Third Sunday After Pentecost (Rom. 5:1–10; Mt. 6:22–33)

“If your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness” (Mt. 6:22–23). By the eye is meant the mind, and by the body the whole composition of the soul. Thus, when the mind is simple, the soul is full of light; when the mind is devious, the soul is full of darkness. What is a simple mind, and what is a devious mind? A simple mind is one that receives everything exactly as it is written in the word of God and is without any doubt convinced that all is as written—there is no subtle cleverness, no wavering or second-guessing in it. A devious mind is one that approaches the word of God with craftiness, cunning quibbling, and insinuations. It cannot believe straightforwardly but bends the word of God to fit its own reasonings. It comes to it not as a student but as a judge and critic, to see what it has to say, and then either to mock it or to remark condescendingly, “Well, that is not bad.” Such a mind has no firm convictions, because it obviously does not believe the word of God, while its own reasonings are always unstable—one way today, another way tomorrow. And so it has only oscillations, perplexities, questions without answers; all things are out of place for it, and it walks in the dark, groping its way. A simple mind, by contrast, sees everything clearly: every thing has its own definite character, as defined by the word of God, and therefore every thing has its proper place for it, and it knows exactly how to conduct itself in relation to each thing—it walks, in other words, on open, visible roads, in full confidence that they lead to the true goal.