📖 Biblical Definition
"Single-minded" names the saint whose attention, allegiance, and aim are undivided. Christ taught the figure with the single eye: "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light" (Matthew 6:22). The Greek haplous means "simple, single, undivided" — focused on one object. James contrasts the double-minded man: "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways" (James 1:8); "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you... purify your hearts, ye double minded" (4:8). Single-mindedness is wholeness of orientation: the man whose work, marriage, money, and rest all aim at one Lord. The fragmented man cannot be at peace.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Having or characterized by a single purpose; undivided in attention or aim.
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Webster: single — “simple; undivided; uncompounded.”
Christ's ‘if therefore thine eye be single’ (Mt 6:22) names a focus that gathers light; James' dipsychos (double-souled) names the man who tries to focus on two and gathers neither.
📖 Key Scripture
Matthew 6:22 — "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light."
James 1:8 — "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways."
Philippians 3:13 — "This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before."
Psalm 27:4 — "One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern life multiplies attention by design; single-mindedness is the discipline of subtracting it.
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James calls double-mindedness instability. The split self cannot stand: it leans toward God on Sunday and toward the world Monday through Saturday, and over time the leaning toward the world wins.
Recovery is subtraction. Psalm 27:4's one thing; Philippians 3:13's this one thing I do. The household, the believer, and the leader all need a deliberate practice of subtracting until the eye is single again.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Greek haplous (single, simple) and dipsychos (double-souled) are the New Testament's pair.
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Greek haplous — single, simple, sound (Mt 6:22).
Greek dipsychos — double-souled, James' coinage for the divided man (Jas 1:8; 4:8).
Usage
"Single-mindedness is subtraction, not concentration."
"If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light."
"The double-minded man is unstable in all his ways."