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A Single Heart Has a Single Focus

And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. Acts 2:46–47

A central error of modern thinking is that today many men and women imagine they have the right to decide for themselves, anew and afresh, what Christianity is, what the church is, and what the message is. One of the most important statement made concerning Christians after Pentecost was, they were all of one mind, they were experiencing a wonderful unity, a “Singleness of heart”!

Jesus had prayed that His disciples might be one, even as He and His Father were one, and here they were giving expression to this oneness. John 17:21 That they all may be one; as you, Father, are in Me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that you have sent Me.

How were they manifesting this great unity?

“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” (Matthew. 6:22–23).

It is a great principle that when men and women believe the Christian Gospel, the main effect it has upon them is to unify their life, to make them “single, singular” or, to have a single incredible focus. What Christianity does is get rid of the complications and produce an essential simplicity. Christianity at its core simplifies life and all that surrounds it. We see the possibilities and the challenges in the history of the Christian church

Have you ever wondered why the church developed into an institution as we know it?

There is only one answer, people have done it. We always make things complicated. It is exactly what we see happen in government: someone sets up one office, then has to set up another to look after that one, and another to look after the second, and so we get a bureaucracy that complicates everything.

This has happened down through history in the life of the Christian church as well. It has become almost unrecognizable in terms of what we read in the book of Acts, Chapter 2. At the end of the Middle Ages, true Christianity had almost become lost, and the people simply went one to this priest, and one to another. Almost no one seemed to know God, nor have an assurance of salvation. The people were relying upon prescribed payments of money for favors and blessings. The whole thing had become so involved and complicated that ordinary people had no idea what Christianity meant.

Then came The Protestant Reformation, and with it, people were led back to the New Testament, back to the Acts of the Apostles, and Christianity immediately became much simpler, and powerful. Puritanism and the great Evangelical Awakening over 200 years ago did exactly the same thing. The True Gospel always gets rid of complications. It says that God’s way is the way of a singleness of heart, the single eye.

A “Double Focus” is Sin

Look at this in the case of the individual. The unbeliever’s life is a complicated life, because sin always introduces complications. Sin makes life confusing, complicated and difficult because it divides our lives into unrelated sections. We no longer have a unifying principle mastering the elements, there are warring elements and factions within them, within us.

The Singular and Simple Christian Life

It all begins with the mind

Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

The first thing people discover when they become Christians is that there is only one thing that finally and ultimately matters. Their lives have many interests and demands, like anyone else. But they know that what really matters is their soul, what controls it now, and where it will ultimately it end up after death.

The story about our Lord in the house of Martha and Mary illustrates this well. Here is the essence of the Gospel, and this is what Jesus says to any troubled, unhappy, defeated soul: “Martha, Martha, you are careful [anxious] and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful; and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:38–42

The Importance of A Single Heart, a Single Focus

When we are on our deathbed, we care about those we love, and we want them to be okay and to know Christ. But each of us must decide for ourselves, and nothing except God and the relationship we have with Him will matter to a believer at that moment we enter eternity. That is the way in which our Lord simplifies everything and produces this singleness of heart and mind.

Jesus was crystal clear in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, “You cannot serve God and man.” (Matthew 6:24). That is the whole trouble with most people, and with all people, indeed, who are not in Christ—a divided heart. So there is this conflict:
“God and man; heaven and earth; time and eternity.
Which shall I live for?”

Will we allow Jesus to simplify everything for us
now, and for eternity? We Get to Choose!