THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW
Treasures and anxieties
Chapter 6:19-34
This text of the Bible contains some of the most difficult concepts to comply with of the Sermon on the Mount, for they require an absolute faith in God and in Christ, and the abandonment of faith in oneself and on the material resources of this world. Its theme is how to find security for the future.
Gathering treasures (vv. 19-24)
Prudence requires that we gather what is left over now, so as not to suffer need in the future. To be provident is a well-recognized virtue, but not always cultivated.
However, it is natural that over time, there will be some anxiety about the future, and the concern for gathering a treasure can become an obsession, which results in avarice. “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10).
The Lord Jesus teaches here that instead of laying up treasure on earth, we must build up a treasure in the heavens, because:
- There is no security in the treasure gathered here: it risks being consumed by the moth and rust, and the embezzlement and robbery of thieves, i.e. forasmuch that we keep or employ it, it is subject to being reduced and lost by factors outside of our control. The treasure that we add in heaven will be safe; it is not perishable and is out of reach of harmful agents and third-party action.
- We have the greatest interest in the place where our treasure is: if it is on earth, material interests will be placed first; if in heaven, our biggest interest will be in heavenly things.
Let us ask ourselves to what we dedicate ourselves more: to our material properties, or to the Bible? It is just a small test.
To stop devoting ourselves to the gathering of property and material wealth in order to start building a treasure in heaven requires a total change of vision.
The Lord Jesus takes as an example the effect of the eyes on the human body: who has good eyesight will have his body full of light, in other words he can see perfectly well everything on and around him. If he has bad eyesight, there will be darkness, total darkness if blind.
Christ, sent by God, is the "light of the world". If, through faith in His person, we open our eyes spiritually to absorb His light, we will accept the truth of His teaching: we will no longer be interested in gathering material goods but strive to build up a treasure in heaven. Who does not do this is spiritually blind: "If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!".
It is impossible for a believer to dedicate himself to the accumulation of wealth and at the same time serve God: he would be like a servant serving two masters. One has to have primacy, rejecting the other. And God has to come first.
Anxiety for the supply of needs (vv. 25-34)
The Lord Jesus knows we have legitimate material needs, and we need to get the resources to satisfy them. It is correct and fair that we should work for this: we are taught, "If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat" (2 Thessalonians 3:10).
However, we should not be anxious about the future, fearing that the supply of our basic needs, like food and clothing, will cease. This sort of concern denies the fact that our entire provision comes from God, and leads us to devote our greatest energies in getting resources to give us security in the future.
And so we stop devoting ourselves to the most important things in our lives, which are to love, to worship and to serve God, looking after His interests here in the world, for we were created and saved for this.
The provision of God to his creatures is demonstrated by the way in which the wild birds find their food. They are not endowed with the resources we have, however they have everything they need.
Among His creatures on earth, the human being is the most valuable of all, and furthermore He adopts those who believe in the Lord Jesus as His own children. We can be sure He has much more care for us than the birds.
This does not mean that we should stop working to provide for our sustenance, or even stop making provision for the days when that is not possible. The teaching is that if God sustains lower-order creatures without them knowing it, He will sustain even more those for whom creation was made, with their participation.
Anxiety for the future is not only an offence to God, but is also a futility. Anxiety does not bring any benefit. No one can add a few inches to his (or her) stature, no matter how much he worries. It would be relatively easier to achieve this than to satisfy all our needs by means of having anxiety for them.
The Lord Jesus adds that we can see the care and caprice of God in the beauty of flowers. Without working, or weaving, they have a beauty that not even Solomon in all his glory managed to attain in his clothing.
If God does this with the grass of the field, of ephemeral life, He certainly will take care of His children. Those who are anxious about their clothing demonstrate they have little faith.
The conclusion is that we should not devote our lives in anxious search of food and clothing for the future. The unconverted Gentiles do and live only for that, as if life consisted only in satisfying their material needs. After all, they do not count on the presence of God in their lives.
The believer knows better, and should not have anxiety about such things, like the unconverted Gentiles. Our Heavenly Father knows very well that we need all this. On the contrary, we must "seek first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness", i.e. have a priority in our lives to know and live to serve the Lord, trusting God with respect to our future, certain that He will provide everything we need.
The promise is that all of these material things necessary for us will be added to the many other blessings that God will grant us. Our future is in the capable hands of God. He is our "social security", our assurance, taking away all the uncertainty about the future.
Let us work for the present, and not be anxious for the future, it is safe. Let us live just from day to day, because "sufficient for the day is its own trouble". Someone said that "Today is the tomorrow we were worried about yesterday." That should not be our case.
The Lord Jesus was not condemning prudence to prepare for adverse situations, such as business losses, unemployment, illness, etc. What He condemned was the obsession with accumulating wealth, and the anxiety about the future. Both arise from lack of faith in the Providence of God.
R David Jones
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19 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 "The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.
23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
24 "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
25 "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 "So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;
29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'
32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Matthew chapter 7 verses 19 to 34