LESSONS FROM JESUS | 14 | Treasures (Part 1)

Between Matthew 5 and 7, we have one of the most popular and important teachings by Jesus Christ during the course of His life on earth. It is from these verses that we get the Beatitudes, teachings on prayer, giving, temptation, fasting and many others.

For today’s lesson, we will be focusing specifically on His teaching about treasures and extracting some key nuggets from here. This teaching will be divided into two parts: the first will examine Matthew 6:19–24 and the second will deal with Matthew 6:25–34.

Let’s read through the entire passage.

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 eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 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!

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.

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious 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: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. — Matthew 6:19–34 (English Standard Version)

What Are These Treasures?

We cannot properly understand this teaching if we don’t have a clear definition of what treasures are. It is easy to think that treasures are limited to riches or material possessions but this is not the case.

As we proceed in the teaching, Jesus makes a direct comparison between these earthly treasures and heavenly treasures. If this illustration was limited to material possessions, then it would be insufficient as scripture clearly tells us ‘naked we were born and so we will return’ (paraphrasing Ecclesiastes 5:15; Job 1:21–22). We will not be taking any material possessions to heaven.

The accurate description for treasures here would be what we consider to be our ‘main pursuits’ or what our ultimate desires in life are. For some people, material possessions are an appropriate fit but it does not apply to everyone.

The important takeaway is that every human has treasures.

Does God Hate Earthly Good?

In a bid to interpret these teachings, some people have taken the extreme view that Christ is condemning earthly goods. However, this is not the case at all. In fact, He spends the latter part of this teaching telling the people how much God cares about providing their earthly needs.

Christ’s message is on that addresses the state of our hearts because He wants us to pursue what is truly important. He is bringing the life that comes after this earthly one to the forefront and giving it the place that it deserves.

Earthly good is transient and we do not truly own anything here. This is because one day we will leave it all behind. The moths, rot and thieves represent all the various things that can affect our earthly existence and wreck us to our core if we pin all our hopes, desires and dreams on this limited temporal existence. Even if you manage to avoid life’s troubles, death is the ultimate thief and it comes for all of us eventually.

Heavenly treasure, on the other hand, is yours and it lasts forever. This is where your focus should be. Jesus does not condemn earthly goods, He only admonishes us to put them in their proper place — they should be our servants and not our main pursuits (but more on this in Part 2).

A Healthy Eye

Jesus proceeds to tell us how we can ensure that we keep our sights on heavenly treasures. In the same way, he makes a comparison between earthly and heavenly treasures; he makes another comparison between physical and spiritual sight.

In the KJV; it’s interesting to see how the words single eye and evil eye are used. In the ESV (quoted above), healthy and bad are used instead.

They both communicate the same thing. A single eye/healthy eye is one whose vision is not compromised. In the physical, our vision can be compromised when having impurities in our eyes, when we choose to focus on multiple things on opposite ends or when we shut our eyes.

Blurry vision, double vision or no vision at all are all bad states for anyone to be in and it will always lead to accidents and pitfalls. The same is true of spiritual sight. We have to make an active choice to focus on the things of heaven — things that have eternal value — and make them our priority.

If we are shaky on this and do not make a firm decision in our hearts, we will succumb to darkness. When the decision has been made in our hearts, Christ through His Holy Spirit helps us with the rest.

Two Masters

The idea of two masters here is not necessarily focused on the number but on intent, ideology and goals. For example, if two masters have the same goals, interests and ideologies; they are essentially one master.

However, this text is a direct continuation of the previous texts, as it is making us understand that it is impossible for us to focus on earthly treasures and heavenly treasures at the same time. One master will always be the true master while the other suffers because their intent, ideologies and goals are quite different. You cannot have single or healthy eyes in this state.

In the KJV, the word mammon is used and I feel it’s important to address the facts that we know about this word. Mammon is regarded by many circles as a Syrian false god in the old times, however, there is no conclusive proof that this is true. What we know for sure are the following:

• St. Augustine of Hippo says that it is a Punic word that was used to signify ‘gain’
• It was used in the latter and adulterated Hebrew to mean ‘wealth’
• Christ personified it in this context as one who is the opposite of God, or one whose pursuits are antigod.

These three facts are enough to make the point clear to us on the thing that Christ is telling us to do: Make God your true Lord and make ‘mammon’ your servant.

If we are admonished by our Lord to make this choice, He must know that the natural man will be left in a state where he is full of worry and anxiety for his own needs. After all, he is not in heaven yet.

How is he is guaranteed a good earthly life if his focus is supposed to be on heaven?

These are the themes we will treat in part 2.

Until next time.

Keep living for Christ!