<p>11:34 <i>The lamp of your body is your eye. When your eye is single, your whole body also is full of light- </i>This observation about single-mindedness &quot;healthy&quot; = 'single' follows on from the Lord&rsquo;s teaching about the overall direction of the human mind, observing that we cannot have two overall directions for our heart. Our eye must be single, the entrance of light must be only from one source. God gives to all men with a single eye (James 1:5 Gk.); and in response, we too must be single eyed in our giving (s.w.). If our eye / world-view / outlook on life is&nbsp;<i>single</i>&nbsp;s.w. &lsquo;simple&rsquo; in the passages quoted, then our whole body / life will be full of light. In daily work, in private reflection and planning for our immediate futures and present needs, there must be a direct and undiluted belief of the teachings of the Gospel, connecting those teachings to our daily life of faith. In this simplicity of the life of faith, in a world that makes life so complicated especially for the poor, we will find humility. With that simplicity and humility will come peace, and the ability to pray with a concentrated and uncluttered mind, without our thoughts wandering off into the petty troubles of life as we frame our words before Almighty God each morning and night.</p><p>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.&nbsp;<i>All</i>&nbsp;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. There is a Greek word translated &ldquo;simplicity&rdquo; which is related to the word translated &quot;single&quot; here. It 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.</p><p>Consider how the word is translated:<br />- Paul had &ldquo;<i>simplicity</i>&nbsp;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&nbsp;<i>simplicity</i>&nbsp;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- 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.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p><i>But when it is evil, your body also is full of darkness</i>- A bad or evil eye was an idiom for mean spiritedness. It continues the theme of materialism from the previous verses. To follow materialism is to be mean spirited- towards God. Speaking in the context of serving<i> either</i>&nbsp;God&nbsp;<i>or</i>&nbsp;mammon, the Lord uttered these difficult words: &quot;Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth... the light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness... how great is that darkness&quot; (Mt. 6:19-22 AV). All this is in the context of not being materialistic. The Lord is drawing on the OT usage of &quot;an evil eye&quot; - and consistently, this idiom means someone who is selfishly materialistic (Prov. 22:9; 23:7; 28:22; Dt. 15:9). The NIV renders some of these idioms as &quot;stingy&quot; or &ldquo;mean&quot;.</p>