Introduction
Do you want to be successful? Success is easily defined in almost every category. Business success is staying in the black. Success in football is having the higher score. Success in career is getting the promotion. Success in school is getting good grades. Success in reading is comprehension. Success in science is discovery. Success in farming is an increased yield.
Business, football, career, school, reading, science, farming—are all these things means or and end? Of course, these are all means to get something else: the good life. But what is the good life?
The American dream is that every person has the freedom and opportunity to succeed. But success is defined by the individual. What do you define as success?
Is it material wealth? Money is often the end to what we spend the most of our time. We work a full-time job to earn money. Many of us work more than one. But for most of us, money is not an end in and of itself. Money is a means to attain other things. Money is used to attain our basic needs: food, shelter, and clothing. But many of us get money beyond our basic needs. For what purpose? Jesus challenges this very thing.
Treasure
Matthew 6:19–21ESV
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Jesus teaches :
Where our treasure is stored shows what’s at our core.
First of all the command, “do not lay up,” or “do not store” is in the present tense and very likely is rendered, “Stop storing up for yourselves treasures on earth.” And so the command is a call to reorient away from one type of acquisition and change to another type of acquisition.
Jesus mentions “storing up treasure on earth.” This could be anything in the first century from jewelry to rich fabrics to even books. (Books in first century were much more expensive being hand-copied on handmade paper.) The treasure on earth is subject to decay. It is not eternal. And even if it does last a long time, we won’t be around to enjoy it. Jesus mentions the moth, a small and weak creature that a child could crush under his finger is able to destroy a great accumulation of wealth: cloth, books, land deeds.
And notice this treasure is stored up. This is not money used to attain the basic necessities of life. Jesus says the wise person considers the cost before building a house (
). And of course, one would have to “store up” in order to build such a thing. Nor is Jesus arguing that we should not plan or be prepared for emergencies.
Rather the “treasures on earth” are the nonessential accumulation wealth that becomes the sole focus. This accumulation may be motivated by any number of things: peace, security, greed, power, glory, pride, or some mixture.
Because of course, where our treasure is stored shows what’s at our core.
But none of these reasons are worthy of being the greatest good. And accumulation of treasure cannot truly bring peace. Scrooge had tons of money but was not at peace. Solomon had more money than anyone else ever, but brought civil war to his country.
Jesus himself mentions why treasure accumulation cannot bring security. All our wealth can disappear in an instant. Just one large increase in inflation. Just one stock market crash. Just one bank falling apart. Just one nation conquering another. All our resources can be devoured.
Matthew 6:20ESV
but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
Notice that Jesus is not commanding us to do away with ambition. Rather the call is to reorient that ambition. Instead of accumulating treasure on earth, we are to accumulate heavenly treasure.
Because, where are treasure is stored show what is at our core.
This “treasure in heaven” has a clear continuity of thought betwen the secret, heavenly reward for purely motivated acts of righteousness. And of course it has eternal benefit.
What can “Treasure on earth” gain for you? Peace? No. Security? No. Power? Perhaps, but to what end? It can gain you vice. It can gain you pride, selfishness and greed.
And yet, people spend their entire lives accumulating treasure. People are willing to sacrifice their families, sometimes literally abort babies, to gain treasure. People are willing to sacrifice relationships, friendships to acquire this earthly treasure. People devote their entire lives to gain earthly treasure and what is there to show for it?
A nice sports car? High-end brands? A country club membership?
“He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.”
And yet even people who call themselves pastors spout the idea that our greatest good is to accumulate earthly treasure.
“Well, you need to hear about money, because you ain’t gonna have no love and joy and peace until you get some money!” ~ Creflo A. Dollar
“God wants us to prosper financially, to have plenty of money, to fulfill the destiny He has laid out for us.” – Joel Osteen
“God will begin to prosper you, for money always follows righteousness.” ~ Benny Hinn
“Most employers at least have enough common decency about them that they don’t ask somebody to work for them for free…. If a man has enough nicety about him to do that, can’t you at least believe that the Father God is not asking you to serve Him for free either?” – Fred Price
I’m sorry, but if your last name is “dollar” or “price” and you’re a prosperity gospel preacher—certainly God has a sense of humor.
Certainly God is not about you getting more and more money. Earthly treasure is the very thing Jesus said to stop working for. Instead, we work for the heavenly treasure.
There seems to be no better example of this than the martyrs of the faith. Those willing to give up all earthly things for the sake of the heavenly.
One such story is that of Perpetua. She lived in the Roman Empire before Christianity was made legal. She was born to a wealthy family. She had a little baby out of wedlock and the father was not around. But then, by the influence of her servants, became a Christian. Eventually her small gathering of Christians were discovered by the empire and forced to recant or die.
Perpetua refused to recant. She remained in prison for a time. She struggled between having the wealth of her family, the cherished love of her son, the acceptance and honor of her society; or instead to have Christ.
Her and her companions were thrown into an arena to be devoured by wild beasts. The sent out lions, boars, tigers, oh my. On and on, until the crowd grew tired of the spectacle. So, the governor ordered them to be killed by the sword. Just before the guards approached with the sword, Perpetua yelled loud for all to hear, “Stop!” The governor supposed she was ready to recant rather than faced death. But them what she said shocked everyone. “I will not go to my Lord as if I am grieving!”
And then she fixes up her hair and clothing that were disheveled while being thrown by wild beasts. Then she is slain by the edge of the sword.
“Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
Now imagine one of these so-called preachers going up to Perpetua and saying, “Money always follows righteousness.” It’s laughable.
And yet where are treasure is stored shows what is at our core.
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Where do you store your treasure? What motivates your acquiring? Are you searching for peace? Security? Love? Fame?
One theologian says:
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 8: Matthew, Mark, Luke1) Treasure (6:19–21)
“If honour is rated the highest good, then ambition must take complete charge of a man; if money then forthwith greed takes over the kingdom; if pleasure, then men will certainly degenerate into sheer self-indulgence”
Eye
Matthew 6:22–23ESV
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
This passage taken by itself can be quite confusing. But we interpret it in light of the surrounding context. vv. 19-21 address material gain. v. 24 addresses money. It is then, very likely that this, based on the immediate context, also addresses money and the aberrant desire for it.
The first figure of speech “the eye is the lamp of the body” refers to the ancient understanding that the eye is the way that light is brought into the body. “Light” is a transition from “treasure” that refers to a disciple’s life goals. Light would be good, morally speaking, while darkness is evil.
Just as light and darkness are contrasted, so are the good and evil eye. The eye is a figure of speech for desire.
This is a very old figure of speech, and it originated in the garden of Eden.
“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”
Eve took her eyes off of God, so to speak, and then put her eyes on the forbidden fruit. Her whole body became full of darkness, and then she acted on that darkness.
We see this same idea in
“And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.”
The eye is representative of “desire.” And not just any desire, but your highest desire.
Matthew 6:22ESV
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light,
The word “healthy” is actually the word “single” in the original language. Commentator Charles Quarles says, “This suggests that the “single eye” is one that does not allow the allurement of wealth and possessions to distract him from God”
Charles L. Quarles, Sermon on the Mount: Restoring Christ’s Message to the Modern Church (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2011), 249.
The healthy eye is the one who’s highest desire is singular, it is not mixed.
Matthew 6:23ESV
but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
The “evil eye” is interesting. There are several examples in the Old Testament where “evil eye” refers to stinginess and greed.
“Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy; do not desire his delicacies,”
“stingy” in KJV is the literal Hebrew “evil eye” that the NKJV updates to “miserly” to get across the meaning of the idiom.
“A stingy man hastens after wealth and does not know that poverty will come upon him.”
Again, the man with the “evil eye” hastens after wealth.
In the parable of the laborers and the vineyard, the master asks his workers
“Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’”
The question “do you begrudge my generosity” is literally, “Is your eye evil because I am good?” or “Are you greedy because I am generous?”
And so the bad eye represents greed, covetousness, miserliness; the inordinate yearning for material possessions.
But the eye is inextricably linked to the rest of who we are. That is, our desire, whether ordered God’s way or disordered according to our liking, is the cause of our character for good or for ill. Hence, a single eye, a healthy eye brings light or goodness into the body; whereas the evil eye brings only darkness.
What we eye becomes our why.
In the book called The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien traces the journey of a bunch of dwarves and a hobbit to regain their kingdom under the mountain from a powerful dragon who had taken it. Once the dwarves regain control, their king Thorin is taken captive by the gold and constantly puts his men in danger and begins a great war because he refuses to give any of it up. The Hobbit, Bilbo, tries to convice him to stop his madness. But he is overcome by his greed he enters into a great war.
Eventually, Thorin apologizes to Bilbo for their prior quarrels. Thorin lies close to death, and suddenly his single-minded desire for wealth deflates as he understands that a whole mountain of gold will do little for him now. Thorin’s change of heart affirms the story’s sense of priorities. At the end of everything, Thorin truly desires the genuine warmth of friendship and the knowledge that he can leave something or someone in the world better off.
Greed brings in our lives darkness. And how great is that darkness! We see, we want, we live to attain. It gets to the point that no sacrifice is too high so long as we get what we want. We will tear the entire world apart just so we can acquire.
What we eye becomes our why.
The gospel turns this on its head. The gospel says we have to give to gain. This is seen in the life of Christ. Jesus’s life was not marked by what he could get. In fact, he is remembered most for what he gave up: his life. The truest form of generosity is self-sacrifice. And this is what the Lord Jesus did. He freely gave up his life so that we might live.
And its when we get a glimpse of Jesus and what he did for us that we can truly become generous. What we eye, for good or for ill, becomes our why.
Matthew 6:24ESV
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
We are now down to the choice between two treasures and two visions. Treasure and vision are both figures of speech for our desire which puts out other desires. Our desire that conquers other desires.
So what Jesus is teaching is quite straightforward:
People become enslaved to the very things they crave.
Your desires wage war within you all the time. You want to love your family, you want to watch the ball game, you want to make more money, you want to have a nicer car, you want to be healthy, you want to be at peace and secure. All of these desires are swirling around us all the time.
Whichever of these wins out, for good or for ill, becomes the thing we are enslaved to.
After WWII the soldiers who came back wanted to give their kids the stuff they never had. Mom went to work during the war and didn’t’ come home. Dad went to work to make more money than ever before and was hardly ever home. And then you had one of the most rebellious generations in the summer of love and the hippie movement. Ironic that some of the most spoiled people in terms of mammon became some of the worst in character. It’s almost as if money does not make us into better people.
I mentioned that term “Mammon.” Some of you may be familiar with it. It is the original word instead of “you cannot serve God and money” it would say, “You cannot serve God and mammon.”
There is, of course, not much familiarity with what this means. Some claimed it was a Syrian diety, but there’s no evidence to that. Some believed it was a demon, a view which was popularized in paradise lost. Matthew purposefully left that word untranslated in the Greek perhaps to give it that magical, foreign, and demonic feel. His point was to show greed for what it really was: a demonic idol.
So what are we to do? The Monks of old would beat themselves, starve themselves, refuse to speak, and constantly look at Scripture and prayer to combat any foreign desire. Any they craved that tried to enslave they would starve out. Is that our calling, to rid ourselves of all desire and ambition?
I believe the calling to be much more pleasant. There’s an old Puritan named Thomas Chalmers who wrote a book entitled The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. I love that title. He argues, “Neither they nor any one else can dispossess the heart of an old affection, but by the expulsive power of a new one – and, if that new affection be the love of God, neither they nor any one else can be made to entertain it, but on such a presentation of the Deity, as shall draw the heart of the sinner towards Him.”
C.S. Lewis who wrote the Narnia series also wrote a famous sermon called The Weight of Glory. In it he said, “Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
So the goal for us, believers, is to become enraptured with the glory of God. To revel in the mystery of the gospel. Think about the beauty of the doctrines set before us. That the eternal Lord who exists outside of time and space created such in his good pleasure. That he created such creatures that had wills of their own to do as they desire. That such creatures decided to turn on their Maker and rebel against him. And though he had the power to demolish us creatures, and though the had the right to punish us for all eternity, he instead decided to save us, to redeem us, at great cost to himself. Get a look at that and feel your spirit surge with desire and yearning. This is the treasure. This is the vision. This is sight that Perpetua had when she said she would not go to her Lord as if grieving. Her yearning for her Lord was greater than her desire for survival.
To take away from this would be foolish. It would be like you and your friend working hard to hike a mountain. You hike for two miles. You feel your legs and lungs burn going up some steep parts. You finally make the summit and see the breathtaking view. And your friend pulls out his phone and starts to laugh and says, “Check this out.” Then begins to scroll and never once pays attention to the splendor that is in front of him.
The grandeur of God is greater than a mountaintop view. Far superior. Get a glimpse of that!
Goshen Baptist Church 