An Expositional Study Of The Sermon On The Mount
ADVICE TO FORTUNE HUNTERS
Scripture Reading: Matthew 6:19-24 (KJV)
LAY NOT UP FOR YOURSELVES TREASURES UPON EARTH, WHERE MOTH AND RUST DOTH CORRUPT, AND WHERE THIEVES BREAK THROUGH AND STEAL: BUT LAY UP FOR YOURSELVES TREASURES IN HEAVEN, WHERE NEITHER MOTH NOR RUST DOTH CORRUPT, AND WHERE THIEVES DO NOT BREAK THROUGH NOR STEAL: FOR WHERE YOUR TREASURE IS, THERE WILL YOUR HEART BE ALSO. 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. IF THEREFORE THE LIGHT THAT IS IN THEE BE DARKNESS, HOW GREAT IS THAT DARKNESS! NO MAN CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS: FOR EITHER HE WILL HATE THE ONE, AND LOVE THE OTHER; OR ELSE HE WILL HOLD TO THE ONE, AND DESPISE THE OTHER. YE CANNOT SERVE GOD AND MAMMON.
Choose your investment
An alternative is place before us: “treasures upon earth” – how attractive they can be, how useful, how powerful, how seemingly essential. Is it our Lord’s teaching that their possession is wrong for Christians, and that, in no circumstances are they to seek them? “Lay not up,” He says; but is that an absolute prohibition? Let us compare Scripture with Scripture. Properly understood, there is never anything contradictory in the Bible; but there is much complementary. One passage qualifies, exemplifies, balances, and completes another, making it so clearly necessary to get an increasingly wide and deep knowledge of the Word of God as a whole. Such an examination of this particular subject will show us it is not wrong to lay up for our children – “The children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children” (2 Cor. 12:14). “If any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel” (1 Tim. 5:8). They are strong words; and they teach us, not only that we may, but we must seek to make provision for our dependants. It is not wrong to lay up for the needy – “Let him labour . . . that he may have to give to him that needeth,” is the injunction of Ephesians 4:28. The converted man is to seek to lay by him a store, however small, from which he may help needy folk that happen to cross his path, “especially . . . them who are of the household of faith” (Gal. 6:10). Even the Master Himself benefited at times from that consecrated generosity, as the happy ladies of Luke 8:3 knew, who “ministered unto Him of their substance.” However, it is wrong to lay up for ourselves – the crux of the matter seems to lie in the words, “for yourselves.”
Christians are not to seek riches for their own ease, comfort, enjoyment, luxury, and importance. Like all our other possessions, they are to be looked on as a trust for others, our kin, our needy neighbors, our Lord’s cause and work. Perhaps that word “treasures” also provides a clue. We are not to make “treasures” of our possessions. Keep in mind that rich young ruler to whom the Lord said, “Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasures in heaven” (Matt. 19:21). He does not command every one to do that; but in that young man’s case, money stood between him and the Master – his possessions had become his treasures and he could not bring himself to give them up. After all, the test lies not in what a man possesses, but in what possesses him. This one “went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions” – and his possessions had him. He loved his “treasures upon earth.”
Treasures in heaven
On the other hand, there are what the Master calls “treasures in heaven.” How infinitely worthwhile they are, how immeasurable more satisfying than this world’s riches. The souls we have won to God; the things we have done to influence others for Him; the prayers, kindnesses, smiles, testimonies, that have touched souls; the representations in ourselves of His character that we have shown before the world; the “rewards” of secret service for Him that He has already mentioned in the earlier part of this chapter: these are some of the things that turn into our “treasures in heaven.” Our service here is our fortune there. What a profitable investment. What we invest in ministering to others is capital laid up in God’s Bank. There is a sentence in the Mohammedan Koran that reads, “When a man dies, men ask how much he has left behind; whereas, angels ask how much he has sent before him.”
Illustration
The story of the rich lady who, in a dream, found herself exploring heaven in the company of an angel, who explained to her that people’s lives and behavior down below sent up the materials out of which their heavenly house was built. Coming to a fine, large place, she enquired whose residence that was, and learned that it belonged to her gardener. “But he has always lived in a little house on my estate,” she protested. “Yes; but he was so kind to people, and lived so like the Master, and influenced so many for Him, that out of all that material we have been able to build for his eternal abode this splendid house,” said the angel. They came next on a tiny dwelling, which, said the guide, was to be the wealthy woman’s habitation; for, as was pointed out, she had done so little for others and practically nothing for the Master, and out of such scanty material it was not possible to build any larger home. It is strongly doubtful that we have little or no Scripture warrant for such a conception of future conditions; and perhaps the story has no legitimate place in a serious Biblical exposition. But, it does serve to impress the truth that what we are and do down here determines our “treasures in heaven.” And so the way is clear for us to
Examine our security
There is little security in earthly treasure. The Master deals with the difficulties of His time, and of His audience. There is the moth. Part of an Oriental’s riches are fine garments, like that “goodly Babylonish garment,” to whose purloining Achan confessed in Joshua 7:21. What a mess the moth can make of such treasured possessions. Then, there are the mice. Some do not think we ought to accept the translation “rust.”1 But, if stores of grain are, in fact, in the Master’s mind here – what havoc mice can make therein. And the marauder – the third kind of Oriental wealth was in gold and silver. Coins would be placed in a jar and hidden in some unobserved corner. But if one lived in a humble dwelling, as most of our Lord’s present hearers would, the mud walls would provide little or no security for the treasure; it would not be difficult for thieves to “steal” the jar and its precious contents. Or, one might commit the coins to a covered vessel and hide it under the ground in a nearby field. The “treasure hid in a field,” of which the Master’s parable speaks in Matthew 13:44 would likely be a case in point. Certainly, there is no absolute security for “treasures upon earth.” Modern fortune hunters are not liable to the dangers of which we have just been speaking; for them, the insecurity lies in such things as movements in the money-market, slumps in business, fraudulent companions, and so on.
“Treasures in heaven” different
How different is the outlook for “treasures in heaven,” which are gloriously unassailable by moth, or mice, or marauders. Now, “bags with holes” (Haggai 2:6) are exchanged for “bags which wax not old” (Luke 12:33). This investment offers a “gilt-edged” security. Unlike material things, our heavenly possessions are to be our treasures; and they remain forever unvanished, undiminished, untarnished: utterly secure. Examining, then, our security, let us choose our investment accordingly; and if we seek a fortune
Harness your heart
One will never make a fortune unless the heart is in it. This is true of earthly and heavenly riches. “For where your treasure is there will your heart be also,” says the Master on this point. There seem to be two implications: First, the heart influences our treasure. Spiritually or materially, if we love what we are seeking, it will prosper; if we are lukewarm about it, it will languish. A fortune demands all our earnestness and enthusiasm. When talking to school children about football, the late ‘Bullet’ Bob Hayes, former 2-time Gold Medal Olympian and legendary Dallas Cowboy Super-Bowl champion, once said, “The surest way of scoring is to throw your heart into the goal – the ball will be more likely to follow.” It is the same in everything, big or small. So we ask
Are we all out for it?
“Is our heart set on the accumulation of a great heavenly fortune?” Are we “all out” for it? If so, it will inevitably come. Then – and this is probably the first meaning of our Lord’s words – our treasure will influence our heart.
The countenance of the miser grows repellently metallic; his entire pre-occupation with money stamps its hue and hardness on his character, behavior, and even on his face. Truly “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” On the other hand, if our treasure is spiritual and heavenly, that also will affect our living and features. If our heart is in the look then we grow like what we look at – that is the explanation of the amazing miracle of 1 John 3:2, “We shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” Therefore, if our heart is set on this fortune, there will be a heavenly touch on all our ways. And now the Master’s advice continues
Focus the mind
“The light of the body is the eye” – “light” should be “lamp.” The eye is not the light; but it brings the light to bear, and, as a matter of fact, is the only light-bringer the body has. As “single” probably implies, if it is healthy, then what a boon it is to the body. What fullness of light it brings; showing the body where it may safely go, what it may properly do. For example, without that light what mistakes the hand might make, what dangers the foot might walk in. If it is faulty (seemingly the meaning of “evil” here), what a difference it makes. What a tragedy, to have had sight and then lose it – into what depths of gloom is the body and life likely to be plunged. That second part of verse 23 is translated by Moffatt as, “If your very light turns dark, then – what a darkness it is.”
The spiritual counterpart
But all this concerns the material eye. What is its spiritual counterpart? Some have said, “Conscience”; others have different suggestions. It appeals that the eye is the intention: an idea held by some commentators. There is the man of no intention. He is just drifting along through life, groping about, as those who are blind. He will find no fortune, have no “treasure in heaven” – he sees no need of it, no beauty in it. He can fix his mind on nothing; he is sadly blind – his eye is “evil” – blind. Then, consider the man of double intention. He suffers from spiritual double vision. Like John Bunyan’s Mr. Facing-both- Ways, who kept one eye on heaven and one eye on earth; or like those ostentatious Pharisees, who performed their alms, prayers and fastings, with one eye on God and one eye on man. James 1:8, 7 remind us that “a double minded man is unstable in all his ways,” and “let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord” – no fortune for him; no “treasures in heaven.” Next, consider the man of single intention. This is the man whose future gleams with the promise of golden gain. His mind is focused on one thing, the one thing, “this one thing I do . . . I press toward the mark for the prize” (Phil. 3:13-14). A truly consecrated life is always a wholly concentrated life. Good fortune may not always attend a Christian here, but great fortune awaits him on the other side. And so, in a kind of summing up of the whole matter, our Master’s advice to the heavenly fortune-hunter is epitomized in this
Enslave your whole being
“No man can serve two masters.” But, is that really true? One may have a gardener who comes and works on Mondays and Thursdays, then goes and serves somebody else on Tuesdays and Fridays, and still another on Wednesdays. Obviously, in this sense it is possible to serve two masters. But the word that our Lord used here is one frequently used in the New Testament for Christian service – the word that means slavery. In those old days, a slave was completely the property of his master – all his strength, all his energies, all his time, everything. Therefore, no man can be the bond-slave of two masters. How true that is. A good thing to always remember when studying the Word of God is that whatever Jesus says is true. If we ever imagine otherwise, it only means that we need to spend a little more time digging into the Scriptures to discover the Master’s real meaning, and to see how right He was. In his letters, Paul delighted in calling himself the “servant of Jesus Christ” – the bond-slave. He counted it his highest honor to be in such a position, to be able to use such a title; but he realized how the complete abandonment of his whole being, all he had, all he was, followed as a matter of course. Taught as he was by the Holy Spirit, he had no room for a half-and-half life – the situation called for “all the way” surrender; “all out” service. “Your whole spirit, and soul, and body” (1 Thess. 5:23) – that was his standard, both for himself and for his fellow-Christians. It cannot be otherwise, not if our “service” is real “bond-service”; and that is what the Master is speaking of here.
“He will hate the one”
“He will hate the one.” That is a strong word; one not usually on His lips. It is doubtful that He meant it the same as we do today. In New Testament usage the word signifies rejecting a rival claim. For instance, look at Romans 9:13, where, quoting Malachi 1:2-3, it says, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” So, does God hate people? No. Not in our use of the word today. He sometimes rejects people; but He does it with a broken heart (Luke 19:41-42). God does not hate people; He did not hate Esau, in our sense of the term. What He did was to reject his claim. As the elder of the twins, he was entitled to the birthright and the blessing; but, for His own best reason, God rejected his claim, in favor of Jacob, and it was fulfilled that “the elder shall serve the younger” (Gen. 25:23). Or go to Luke 15:26, “If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” Is anyone really expected to hate his nearest and dearest? No, not in the sense we use the word today. But, if a Christian is going “all out” for Him, there may come a time when rival claims will bid for his loyalty. A faithful young Christian may feel the need to become a missionary in a foreign field; but all his family may be “up in arms” about it. If he feels strongly that God wants him to go, his only course will be to “hate” his family – to reject their rival claim on him. He is a bond-slave, and his whole allegiance belongs to Him who bought him – any other pressure on him, however natural and proper, must always be wholly subservient to the paramount claim of his Master. He cannot have two such Masters. The compromise of those in 2 Kings 17:33 who “feared the Lord and served their own gods” is simply an impossible situation.
Serving God
“Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.” The meaning of “mammon” seems to be a little obscure; but perhaps we will not be too wide of the mark if we take it to stand for the “treasures upon earth,” of which our passage has been speaking – or, in one word, gold. So many people today are slaves of gold: in reality, it becomes their god. Some may have difficulty understanding the words of Colossians 3:5, “covetousness . . . is idolatry.” But, when we covet gold it becomes a god to us – which is idolatry. Sadly, even Christians are not immune from the temptation to make gold their god. As they trod the way in Pilgrim’s Progress, was it not to Christian and Hopeful that Demas came with his alluring invitation to come and explore his silver mine? But for Christian’s sturdy attitude, Hopeful would have succumbed. In this age, some humble Christians who begin to make a little money catch the fever and in time drop their Christian loyalties, making gold their god. Becoming enslaved to mammon, they are no longer enslaved to the Master whom, at one time, they loved so much and served so well. Truly, mammon has enriched thousands, and damned tens of thousands.
Summary
Well then, will we let God have us as His bond-servants; will we enslave our whole being to Him? Such abandonment to Him may entail us eschewing “treasures upon earth” – not necessarily so, as we saw earlier; yet possibly so. But it will certainly ensure us achieving “treasures in heaven” – such fortune-seeking is permissible to the Christian; and our prayer may be as in the words of the songwriter: “Lift up our hearts, lift up our minds; Let Thy dear grace be given, That, while we wander here below, Our treasure be in heaven.”
Yes: “lift up,” that we may “lay up.” This part of the Sermon on the Mount may legitimately be expounded either negatively, as a warning against laying up treasures on earth; or, positively, as an encouragement to laying up treasures in Heaven. May we all heed the one and follow the other, that we may be immensely “rich toward God.” God is our safest purse-bearer.
