liberally&rsquo;). Give, in whatever way, and don&rsquo;t complicate it with all the ifs and buts which our fleshly mind proposes. Paul warns them against false teachers who would corrupt them from their &ldquo;simplicity&rdquo;- and yet he usually speaks of &lsquo;simplicity&rsquo; in the sense of generosity. Pure doctrine, wholeheartedly accepted, will lead us to be generous. False doctrine and human philosophy leads to all manner of self-complication. Paul was clever, he was smart; but he rejoiced that he lived his life &ldquo;in simplicity...by the grace of God&rdquo; (2 Cor. 1:12).&nbsp; If our eye is single (translating a Greek word related to that translated &lsquo;simple&rsquo;), then the whole body is full of light (Mt. 6:22)- and the Lord spoke again in the context of generosity. An evil eye, a world view that is not &lsquo;simple&rsquo; or single, is used as a figure for mean spiritedness.</p><p>Our fear of what others think of us, of their reactions and possible reactions to who we are, to our words and our actions; our faithless worry about where we will find our food and clothing, how we will be cared for when we are old, whether our health will fail&hellip; all these things detract us from a simple and direct faith in the basic tenets of the Gospel, which is what should lead us to humility. &ldquo;The <i>simplicity</i> that is in Christ&hellip; in <i>simplicity </i>and godly sincerity&hellip; by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world&hellip; doing our daily work with <i>singleness </i>s.w. &lsquo;simplicity&rsquo; of heart, as unto Christ&rdquo; (2 Cor. 1:12; 11:3; Eph. 6:5,6). Worries about the material things of life, or deep seated doubt developed during years of atheism or wrong belief&hellip; these all so easily distract us from the simplicity of a true and humbled faith.</p>