In the last two posts found here and here I have looked at what Jesus says in Matthew 6:19-23. There Jesus gave two illustrations concerning how one in the Kingdom should view money–where ones treasure lies and what ones eyes see. The  last illustration is found in verse 24:

“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.

At first glance it seems that this phrase “no one can serve two masters” is just untrue. I mean, some could respond and say “I serve two masters, I’ve got two jobs—I have two bosses.” But this response fails to understand the meaning behind the word “serve (an unfortunate translation).” The word in the original literally means “to be a slave.” It has to do with the relationship between a slave and a slave-owner. And with that understanding, Jesus’ words make perfect sense. As well know Scholar R.T. France put it:

No one can serve two master is patently untrue; we do it all the time…but a slave was not employed under contract, but was normally wholly owned by the person who had bought him or her.

Just like a slave is unable to devote his life to two slave-owners so Christians cannot be a slave to God and a slave to money. We have to choose one or the other. That’s really the meaning behind the words love/hate in this context—either we will choose God or we’ll choose money, period; you can’t have both! Unfortunately, some become a slave to money. Paul warned Timothy about it:

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. (1 Timothy 6:9-10)

He even had friends who deserted him for it:

For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica (2 Timothy 4:6)

But Jesus calls us to be a slave of His. This is really the whole point isn’t it? That we are single-minded in devotion to the Lordship of Christ. What he says goes; what he wills we will do; what he desires we desire. Money is nothing, only a means to make His name glorified! We are slaves of Christ! 

Being a slave is not the most relevant nor accepted picture I admit, but it is exactly how the New Testament describes us. We are slaves, and we are going to be slaves in one way or another. But when we’re slaves to Christ that makes us slaves to an enormously benevolent master! I heard well-known Pastor, John Macarthur, speak on this idea of slave/master recently. I loved what he had to say:

“I was doing a pastors’ conference with African-American pastors in North Carolina, and the subject came up. We were having a great time. We were in the football stadium at Wake Forest; it’s really kind of a neat place. We were up in this beautiful football complex with a glass window overlooking the football field; all these pastors where there. One of them said, “How in the world am I going to tell my congregation? How am I going to tell my congregation this message about slaves when it has such a stigma? What am I going to tell them?”

And I said, “Well, I’ve got good news for you. You have a loving Master who is all-wise, compassionate, generous, powerful, resourceful, protective, kind, merciful, forgiving, who takes you from being just a slave to making you a slave that is also a friend…Are you ready for this one?…and takes you from being a friend to a son, and not just a son but a joint-heir. And if you follow the rest of the count in the New Testament, you become a citizen of His Kingdom. Do you understand that no slave in the Roman Empire could be a citizen? Couldn’t own anything? Didn’t have any rights? Couldn’t give testimony to a court of law? Couldn’t be defended in court? This is a different kind of slavery. He provides everything you need; makes you an intimate friend and gives you full disclosure of everything that’s on His heart. First Corinthians 2:16, “We have a mind of Christ.” He’s revealed it to us on the pages of Scripture, and He makes us sons, and He makes us heirs and joint-heirs with His own Son and He–we could go on–He makes us reign with Him, citizens of His glorious kingdom.”

And so it is with us. We are slaves of Christ, not our money. For, how we view our money determines how we view God. May we see our money as only a means by which we store our treasures in heaven, view our lives through generous eyes, and never let it control our sole allegiance to Christ!

Two Visions

In my last post I discussed Jesus words in Matthew 6:19-21. There he focused on two treasures–treasures stored on earth and treasures stored in heaven. In verses 22-23 Jesus offers a second, more ambiguous illustration. But once you dig past the surface and discover what Jesus had in mind, it’s a sobering truth. Notice verses 22-23:

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!

An evil eye or a healthy eye?

At first glance it seems quite obscure. But the more we ponder at the text, its meaning becomes clear.  First, Jesus says that the “eye is the lamp of the body.” What does that mean? Simply, that through our eyes we see things. That’s it. Jesus isn’t trying to be scientific; he is just trying to build a metaphor to teach a spiritual truth. Our eye is the way we see things before us. 

Then, he gives us two comparisons. First, we have “a healthy eye.” The word “healthy” here is important for us in understanding what Jesus means. The word carries two primary meanings: (1) undivided/single, and (2) generous. Usually and most often the word takes on the first idea, but I believe the context lends itself to the latter. The reason is because of how it fits with Jesus comparison of the good and bad eye as we will see. 

The clarity of what Jesus means here comes to light when we understand what he meant by the phrase “bad eye.” The phrase literally means “evil eye.” What is interesting here is that the phrase “evil eye” was a Jewish idiom that meant “stingy/greedy.” Take for example Proverbs 28:22 which says:

A stingy man hastens after wealth and does not know that poverty will come upon him (Proverbs 28:22)

The word “stingy” in the above passage means literally “a man whose eye is evil.” An evil eye therefore was used to describe someone who was greedy, and stingy. 

Therefore, when we read “bad eye” and “healthy eye” what Jesus is comparing is a “stingy person” verses a “generous person.” The one with a bad eye is full of darkness. They are unable to view the world through the lens of the Kingdom because of their greed and stinginess. On the other hand, those with healthy eyes are full of light. They are generous and understand that money is simply a means of investing in God’s Kingdom. 

Now follow me here, what Jesus is saying is this: the way we view Money—whether we are greedy or generous—carries over into the whole of a person! That means the way we deal with our money directly affects how we will live in every other area of our Christian life! In essence Jesus is saying “if you are greedy your whole life will be full of darkness, but if you are generous your whole life will be full of light.” That’s why Paul says so clearly in Colossians 3:

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory (Colossians 3:1-4)

So the question as Jesus puts it in the end of verse 23 is “how great is the darkness? This is a call to reflect on our own lives! Do we have evil eyes or good eyes? Are we greedy or are we generous? Do we view our money as wholly devoted to God’s Kingdom or do we view our money as ours, and long for more? What’s are view? We have only two choices.  The main point is the same:  How we view our money determines how we view our love for God

When we love someone there is nothing we wouldn’t do to make our significant other happy. Yet, if we are honest with ourselves, when it comes to our relationship with our father in Heaven, we are ready to offer our lives to him, except for our wallets and purses. 

I have heard somewhere about a technique Africans use to capture monkeys. They put a banana in a small-mouthed jar chained to a tree. The monkey will reach in to get the banana, and get his hand stuck the jar. Because he refuses to let go of the banana, he is captured. He could have easily set himself free if he had just been willing to let go of his prized possession.

That is a picture of many who are trying to hold to their possessions and at the same time be devoted to Christ. But  there really is only two choices when it comes to our money and our relationship to God. A good place to begin the conversation about God and possessions is found in Matthew 6:19-24.

Jesus offers three illustrations that each point to two choices concerning how we view our money. I’ll discuss the first in this article and the next two in the following. Here’s what Jesus says in Matthew 6:19-21:

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.

Two Treasures

Treasure on earth

You may not be able to observe it in the original but Jesus is doing a little play on words here (You can see in the original Greek how the two bolded words share the same verb stem:  Μὴ θησαυρίζετε ὑμῖν θησαυροὺς). He says literally do not treasure for yourselves treasures.

Treasures here simply refers to those things in your life in which are extremely valuable—your car, your house, your boat, your clothes, your food, your dog…etc. One person defines it as “that which is of exceptional value and kept safe—‘treasure, wealth, riches (Louw-Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains New York: United Bible Societies, 1996, 620).’

 But is Jesus then saying that it’s wrong to have things? To have a home. . .to have a car. . .to plan for the future and have a savings account?

Simply answered, no. But there is a parable Jesus told in Luke that helps us get a grasp on exactly what “storing up treasures on earth” looks like. It’s in Luke 12:

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God (Luke 12:13-21).”

So what is storing up treasure on earth look like? We store up treasure on earth when we move beyond our needs and begin storing up our wants. This is admittedly a hard truth to swallow, but Jesus is telling us that our material possessions—our money—is not for the purposes of “stocking up.” But why?

Foolishness of earthly gain

Storing up earthly gain is stocking up for ourselves more and more stuff—for the sole purpose of stocking up stuff! That’s the goal! To make sure we have a lot of things in our possession! But Jesus says this is foolish! Why? Because our possessions are temporary. Observe the last part of verse 19:

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal

In the time of Jesus one’s wealth was not indicated by paper currency. It was in metals (like gold and silver) and clothing. And one’s money was not stored away in a bank somewhere but was hidden in a safe place inside the house. 

Jesus says, don’t store your treasures on earth because the moths will eat away your clothing, and the metals and materials will “rust (literally “eating”) away, and thieves will (lit. “dig through” because thieves would literally dig through the walls of a house) steal your belongings. In other words, it is foolish to store up material possessions on earth because they only last a short while.

• Our Iphones—become obsolete in weeks!
• Our cars (we bought our first “new Car” in 2014, and after our kids got a hold of it, it was done!
• Our bodies decay
• Our things will eventually rot!

And yet, that’s what we tend to do. We get fixated on making sure we have enough stuff. We want the nicest things. We desire lots of money in the bank. And for what? What is it accomplishing? One day it will all be gone! Jesus says elsewhere: 

For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul (Mark 8:36)?

As Christians we need to realize that the things in this life are temporary. This world is not our home. Listen to how Peter describes us in 1 Peter 2:11:

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul (1 Peter 2:11).

That’s what we are: sojourners, exiles, and aliens to this world. This world is not our home! I like how the Christian Contemporary Band, Mercy Me puts it:

I close my eyes and I see your face
If home’s where my heart is then I’m out of place
Lord, won’t you give me strength to make it through somehow
I’ve never been more homesick than now

Treasure in Heaven 

So that brings us to the other choice: treasure in Heaven. Look at verse 22:

but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Jesus calls us to a better choice—treasure in Heaven. But what does that entail?

What is treasure in heaven?

I think Craig Blomberg in his commentary on Matthew put it as good as any: 

Treasure in Heaven is the compassionate use of material resources to meet other’s physical and spiritual needs, in keeping with the priorities of God’s Kingdom (Blomberg, Craig. Matthew, 123).

The Apostle Paul helps us understand what storing our treasures in Heaven looks like:

 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life (1 Timothy 6:17-19).

Storing our treasures in Heaven is simply thinking about investing our possessions/money with a Kingdom mindset. It means asking the question:  “How can I use my money—what I have over and beyond the physical needs of my family–to invest in the work of the Kingdom? 

The wisdom of storing treasure in heaven

Now, notice the wisdom of storing treasure in Heaven opposed to the foolishness of storing our money on earth in the next part of verse 20:

but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

When we store up for ourselves treasure on earth—for the here and now—we are investing in temporary and fading things. But when we invest our money in God’s Kingdom, it carries over eternal dividends! When we invest in the Kingdom God will bless us eternally in the future. I like how Mark Moore puts it:

It’s true you can’t take it with you but Jesus said you can send it ahead.

Furthermore, investing in the Kingdom means that we invest in the lives of others. We invest in seeing lives changed, people come to know Christ, people freed from the separation of God for eternity. That’s a true and lasting investment! 

The Main  Point

What’s the point to all of this? Here it is: how we view our money determines how we view our love for God. It’s right there in verse 21:

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

We have two choices: invest our money in ourselves or invest our money in God’s Kingdom. However, when  we spend our money one thing is inescapable—how we spend our money determines how we view our love for God. Moore is right when he goes on to say:

Our wallets are one of the best barometers of our spirits

See, when we truly understand what life in the kingdom is, we begin to view our money differently. Money is only a means by which we can help bring people into the kingdom! Therefore:

• The car we drive
• The boat we own
• The house we live in
• The savings account
• The toys and things we have cluttering up our basement

All of these things and more are only seen as vehicles by which we can bring the Gospel to a lost and dying world—period. The way we view our stuff inevitably points to how we view God. If we store up treasures on earth we say that our wealth is more important than our worship!