Matthew 6:19-34

E. THE WEALTH AND WORRIES OF THE WISE AND GODLY MAN

(Matthew 6:19-34)

TEXT 6:19-34
1. HIS ATTITUDE TOWARD EARTHLY TREASURES. (6:19-21)

19. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth. where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal:
20. but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust does consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

21. for where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also.

2. HIS ATTITUDE TOWARD HIS OWN DEDICATION TO GOD. (6:22-24)

22. The lamp of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
23. 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 the darkness!
24. No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

3. HIS ATTITUDE TOWARD THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE, (6:25-34)

25. Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment?
26. Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they?
27. And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto the measure of his life?
28. And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29. yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these,
30. But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall be not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

31. Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32. For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33. But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34. Be not therefore anxious for the morrow; for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS

a. What are the heavenly treasures we are to store up? (1) Are they the motivation for our serving God now, i.e. we serve God now so that He will reward us later? (2) Or, are they the result of our service to Him, in the sense that in this life we produce a more godlike character which cannot be taken away from us? (3) Are they both? (4) Are they something else?
b. How are we to lay up such treasures? How can we know whether we are doing so or not?
c. Does our treasure follow our heart, or our heart our treasure?
d. Why is it ruinous to love and hoard money?
e, At what point does our getting and using worldly wealth become idolatrous? How can we identify idolatry in this regard?
f. W h y is self the world's oldest and most dangerous idol? What is the relationship between laying up treasure on earth. serving mammon, and serving self or self-worship?
g. Why are we more inclined to trust visible but temporary things and find it so difficult to trust Him who is invisible but has never yet failed us?
h. Why does Jesus bring up the figure about the eye in this discussion of wealth and worries? What is the connection?
i. On what basis does Jesus charge His listeners with being men of little faith?
j. Who is the richest person in the community where you live? On what basis do you decide him to be the most wealthy? Does your standard agree with Jesus?
k. Is being poor necessary to being righteous in God's kingdom? Explain.
l.

Are we to go without health, accident, life, fire or automobile insurance in order to show that we trust God to care for us? What is the relation between insuring ourselves against such dangers and our trusting God?

m.

Is laying up treasure in heaven a putting up a quantity of goods in heaven, or an attitude of heart toward God's promises?

n. To what extent may we work for money (wages) without violating the Lord's declaration that it is impossible to serve God and wealth at the same time?
o. What do you think Jesus meant to teach about the whole body full of light? What is the condition of a man when he is full of light?
p. What is the condition of a man when he is full of darkness?
q. What is the tragedy involved if one's light be darkness?
r.

Why do you suppose Jesus mentioned mammon as the god to which men would offer service in opposition to God? What is SO significant about slavery to wealth?

s. What one fundamental sin finds expression in both greed and anxiety?
t.

What is so wrong, according to Jesus, with saying, A man must live? Is it not true? Why?

u.

How is it true that the morrow will be anxious for itself?

v. What kind of impact would this entire section have upon the Jewish audience to which Jesus addressed these words? Does He contradict or confirm their concept of the Messianic kingdom and its attendant blessings? In what way does He do this?
w.

The Biblical view of the heart of man usually takes into consideration his intellect, his will, his affections and his conscience. In Matthew 6:19-24 which of these phases of man's being receive emphasis and in what connection are they mentioned?

PARAPHRASE

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth. where it grows moth-eaten and rusty, and where thieves break in and steal it. Rather lay up for yourselves wealth in heaven, where there is neither moth nor rust to destroy it, nor thieves to break in or steal it. For where you put your wealth. you unavoidably put your heart there too.

The lamp of the body is the eye. Now if your eyes are sound, you will have light for your whole body. On the other hand, if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if all the light that you have is darkness, how intense that darkness must be!

Nobody can be a slave to two masters, because either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot be R slave to God and to Money at the same time.

This is why I say to you to stop worrying about your living, wondering what you shall have to eat or drink, or about your body, wondering what you can get to wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more important than its clothing? Surely it is! Take a good look at the birds of the air: they do not sow nor reap nor store up food in granaries, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them, Are you not much more precious to Him than they? Of course you are! On the other hand, which of you can add a single hour to his life's span by worrying? And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wild flowers grow: they do not wear themselves out working nor do they spin thread, yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glorious splendor did not clothe himself like one of these flowers. But if this is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is there today and is tossed into the oven tomorrow, will He not all the more do so for you, O men with little confidence? Certainly He will! Do not then ask anxiously, -What shall we eat?-' or -What shall we drink?-' or -What will we have to wear?-' That is what pagans are always seeking. Do not talk this way because your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Rather, seek first the Kingdom and the righteousness that He requires, and all these necessities will be provided you. So, do not worry about tomorrow, since tomorrow will have worries of its own. Let each day's trouble be enough for that day.

SUMMARY

Put your trust in God alone! Put your whole confidence in things eternal, for only they are permanent. Concentrate your attention and service upon God and His promises, since double-mindedness is a really impossible course. It brings on unnecessary worries and draws the attention away from God. Real faith is able to concentrate upon God-s rule and provisions and accept life as a matter of course, living one day at a time.

NOTES

Because Jesus-' teaching in this section is many-sided, we offer two outlines in the attempt to present more of the content of His message. It will be noted that Jesus-' basic argument is Not that- but this. Therefore, in order to present as clearly as possible the negative and positive aspects or elements of His teaching, we outline the passage accordingly.

The Controlling Objective in Life: Undivided Trust in God

NEGATIVE

POSITIVE

DANGERS THAT MENACE THE FAITH OF DISCIPLES:
Covetousness that is manifested according to circumstances as:

I. AVARICE (Matthew 6:19-24)

I. TRUST ONLY GOD (Matthew 6:19-24)

Proposition: Reasons why those
who would be His disciples must put their trust only in God:

A. Treasures on earth means one's heart set on earth which means total loss!
1. Moths corrupt it;
2. Rust eats it;

3. Thieves steal it, (Matthew 6:19-21)

A. Because earthly treasures are transient, ephemeral, while only heavenly treasures endure (Matthew 6:19-20)

B. Obscured judgment (Matthew 6:23) which leads to further moral darkness in every other decision and act.

B. Because earthly riches capture the heart, while heavenly treasures cause us to keep our heart set on heaven. (Matthew 6:21)

C. Indecision impedes concentration of energies and is virtually impossible (Matthew 6:24)

C. Because the selfish quest
for wealth blinds and destroys human personality but
heavenly riches keep our
moral vision unimpaired

(Matthew 6:22-23)

D. Because to please two masters is impossible: the mere quest of wealth is sinful because incompatible with true love and loyalty to God (Matthew 6:24)

II. ANXIETY (Matthew 6:25-34)

A. Worry places a false and exaggerated value upon earthly welfare. (Matthew 6:25)

II. ONLY TRUST GOD (Matthew 6:25-34)

A. God gave life and the body, and can be trusted for things necessary to sustain life (Matthew 6:25)

B. Worry reflects on God's loving cafe for man who is more precious to Him than birds (Matthew 6:26)

B. Lesser creatures than man do not pile up goods for an unknown and unknowable future (Matthew 6:26)

C. Worry fails to resolve life's basic problem (Matthew 6:27)

C. Worry is useless (Matthew 6:27) (God who has ordained the length of our life and the make-up of our body can surely be trusted to sustain it.)

D. Worry about clothes seeks to realize a false ideal, were it a true ideal, it is patently unattainable (Matthew 6:28-29)

D. Surely the generosity which is so lavish to a flower of a day will not forget man, the crown of God's creation (Matthew 6:28-30)

E. Worry destroys confidence in God (Matthew 6:30)

E. Anxiety for clothes is faithlessness (Matthew 6:30)

F. Worry betrays a practical paganism (Matthew 6:31-32)

F. Worry is beyond comprehension in one who has God as his Father (Matthew 6:31-32)

G. Worry would deny us all that is really good, important and eternal (Matthew 6:33)

G. God knows our needs, so we can concentrate upon doing His will and seeking to be right according to His standards and He will provide (Matthew 6:33)

H. Worry is presumptuous care about a day that God has neither promised nor given yet (Matthew 6:34)

H. Worry can be defeated by living one day at a time (Matthew 6:34). Every day brings enough burdens and problems. It is enough to deal with these without unnecessarily borrowing trouble from the future.

All that has preceded this section is sweet sentimentalism and unrealistic unless Jesus is able to remake men. Jesus knows that He cannot leave man as he is, bombarded by contradictory ethics and driven by inward desires and harassed by daily worries. Man must possess a moral principle that will rivet his attention on God, cause him to reject worldly ideals and treasure heaven above all other joys. Further, Jesus knows that there are two persistent, dangerous rivals to that one true objective that must command our undivided loyalty and effort, two rivals which will choke out His word every time: the worries of the world, the worries of life (Luke 8:14) and the deceitful attractiveness of wealth (Matthew 13:22). Jesus must destroy man's confidence in wealth as a genuine support, and, by building his confidence in the Father, He must exterminate man's worry. Only thus can the Master hope to expect men to take the Kingdom of God seriously and reach for the righteousness Jesus is requiring. Unless a man regard all earthly prizes as filth. he will not be much interested in leaving them to follow Jesus.

This section, if there were no other proof, would demonstrate that Jesus-' unique message is from God and could not be the product of the highest insights of rabbinical thinking. These words (Matthew 6:19-34) must have sounded a wrong note in the ears of those Jews whose popular Messianic expectations required that the anticipated Son of David bring them a high degree of worldly prosperity, honors and Pleasures. (Cf. Matthew 19:24-25; Matthew 20:20-28; Luke 22:24) Far from seeing any danger in wealth and far from believing that, as a rule, it promotes unrighteousness, the Jews tended to regard wealth as a special blessing for their carefulness in observing the Law. Characteristically, the Pharisees thought of themselves as the unchallengeable proof of the causal connection between righteousness and riches. (Cf. Luke 16:14; Luke 20:47) However, in terms of human motivations, it is but a hairbreadth-s difference between glorifying and seeking wealth as one's just deserts on the one hand, and the greedily grasping after wealth as one's universal answer to all problems. And the children of Abraham had to hear this message whether it fit their scheme of Messianic prophecy or not.

The immediate connection with the preceding section (61-18) is particularly enlightening, for there Jesus warned against making the praise of men the end of our religious actions. Here He turns from His attack on man's thinking too much of the praise of others to that self-deception which thinks too much of the riches of earth and makes them the end of all his daily efforts, And just as the cure for the former hypocrisy was a right appreciation of God's judgment and a keeping of one's heart set on the Father, even so here the disciples must keep the Father ever before their eyes. (Cf. Matthew 6:24; Matthew 6:26; Matthew 6:30; Matthew 6:32)

Jesus must challenge His follower to examine carefully his life to determine what is the really final controlling object of life. Running through the entire section is the necessity to fix one's undivided trust in God. Divided loyalties dissipate the energies, nullify one's efforts and warp one's judgment. Though it would seem that He is talking about two widely separated subjects, i.e. avarice and anxiety, yet they are two expressions of the same covetousness. Both sins are obvious evidence of a basic worry, of insecurity, and of a desire for a little bit more, which in turn are evidence of a misplaced trust. Therefore, the Lord must take men's eyes off their gold and fix their hearts on God.

I. AVARICE, or TRUST ONLY GOD

(6:19-24; cf. Luke 12:32-34; Luke 16:9-13)

A. THE ALLURE OF ACQUISITION AS AGAINST THE APPEAL OF ABIDING ATTAINMENTS (6:19-21)

Matthew 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth. What makes a man desire to hoard up the treasures of earth? Basically, it is worry and insecurity, but covetousness plays and important role in this. (Cf. Luke 12:13-21; 1 Timothy 6:5 b- 1 Timothy 6:10. Note Paul's emphasis: Those who desire to be rich. love of money. this craving. set their hopes on riches.) This is no condemnation of reasonable thrift or of the banking system of the day (Cf. Matthew 25:27), but a protest against that craze which so often drives men to set their whole heart on the amassing of wealth for selfish purposes as the only worthwhile purpose in life. Millions in property is not necessarily sin, nor is holding capital funds on earth a direct violation of Jesus-' prohibition, if one holds them in use as a responsible stewardship and uses them for the advancement of God's kingdom. Having possessions is not wrong, but we commit sin when they have us.

The deceptive attractiveness of earthly wealth is its being subject to all manner of destructive forces. (Cf. James 5:1-6) Jesus is saying, Do not be a fool and treasure what you cannot keep, what nature is bent on destroying and what the envy and covetousness of others is planning to seize! A moth can ruin the most expensive garment laid up in a chest. Rust consumes man's most precious items of metal. The word Jesus used which is translated rust (brosis) literally means eating. Thus, the eating of it makes human food disappear (aphanizei) in the same way that the moth eats holes in fabrics. Thieves break through (literally: dig through the sun-dried brick or mud walls of the house and thus effect an entrance) and steal. In your greed to lay up earthly treasures, do not forget the greed of others, who, despite all your precautions, are able to relieve you of your possessions.

If in Matthew 6:21 Jesus is challenging us to examine the value of that which we treasure, He might be suggesting here that there is further folly involved in hoarding earthly wealth because of its relative worthlessness as measured against the true wealth of heaven. What is gold on earth is street paving material in heaven! What a fool is he who hoards mere sand and gravel. And what is worse, there is real peril in piling up earthly wealth. not in the possibility of their loss or ruin, since this happens also to the most righteous of men, but rather in the probability that the wealthy themselves are thereby imperiled. (Cf. 1 Timothy 6:9) A man may gain the whole world end after all lose himself! (Matthew 16:26) Those who spend life for the pleasures and riches of this world are getting cheated in the universe-' greatest swindle. Even in this world, old sinners write bitterly that the anticipation of their fallacious and fleeting joys was much greater than their realization, The devil is a liar: earthly wealth cannot satisfy. The love of money will ruin everything! The rich young ruler refused to understand this (Matthew 19:21) and the Apostles almost missed their grip on this truth (Matthew 19:25; Matthew 19:27). Mary understood that earthly cares are not the whole of life; Martha failed on that occasion (Luke 10:41-42). The OT had taught much the same message (Psalms 49:6; Psalms 52:7; Psalms 62:10; Proverbs 11:28).

Matthew 6:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, because they are sure, not subject to the influences that destroy all of earth's brightest gems. Lay up suggests so to delight in something that we always long to have more of it, whether good or bad (see Matthew 5:6; Matthew 6:33; Luke 12:13-21): this speaks of our attitude toward wealth. Since it is impossible to send earth's riches commodities into that heavenly country, because life there is enjoyed on a far different plane, it would seem therefore that Jesus-' admonition refers primarily to our attitude as to what constitutes true wealth. If so, He is saying, Treasure heavenly wealth. Accept my viewpoint as to what constitutes the true riches. Put your dependence upon God's promises.

But how is it possible to lay up in heaven our treasures? As suggested in the introductory section (The Reasonableness of Rewards), Jesus ever holds up before His disciples rewards and blessings of a spiritual nature. Another way of stating this same injunction might be: Consider heaven your treasure! That is, a right view of that which really satisfies one's soul-the love of God and the fellowship to be enjoyed with Him and His, a clear conscience and an eternal joy-these restore a proper perspective that causes one to re-evaluate all of earth's wealth in terms of winning an eternity with God. (See Psalms 16:2; Psalms 16:5-6; Psalms 73:25; Philippians 3:8) The important question to ask is not How much treasure must I lay up? but What kind of treasure? God is the Cashier of heaven and He accepts only one kind of coin: character. And when sounded, that coin must ring with deeds and faithfulness. We cannot send Him our gold, because they are not on the gold standard up there. Laying up in heaven is equivalent to being rich toward God and the opposite of laying up treasure for oneself (Luke 12:21). Luke 12:33 suggests that money given in mercy to those who need it, even if it means great personal sacrifice to do so, is the means of providing oneself with heavenly treasure. How SO? The command to give alms is aimed at the good of the giver, that his heart may be freed from covetousness and trained in generous service to others. This produces character, and that God accepts as true wealth. The irony that marks the difference between heavenly and earthly treasures is that we keep only what we give away, but we must lose all that we have kept! (Study Matthew 10:39; Matthew 16:24-26; Matthew 19:23-29; John 12:25) Paul summarizes this idea perfectly and shows the clear relation between the set of the heart and one's attitude toward heavenly wealth. as well as how to lay up riches in heaven:

Religion is a means of gain to the man who knows when he has enough (wealth). We brought nothing with us into the world, and we cannot take anything out. Surely, then, if we have food and clothing, we shall -be satisfied with these. But men who set their hearts on being rich fall into temptations and traps, into many foolish and damaging desires that plunge men into ruin and destroy them. The love of money is the source of all evil. In the struggle to get it some men have wandered away from the faith and have impaled themselves on untold sorrows ,.. Tell the ones who are rich in this world's goods not to overestimate themselves nor to set their hopes on anything so uncertain as wealth. Tell them to set their hope on God who generously supplies us all things for our enjoyment. Tell them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, to be ready to give away and share, thus laying up a treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they might grasp the really true life.

(1 Timothy 6:6-10, emphasis supplied)

Where neither moth nor rust ,., nor thieves. An investment in God's promises is not subject to failure and loss; one is not being practical to disbelieve God's promises in order to store up earthly treasure, One danger of wealth is that it causes us to fail to make life-s best investment in the kingdom of God: a hundred-fold in this life, and in the age to come eternal life! (Mark 10:29-30) Paul expressed this same concept, adding also the present body to the list of earth's perishables which must be left behind in favor of an eternal abode in the heavens (2 Corinthians 4:16 to 2 Corinthians 5:9). Peter (1 Peter 1:14) exhausts the vocabulary as he holds before the eyes of suffering Christians that imperishable, undefiled and unfading inheritance kept in heaven for you. (See also Hebrews 10:34; Philippians 3:18) This is the reason that it becomes absolutely imperative that we rest our confidence in God instead of in our earth-orientated common sense, because there is so much in everyday life that seems absolutely to contradict what Jesus is saying we must believe. This is the acid-test as to which world we think is real and permanent: this one with all its seemingly cold, hard realities of fame and famine, of wealth and worries; or God-s world for which He would prepare us.

Matthew 6:21 For where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also. Jesus seems to be using the word heart here in the sense of one's affections, After all, what really gives value to a treasure is the affection of the heart. Nothing on earth really possesses permanent and objective value anyway, for value is too often a relative, subjective judgment based upon some temporary usefulness or on some relative necessity. This declaration of Jesus thus becomes a grave warning: Choose your treasure well, because, for good or ill, it will take your heart with it! Remember lot's wife (Luke 17:32-33; Genesis 19:12-26) If our chosen treasure is earthly, it must partake of the transitoriness of all that is earthly and be forever lost when we relax our grip on it in death. On the other hand, if our earthly struggle has been for heavenly wealth. death only frees us to go to the eternal and real source of our joy and longing.

This is a psychological principle ever true: when a man's thought and effort are concentrated upon gaining some prize, either heavenly or earthly, then the whole heart, i.e. the entire man, will become deeply involved in the effort. The man himself can think of nothing else, It will be the subject of his conversations, the content of his daydreams. To the disciple who would ask whether he be laying up heavenly or earthly riches, Jesus is replying, Go looking for your riches and you-'ll find your heart there too! They will be together. Jesus knows that He has nothing to worry about from the man who has his heart fixed on heaven, because that man will realign every other element of his life behind that one goal. (See special study on Temptation after Matthew 4:1-11)

Does Jesus intend these treasures in heaven to be: (1) the cause, the stimulation or the inducement for our work, or (2) the result or product of our earthly work? That is, are they something we produce or receive? Does He mean that we produce character by following His instructions, and thus produce a treasure that is eternal? Or, is He insisting that we keep our eyes fixed on heaven as our goal or treasure, thus producing a character that is capable of enjoying the wealth of God? The Apostles (Colossians 3:1-3; 2 Peter 1:3-4) seem to suggest that by diverting all our interest toward where Christ is, we will the more readily become like Him. And if the treasures we seek as the result of our work are spiritual goals, then they can also be the rewards for our service. So it is both. for Jesus reveals that a spiritual, godly character, by definition, is one which cherishes God above all earthly treasures, and reciprocally grows more and more like Him.

Psychologically, does our treasure follow our heart, or does our heart follow our treasure? Is Jesus-' proposition reversible: Where your heart is, there will your treasure be also? That is, do we put our heart into something in which our treasure is involved, or do we put our money into that which has engaged our heart? Sometimes we are forced to spend our time, energy and talent for that which little interests our heart. But the sheer force of habit and involvement may easily draw our heart into a greater concern and may even produce an affection that is very strong.

For instance, many with high aspirations for accomplishment chafe under the necessity to earn a living, since it requires valuable time and drains necessary energy away from their real goals. Thus, earning a living may force a man to lay up his heart and treasure for something that, to him, is really a drudgery.

But these cases are probably less numerous than those where one has already deeply involved his heart and, as an expression of his affections, he pours out his treasures to realize the satisfaction of his heart. If so, Jesus is saying, Set your heart first, decide what will be your true treasure, because you will pay all else to get it! (Cf. Matthew 13:44-46)

If there seems to be a confusion between treasures considered as one's present possessions, and treasures as the goal of one's life, the confusion is an understandable one, since we all have a hard time distinguishing between what we are working for and that which we possess when it comes to resting our heart, hopes and confidence on them. The Lord's principle adequately touches both concepts however.

Here are some critical questions about our ideas about wealth:

1. What does a man consider to be his true wealth?
2. How much does he think it is worth?
3. Whose does he think it is?
4.

Can he live without it? Here are some tests to determine our attachment to this earth:

5. Am I strongly resolved to become comfortably wealthy?
6. Am I in a hurry to be that way? I
7. Do I regard my neighbor's thriving prosperity with envy
8. Am I satisfied with my financial position? Why?
9. Do I trust my money to get me whatever I want?
10. Are my time, conversation and dreams spent chiefly upon earthly projects?
11. Do I grow angry, out of sorts or discontented when for any reason I fail to realize my financial goals, suffer losses or poverty sets in?
12. Am I willing to sacrifice my conscience or neglect my duty to better my financial picture or to hold my present position?
13. When in trouble, to what do I turn for relief? and discontent?

B. THE ACCURACY OF APPREHENSION ALREADY AFFECTS THE ATTITUDE (6:22, 23)

Matthew 6:22 The lamp of the body is the eye. This is a metaphor within an allegory: the eye is not literally the lamp of the body but is the means by which light is admitted into the body and interpreted for the body. Hence, figuratively it may be said to be the light of the body, As seen elsewhere (Luke 11:34-36) this same figure could fit other discourses. So the meaning must be determined from the context in which Matthew records it here. But Jesus does not explain the various elements of the allegory, as He sometimes does for parables (Cf. Matthew 13:1-43). The context of this allegory, Matthew 6:19-34, is entirely devoted to the viewpoint of the wise and godly man regarding wealth and worry. This little figure, then, is supposed to throw light on the entire section and especially the verses which precede and follow it: Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matthew 6:21) You cannot serve God and mammon. (Matthew 6:24)

The eye is that organ of the body which receives light and, by means of the optic nerve, transmits this light to the brain and thence to the body. The accuracy of the image received by the eye, that is, the degree to which that image reflects the reality in nature, is controlled or affected by the quality of the eye. ALL other things being equal, if the eye is sound, the image received is accurate and so is received by the body as real illumination. However, if the eye is diseased or in some way abnormal or in one of the many stages of blindness, the individual is left in the dark to the extent of that abnormalcy of his eyes. This is the literal paraphrase of what Jesus says; but what does He intend to suggest by each of the terms?

The eye is probably to be identified with man's intellect, his conscience, his moral vision, his viewpoint, his way of looking at things, his philosophy. The body becomes that major part of man which is affected by his outlook, namely his actions, the way he expresses himself on the basis of his way of looking at things. The light or darkness then stands for the degree to which the man comprehends reality as it actually is. Since all depends upon the quality of the man's eye, that is the orientation of his convictions, it becomes imperative that we learn what kind of eye is single and what evil.

But here the difficulty begins, since the Greek words used are capable of various translations which in turn depend upon the interpretation given to the passage:

1. Literal, physical health:

a. haplous: sound (See Arndt-Gingrich, 85 and 697 for

b. poneros: sick-' classical illustrations of these meanings.)

2, Figuratively: Generosity vs. Niggardliness:

a. haplous: generous, Cf. Romans 12:8; 2 Corinthians 8:2; 2 Corinthians 9:11; 2 Corinthians 9:13; James 1:5; Proverbs 22:9.

b. poneros: grudging, niggardly, ungenerous, mean stingy, cf. Deuteronomy 15:9 LXX; Proverbs 23:6; Proverbs 28:22; esp. Matthew 20:15; Mark 7:22.

3. Figuratively: Single-mindedness vs. Duplicity:

a. haplous: single, simple, fixed upon one object, one goal one Master, unadulterated with mixed motives, sincere, holy (cf. Ephesians 6:5; Colossians 3:22; 2 Corinthians 11:3)

b. poneros: double-minded, spoiled, vitiated by many selfish motives, evil. (Cf. James 1:5-8) Though poneros does not specifically mean double-minded, etc. but more generally, evil, wicked, worthless, etc., this idea may be derived from its antithesis (haplous) which, in this case, may mean single, simple, etc.

Obviously the first meaning is not the interpretation, since it is the literal expression which gives rise to Jesus-' meaning. The meaning must be sought between-' the latter two. It may be that Jesus has deliberately chosen two words that are capable of four meanings that all express His intent. For it is quite true that one's selfishness (or generosity) affects his capacity to appreciate what Jesus was saying about wealth. It is equally true that one's capacity to act upon Jesus-' instructions depends upon his true and final allegiance. Again, the second and third definitions might not be so far apart after all, since one's innate generosity or selfishness is really determined by the single-mindedness with which he expresses his life's one great devotion.

Another demonstration that one's single-minded dedication (or duplicity) affects his generosity (or selfishness), and vice versa, is seen in the immediate context preceding (Matthew 6:1-18) where only the man, whose mind was fixed upon God, could really give, pray and fast; all else was hypocrisy. The succeeding context (Matthew 6:24) preaches the same message: Choose well the one guiding principle of your life, whether your one Master will be God, in which case you will crucify your selfishness in the generous service you render others, or whether you will serve Mammon, in which case you will exalt selfishness to the throne of your heart. Your moral vision is definitely affected by that choice.

Thus, Jesus is at the same time making an observation and sounding a warning: He observes, by means of this allegory, that a man will be guided in his actions by the convictions which form his world-view; if these are mistaken or wrongly oriented, they cannot be trusted to give him true illumination regarding the truth about wealth and worry. The warning which underlies the observation (How great is that darkness!) is: Beware lest your worldly philosophy be nothing but moral blindness and failure to grasp the point of view from which I thus speak! The specific viewpoint to which Jesus has reference is the right philosophy regarding the source and use of wealth as well as whether one will be able to appreciate the true wealth involved in trusting God. (Cf. Ephesians 1:18 f with Luke 16:14)

C. ALLEGIANCE TO THE ALMIGHTY ALONE (6:24)

Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters. Jesus-' expression is stronger than the English versions render it, for He said, No man can be a slave to (douleuein) two Lords. It is assumed that we were created to serve someone or something, (Cf. Genesis 2:15) but just one, not two. Two or more masters might jointly own a slave, but in this case he is really the slave of one entity; therefore, there is no contradiction of Jesus-' proposition. In such a case Jesus-' proposition is yet more clearly true when there is a contradiction between the orders of those who think they have a right to command the slave: he cannot obey contradictory orders. It is logically impossible both to do and not do at the same time.

It is also a psychological impossibility because the inner, personal motives of the slave will sooner or later force him to choose which master he desires to please. He would only delude himself if he thought it possible to recognize two Lordships. (Cf. Romans 6:16) But why did Jesus state so bluntly what should be so obvious? Because men of the world say that we can serve two masters. With a little subtlety here and some compromise there under the guise of diplomacy and tact, we can serve both. (Cf. James 4:4; 1 John 2:15-16) This is the self-deception that would grasp at both treasures of heaven and earth.

You cannot serve God and mammon. Mammon is a common Aramaic word for wealth. property, riches. Arndt-Gingrich, 491) There is doubtless personification here, but there is no proof that there was in NT times a Syrian deity called Mammon. (ISBE, 1972) The Lord does not here condemn the lawful and honest getting of money through diligent labor and wise care of funds. Careful stewardship in the gaining and handling of wealth is perfectly in harmony with Jesus-' warning here. (Cf. Luke 16:1-13) But unless a man uses his money for God, it quickly becomes obvious which is his real god, (Cf. Hebrews 13:5) Note the genius of the Master: rather than name some pagan deity which would date this warning and seem to limit it to that era, the Lord renders His admonition readily applicable to any people or age, Wealth is the kind of god that a person can carry with him anywhere or hoard up in his treasury. Wealth is the god of selfishness, since man will abandon the heavenly Father for it; rare is the man who ever left the service of wealth to give himself to God. (Cf. Matthew 7:13-14) Money earned is coined life; money spent for self is a life spent for self; money wasted is life wasted. Mammon-worship is nothing but civilized life which organizes itself for itself without considering God. Another word for this covetousness is idolatry! (Ephesians 5:5; Colossians 3:5; 1 Corinthians 5:11) It is clearly idolatry because it is the taking away from God what is His due and giving it to a wretched creature. (Cf. Matthew 22:37; Romans 1:25)

You cannot be a slave (douleuein) to God and mammon. This is a disjunctive proposition: we must choose! This declaration is the hard-won conclusion of Jesus-' wilderness battle (Matthew 4:10). Jay, cited by Pink (215, 216) shows the intransigence of the two masters, the impossibility to enslave oneself to both:

Their orders are diametrically opposed. The one commands you to walk by faith. the other to walk by sight; the one to be humble, the other to be proud; the one to set your affections on things above, the other to set them on the things that are on the earth; the one to look at the things unseen and eternal, the other to look at the seen and temporal; the one to have your citizenship in heaven, the other to cleave to the dust; the one to be careful for nothing, the other to be all anxiety; the one to content with such as you have, the other to enlarge your desires as the grave; the one to be ready to distribute, the other to withhold; the one to look at the things of others, the other to look at one's own things; the one to seek happiness in the Creator, the other to seek it in the creature. Is it not plain that there is no serving two such masters?

This striking ultimatum forms the perfect transition between Jesus-' comments on wealth and His teaching on worry (Matthew 6:25-34). The idolatry of covetousness is at the bottom of all straining after wealth and all worry over poverty and is as fatal to one's spiritual perception as might be imagined. This is true because this worldly-mindedness is nothing but an unbeliever's over-estimate of material good. It is only a matter of circumstances whether this covetousness will show itself in raking in the money or in solicitous worry. It is the same sin for the worldly-minded rich man as for the covetous poor man. It matters little to Jesus whether a man is rich or poor, but it matters greatly whose possessions he thinks they are, where he thinks he got them, and whether he could do without them. Jesus is demanding that we choose whom we will serve, trust and love: God or gold. Some might be tempted to say, There is no danger of MY laying up earthly treasure because so little of this worlds wealth comes my way that I can scarcely scrape together the barest daily necessities! But the poor must face this same decision as much as the rich. People, rich or poor, who worry are people who forget to pray. People who pray and continue to worry are double-minded, not having set their minds upon one Master, God. They do not yet trust God. (Cf. James 1:5-8)

II. ANXIETY, or ONLY TRUST GOD (6:25-34; cf. Luke 12:22-31)

A. AN APPEAL FOR AN ACCURATE APPRAISAL (6:25)

Matthew 6:25 Therefore I say unto you is the definite link between the principle just enunciated and the application which follows. Be not anxious (me merimnate) or -Be not unduly concerned or DO not worry are now much clearer translations that the KJV which said Take no thought. Taking thought 300 years ago meant exactly what is involved in modern anxiety; taking thought had no connection with giving careful thought to a problem or project. In fact, in this part of His discourse, Jesus is actually commanding His listeners to give very careful thought to their life, to reflect upon what really sustains it.

To understand the correct antithesis of Jesus-' meaning, let US see what He is NOT teaching. Barclay (I, 258) notes: It is not ordinary prudent foresight, such as becomes a man, that Jesus forbids; it is worry. Jesus is not advocating a shiftless, thriftless, reckless, thoughtless improvident attitude to life; He is forbidding a careworn, worried fear that takes all the joy out of life. As seen in the parallel (Luke 12:22-48), man must think wisely and plan discreetly concerning the necessities of life. (Cf. Proverbs 6:6-8; 2 Corinthians 12:14; 1 Timothy 5:8; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15) We are commanded to regard rightly and to plan seriously the use of these God-given blessings, Many people are careless about what they eat and drink, and they suffer for it, Some are thoughtless about their dress, and they become a disgrace to the race. They become careless about property and God holds them responsible for it. (Cf. Luke 16:9-13) Jesus does not countenance such imprudence, improvidence and carelessness.

Nor is Jesus pleading for utter indifference to earthly needs or material goods, for He admits our NEED for all these things (Matthew 6:32), There is no asceticism here.

Jesus is teaching against worry. Four times more he will fire verbal broadsides against anxiety (Matthew 6:27-28; Matthew 6:31; Matthew 6:34; see also Luke 10:41; Luke 12:11; Luke 12:22; Philippians 4:6) Worry about earthly treasure and bodily needs turns the heart from God to the slavery to mammon. This lusting after things that we do not have, this uneasiness and distraction of mind is sin and a sure sign that the heart is fixed on earth!

Be not anxious about your life, what ye shall eat; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Note that the phrase what ye shall drink has been omitted from more ancient manuscripts than those that contain it. If Jesus did not say it, the parallel with His later comment is much closer. Jesus is preaching against that false sense of values created by distrustful worry about the necessities of life. He is appealing for a return to sanity and a re-evaluation of those elements which sustain and bless our life: food and clothing. Is not the life more than the food, and the body more than the raiment? His rhetorical question is well-calculated to appeal for a recognition of the right order in man's nature. That order of importance is a descending order:

1. The life and the body. Jesus' word (psyche) is often used to express the life-principle which is the union of soul and body. (Cf. Genesis 9:4 LXX; Matthew 2:20; Matthew 20:28; Luke 12:20; John 10:11-18; Acts 2:27; Acts 20:10; Romans 11:3; Revelation 8:9) Jesus defined under what aspect He means the word life (pyche) by means of the questions regarding its sustenance: What shall we eat? Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (Matthew 6:25 a, Matthew 6:31) Therefore it is clear that He is speaking in a Hebrew poetic parallelism: life in the first member is equated with body in the second, while food in the first is changed to clothing in the second member of the parallel. This gnomic poetry form is really conveying positive information:

Life is more important than food;
And the body is more than the raiment.

Thus, while the body is to be taken as parallel to the life, the mention of this particular phase of life advances the thought to introduce another senseless worry: that which covers the body, or, clothing.

But merely because of this parallel in His speech does not mean that Jesus is equating all that is one's life (psyche) with his body (soma), because there is more to life than its union with a body. There is clear evidence that the soul of a man is also expressed by this word. (Cf. Matthew 10:28; Matthew 10:39; Matthew 11:29; Matthew 16:25-26; Mark 8:36-37; Luke 9:24; Luke 17:33; Hebrews 10:39; James 1:21; James 5:20; 1 Peter 1:9; 1 Peter 1:22; also Ardt-Gingrich, 901, 902 on psyche) Thus, Jesus is saying, You yourself are more important than the food you eat, the body you inhabit or the clothing that covers it! Men are prone to be more concerned about making physical life possible than about making life worth living. Mere physical existence is not worth the trouble to sustain it, if the problems of the soul are left unsolved. Life does not consist in the abundance or paucity of the things one possesses, eats or wears, but in the God-like quality of his personality, in the strength of his moral character.

2. The food and the raiment are definitely secondary matters when measured against the infinitely higher value of the life and the body, and, hence, are unworthy objects of anxiety. Clothing and food (cf. brosis, Matthew 6:19 note) may be echoes of Jesus-' previous warning about the transistoriness of earthly possessions and His caution against putting one's trust in them or thinking of them as final goals. (Matthew 6:19) Clothing is important (see Matthew 6:30; Matthew 6:32), but can never be as important as that body which clothes him who is made in the image of God! (2 Corinthians 5:2-5)

Therefore, in terms of priorities, the body is far less important than one's spiritual existence, but it has needs far more pressing than the lack of clothing. The inferiority of the body compared to the man who dwells therein is seen at the point where the man leaves the body, At death none of us will have need of food and clothing. What folly to make our chief concern those things which perish with the using and over which death has dominion!

Back of this order stands God who established it, gave the life, formed the body and sewed its first suit of clothes (Genesis 3:21). Dependence is, the law of our being, because we were obligated to leave to God the size, form, color and nature of our body. Why should we not trust Him for its maintenance? But even the most spiritual of us argue in exactly the opposite way: I must live! I must be clothed and fed! I must know where I will live, where my next meal is coming from! I must have security! The great concern of such lives is obviously not God but how one is going to be enabled to live.

Jesus is objecting to worry because it gives to earthly well-being a false and exaggerated value and ignores the true priorities that must supersede those things which are the common objects of worry, such as food and clothing. (Cf. John 4:34; Philippians 3:9; Revelation 3:5; Revelation 3:18; Revelation 7:9; Revelation 19:8)

B. AN APPRECIABLE ADVANTAGE ABOVE ANIMALS (6:26)

Matthew 6:26 Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Jesus uses this illustration purposely to show the utter unreasonableness, from His standpoint, of being so anxious about the means of living. The birds do not sow, reap nor garner, for these are superior advantages that God has given to man. Birds do not have these possibilities. The thing condemned is not this work, because also a bird is a hardworking little creature, going out and laboring for its daily supply of food. Jesus-' point is that, even without man's superior advantages, there is not in birds that straining to see the unforeseeable future and seek security in things accumulated for it. They live literally hand to mouth. and yet they did not worry, because they are fulfilling the law of life that God has infused into their being. They are what they are, not because of their concern for themselves, but because of the concern of our heavenly Father for them! Their law of life requires that they live from day to day without worry for future supply. (Cf. Job 38:41; Psalms 104:25; Psalms 104:27; Psalms 145:14-16; Psalms 147:9)

And your heavenly Father feedeth them. He is their Creator; He is our Father. (Cf. Matthew 5:16; Matthew 5:43; Matthew 5:48; Matthew 6:2-3; Matthew 6:6; Matthew 6:8-9; Matthew 6:14; Matthew 6:18; Matthew 6:32 with Matthew 10:29-31) Already Jesus is testing the moral sensitivity of His hearers, even before He poses that poignant rhetorical question. But HOW does the heavenly Father feed them? Into their nature He has fused the instincts necessary for their survival, such as diet, migratory habits, etc. But these secondary causes for birds-' actions are no less of the heavenly Father than if He operated directly in every single case. (Luke 12:6-7; Hebrews 1:3) Thus it is not the thought of the little bird about itself that provides its food, but the thought of the heavenly Father. It does not worry for its food; it just obeys the law of its life and becomes what it is. The law of our life is that we work for our food (Genesis 1:28; Genesis 2:15; Genesis 3:17-19). We were created to work, not to worry. Gathering into barns is no sin, even though it means saving for a future need; it is no more sin that sowing and reaping.

Are not ye of much more value than they? This theoretical question is designed to arouse interest and personal concern in Jesus-' audience. Jesus would keep His disciples-' eyes ever on the Father: of much more value to whom? Will God nourish birds and forget His own children? But your worry about your nourishment, whether you realize it or not, reflects on God-s love for you! (Romans 8:32) It also reflects on His sense of priorities: it assumes that He busies Himself with things of less importance in His universe while ignoring man whom He created in His own likeness and for His own personal fellowship! It also puts God into a religious compartment, separating Him from the practical affairs of life like food getting. The disciples are being put to a severe test: Is that relation which God sustains to you a vital one and does His daily provision really count for anything, or is your faith mere theory and cant? If we really trust Him, we may work without worrying!

C. ANXIETY NOT ABLE TO ALTER ALTITUDE NOR ADVANCE AGE (6:27)

Matthew 6:27 And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto the measure of his life? Jesus word (helikia), translated measure of life (ASV) or stature (KJV) is particularly interesting because it is just enough ambiguous to suggest two fruitful lessons:

1. Physical stature, height (helikia; cf. Luke 19:3; perhaps also Luke 2:52; Ephesians 4:13) Plummer (Luke, 326f) objects that not many people give anxious thought to the problem of adding the length of the forearm (a pechus, or cubit) to their stature because it would produce a monstrosity and would-' not be spoken of as something insignificant (Luke 12:25-26). However, this objection looks only at the adults as they were at that moment. But they were not always this way. They began as a being smaller than a span and grew by the gradual increase that God had ordained in the laws governing growth. Neither anxious worry nor loss of sleep nor beating one's brains about it could have altered the exact height of a child at any stage of his growth.

2. Length of life (helikia; see Arndt-Gingrich, 345, for extrabiblical evidence of this meaning) Many people do worry about the prolongation of their allotted age by any amount. The image called up by this expression of Jesus is that of a man anxiously hurrying across the years of his life. He stumbles, grasping for his last breath and reaches out, clawing his way forward in the effort to have just another 18 inches along the path of life. He dies miserably short of this least goal! ALL of his previous worries have been in vain, because, worry or no, his life has run its come.

This time Jesus-' use of the rhetorical question, Which of you. ? brings the hearer to make a pragmatic judgment about the actual results of worry, It is as if Jesus were saying, Your life of worry shows that you do not accept MY theory about God's providence and care. Let us examine YOUR theory of constant worry: what does your theory produce? The basic problem we must both solve is that of prolonging your life as far as possible. After all, is not this why you worry? But does your theory make a man live longer? Does your sinful, unbelieving anxiety resolve this basic problem of life? No, it miserably fails at the very point where it was supposed to work!

Although Jesus did not mention it, as a matter of fact worry often shortens life through shattered nerves, stomach ulcers and heart attacks. These are often the result of constant worry which wears out of the mind and body, which distracts the attention from real sources of help, and which lessens the power of decision and pushes men gradually into a frustrating incapacity to deal with life.

D. THE ABSURDITY OF ATTEMPTING AN APPROACH TO AN ALLURING ARRAY OF ANEMONE (6:28-30a)

Matthew 6:28 And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? This question is the principle point of Jesus-' description of the field lilies, not the fact that they perform no work. Consider the lilies of the field (ta Krina tou agrou). Just what flower Jesus indicates by this term is not known. Some think He meant the autumn crocus, the scarlet poppy, the Turks cap lily, the anemone coronaria, the narcissus, the gladiolus or the iris. Perhaps Jesus had no particular flower in mind, but was thinking of the extremely beautiful flowers that adorn the Galilean fields. How they grow: this is the precise connection in which Jesus brings in the flowers to illustrate His point about worry concerning clothing. They toil not, neither do they spin, i.e. without wearying themselves through struggle and without spinning their first thread to make clothing, they grow. But they were not designed to do these tasks of which hard-working men and women are capable. They, like the birds, do those simple tasks assigned to them, and God takes care of the rest. This is the point: men were not designed to worry; they were designed to trust God and to toil and spin without anxiety.

Matthew 6:29 Even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Solomon was without peer as Israel's wealthiest, most magnificently arrayed king. (Cf. 2 Kings 10) The mention of Solomon's glory suggests a secondary lesson: your ideal is false and patently unattainable. Would you seek to clothe yourself in rich raiment? Solomon's class is still beyond you. But even if you had the wealth to put yourself on his level, one simple unworrying flower surpasses you and Solomon both! Thus, the struggle to put together lavish wardrobes must not become an obsession, since God is clothing flowers every year and we cannot compete with them for magnificence and beauty. Treasuring garments of great value is a false ideal because they are always rags when compared to the simplest flowers.

Matthew 6:30 a But if God does so clothe the grass of the field. How does God clothe them? His original fiat of creation has become God's continually operative word that has provided for the nature and sustenance of the lilies and grass of the field. (Cf. Genesis 1:11) Some call that word of God natural law, but it is nonetheless God's care, no matter how we denominate it. Which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven vividly describes the ephemeral nature of these little creatures who enjoy God's personal care, In a country long stripped of its forests and where fuel would be scarce, grass and stalks of all kinds would be thrown into the outdoor clay-brick ovens to heat the interior for baking bread. When the oven was sufficiently hot, the ashes of the burnt grasses were swept out and the dough was placed immediately on the heated floor of the oven.

But is Jesus considering the beautiful flowers and the grass together as being thrown into the oven? Naturally, they would be Cut down together. If so, is He emphasizing their fleeting beauty, i.e. glorious flowers and refreshing grass in a desert country, or is He indicating their minor usefulness to heat the oven for baking bread?

1. If fleeting beauty, perhaps He is saying, In view of the brevity of life and the temporary nature of physical charm and the perishable quality of the most gorgeous garments, how baseless and foolish is pride over a handsome body and anxious concern for royal apparel! (Cf. 1 Peter 1:24; 1 Peter 3:3-4)

2. If --minor usefulness, then He may be saying, Man is of eternal usefulness to God, and if God is so concerned about so minor a creature as grass and flowers, will He neglect man who is to Him of infinitely greater value and enduring service? They are made but for a few days; God made man for eternity.

Shall he not much more clothe you... ? The same God who spoke into being that providential law for the clothing of grass and flowers, has also spoken His word of power to clothe man. Our God-given task is to do the work appointed for us (toil and spin of Matthew 6:28). It is by means of this work that He has ordained for us that He has chosen to provide for us. But concern for the unseeable and unknowable future is God's business, not outs. Therefore, worry is a contradiction of our nature, just as it is absurd when applied to flowers and grass.

E. AN ALARMING ACCUSATION (Matthew 6:30 b)

Matthew 6:30 b O ye of little faith. (Cf. Matthew 8:26; Matthew 14:31; Matthew 16:8; Matthew 17:20; James 1:5-8) This is the most significant term of reproach Jesus ever used toward His disciples. In this context, their worry is a practical expression of infidelity because they distrust God for raiment, Jesus is proving decisively that theology and things definitely affect each other. The same faith that trusts God for grace and guidance must also trust Him for garments and groceries. Man is all one piece: the less he trusts God for his temporal needs, the less he really believes in His eternal mercies, since the same faith is called upon to lay hold of both. (Study Dc. 8 and Matthew 4:1-11) Therefore, anxiety is not simply a human weakness that we may excuse of a trifle about which we need not get too excited. It is grave sin for which we must be pardoned, for it chokes out faith in God's word! (Cf. Matthew 13:22; Luke 8:14)

F. ANXIETY IS AKIN TO ALIEN AGNOSTICISM AND ATHEISM (6:31, 32)

Matthew 6:31 Be not therefore anxious. This is a command of the Son of God, a command equal to any other which the disciple is called upon to obey, a test of allegiance just as surely as baptism or public testimony or any other demonstration of faithfulness to Jesus. It is more than just g d advice which may be taken or left. Therefore emphasizes the relation of this command to the foregoing principles upon which the prohibition is based.

This anxiety shows itself in such questions as What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? Many more questions might be added, but these fundamental Ones cover a multitude of other worries. These are the very symptoms of distrustful people, the very complaints they make when they encounter losses or adversities befall them or their supply of necessities is apparently cut off, or when they lose their job or their investments do not pay off or they are stricken with some incapacitating disease. These very demands denote that they who ask them have no faith in God's goodness.

To study the life of Jesus is to find out how simple were His daily needs and how stern was His devotion to the doing of God's will, and such a study should shame us at the outrageous expense of our desires (Luke 9:58)! Further, if worry about the necessities is sin, what would Jesus call our unjustifiable anxiety about those things that are not absolutely essential to existence and may be called luxuries? Wall-to-wall carpets, boats, color TV, second and third cars, household appliances, etc. There is nothing wrong with these things in themselves except that they are of this earth. and, being the objects of our straining and our loving care, they may well become our real god. (Matthew 6:24)

Matthew 6:32 For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. Worry is characteristic of heathen unbelief, Of what use then is all our religious orthodoxy and knowledge if we still act like those who never heard of our Father? How many of us are pagans in a crisis? How many are daring enough to bank their faith on God's character? Such distrust may be understandable in one who believes in a capricious, unpredictable god, but such conduct in a worshipper of our Father is totally incomprehensible. Another characteristic of pagans is that they think that they themselves must provide for all their needs without any dependable reference to the true God, There must be a marked difference in the practical affairs of Jesus-' disciple that strikes a sharp contrast with the mentality of the world (John 17:14; Romans 12:2; Titus 2:12).

For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. Peter (1 Peter 5:7) puts it eloquently: Cast all your anxieties upon Him, for He cues about you. Jesus has revealed God as one who knows and can never forget our smallest concern, If we accept Him as Father on this basis, worry becomes impossible, for to worry is to deny both the wisdom and knowledge of God and to doubt His love. Notice that Jesus puts the emphasis here: He does not call Him God, in the sense of an omniscient Supreme Eking who would be expected to know our need, but Father, in the sense of one who both knows and feels our need.

Jesus is constantly trying to restore our proper perspective (Cf. notes on Matthew 6:22-23): life does not consist in concern for the merely physical and sensual aspect of existence. Food, clothing and shelter are not man's greatest problems and must not sap his strength from his one main true obsession: kingdom righteousness.

G. THE APPROVED, ADEQUATE ANTIDOTE FOR ANXIETY (6:33)

Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. This is Jesus-' positive answer to worry and covetousness, a program guaranteed to lead His followers into that peace of soul that only he can know who knows that he belongs to God. (Cf. Acts 16:19-25; Romans 14:17; Philippians 3:7-21) Barclay (I, 261) notes:

To concentrate upon the doing of, and acceptance of God's will is the way to defeat worry.. A great love can drive out every other concern, Such a love can inspire a man's work, intensify his study, purify his life, dominate his whole being.. Worry is banished when God becomes the dominating power of our lives.

Seek first is an interesting command because Jesus does not say what to seek second. He knows that He has nothing to worry about from the man who puts God-s will first and who trusts God for all the rest. Marshall's pithy note (124) is quite apropos here:

Men are prone to put economic considerations first and to sacrifice moral principles for sake of their daily bread. The plea -I must live-' is often advanced as an excuse for unethical behavior. When business men argue that -Business is business-' they usually mean that it is exempt from ethical control. This word of Jesus is a call to moral heroism, to the high resolve to do that which is right in the sight of God whether it brings gain or loss, prosperity or adversity Whatever happens, moral claims must be met first.

Seek first his kingdom, his righteousness, in too many ears, sounds like an impractical leap in the dark, an attack upon that which our common sense says we must believe, a despising of all earthly institutions upon which we so naturally rest our confidence, and the destruction of our false sense of property and security which so greatly hinders our spiritual development. In fact, Jesus intends that we get this impression, because He is hitting desperately hard at our dependence on things. Later, in His discussion of the dangers that confront His disciple (chapter 7), He will reiterate the exhortation to confide our needs to God (Matthew 7:7-11) because of the constant danger of trusting something or someone else.

His kingdom means God's rule, His will. (See Notes on Matthew 6:10) His righteousness means seeking to be righteous on His terms. (See Introduction to the Sermon and the Notes on Matthew 5:17 ff) God wants to give us the kingdom and all the benefits of His benign rule. (CY. Luke 12:32; see also on the Beatitudes) Why should we worry about all these other secondary matters? (Cf. Psalms 37:5; Psalms 55:22; Psalms 127:2; Proverbs 16:3; 1 Peter 5:7) ALL these things shall be added unto you. God knows we are not angels or machines, but men. (Psalms 103:13-14) He knows that we must be provided for. So, to test our faith and to strengthen our hope He subjoins His faithful promise of blessing. But He has also willed that we work without worry, because undistracted labor produces rich fruits both in securing our daily needs and in providing help for future needs both for ourselves and others (1 Thessalonians 4:10-12; Matthew 5:14; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; 1 Timothy 5:3-16; Ephesians 4:28) On the other hand, those who ignore the Kingdom so that they can assure themselves of their life sustenance, will lose both the Kingdom and their life too! (Matthew 16:24-26)

H. ANXIOUS APPREHENSION ALWAYS ANTICIPATES ADDITIONAL ADVERSITY AND ATROPHIES ABILITIES (6:34)

Matthew 6:34 Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow will be anxious for itself. (Proverbs 27:1; Luke 12:19-20; James 4:14) Only when we learn to live one day at a time can we really stop worrying. (See on Matthew 6:11) Worry about tomorrow is the sin of presumptuousness, for to do so one must necessarily assume that God will give him a day that He has not promised. The worrier might not even live to see the next day and thus he will have sinned by taking out of God's hands a day that did not belong to him and never would exist for him.

Further, worry about the future tomorrows must ever suffer its own logical fallacies, its hypotheses contrary to fact. Tomorrow, by its very nature is an imaginary world, a handy word to describe the day that follows today. But tomorrow never comes, never exists. Every dawn brings another today with its problems, trials and difficulties geared to our capacity to deal with them within the dawn-to-dark limits of this day. (Cf. 1 Corinthians 10:13; Hebrews 3:12-14) The real future when it comes is rarely as bad as the tomorrow we had feared, Barclay (I, 263) observes:

We are still alive. Had someone told us that we would have had to go through what we have actually gone through, we would have said that it was impossible. The lesson of life is that somehow we have been enabled to bear the unbearable and to pass the breaking point without breaking.

Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Jesus is using the word evil in the sense of adversity, problems, troubles, trials and difficulties, not however without some flavor of moral failure mixed in. The point is this: we must not borrow trouble from tomorrow as if today did not have it already in sufficient quantity. Jesus is telling us that each day already has enough problems to solve and that we must not burden and hinder our effectiveness to solve them by adding other unreal worries.

FACT QUESTIONS

1. What is the difference between treasures on earth and treasures in heaven?
2. How does a moth corrupt earthly treasures?
3. What is the literal meaning of the word usually translated rust (brosis)? Following this literal meaning, what is made to disappear?

4. How do thieves dig through? Why? Explain this figure in its local setting.
5. In this section does Jesus prohibit prudent saving for the future -of one's family? Prove your answer.
6. Explain the metaphor: The lamp of the body is the eye.
7. Explain the allegory of the eye. What is meant by the eye, the body which is illuminated by it? What kind of eye is whole? What kind is evil? What is intended by the darkness that is in thee? When is thy body full of light?
8. Why can we not serve two masters! Explain why a divided loyalty is SO impossible and the attempt to serve both God and mammon so dangerous.

9. About what are we not to be anxious? (Matthew 6:25; Matthew 6:31; Matthew 6:34)

10. Define anxiety or worry in such a way as to show why Jesus considered it so sinful.

11. How is it possible to use our unrighteous mammon to serve God? (Cf. Luke 16:9-13)

12. What is the reason Jesus gives that we must lay up treasure in heaven, and not on earth?
13. How does God feed the birds, array the lilies of the field-'-' and clothe the grass of the field? What does this fact reveal about how He feeds and clothes us?
14. Why was Solomon mentioned? In what connection?
15. Why was grass thrown into the oven?
16. What life is more than the food? Does Jesus mean here our spiritual or our physical life?
17. List several reasons, stated by Jesus in this section, why anxiety is sin.
18. What is the point of each of the following figures Jesus used?

a. Life is more than food and the body than raiment.
b. Birds of the air.
c. Add one cubit to the measure of one's life.
d. Lilies and grass of the field.
e, Gentiles seek all these things.
f. Tomorrow will worry about itself.

19. What is the kingdom which we must seek first? What did this phrase mean to the audience who first heard it? What does it mean to us?
20. What is His righteousness which we must seek first? What does this word mean, when taken in the context of all that Jesus revealed about it in this Sermon on the Mount?
21. If we dedicate ourselves to putting the Kingdom and His righteousness first, who will be responsible for our necessities?
22. What kind of evil was Jesus talking about when He said, Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof?
23. What are the great principles, taught in this section, which reveal I the nature and genius of Jesus-' religion?