Matthew 6:19-34

CONNECTION AND CONTENTS. The external connection seems to be between ‘they have received their reward,' which closes each of the foregoing examples of false piety, and ‘lay not up for yourselves treasures' (Matthew 6:19). Main idea: supreme dedication to God; this is illustrated and applied in various ways. The connection of thought, then, is: not only are moral religious duties to be performed for God and with a view to His blessing, in reliance on His blessing, but our whole life is for God and through His blessing. ‘In all our aims and undertakings the mind should be set on the things of eternity.' Hence Matthew 6:19-21 teach that our treasures should be laid up in heaven, where our heart should be; Matthew 6:22-24 enforce the duty of devoting our heart to God by two illustrations: Matthew 6:25-32 apply this principle to earthly wants; Matthew 6:33 states the principle plainly while Matthew 6:34 deduces from it the prohibition of anxious care for the future. The last verse returns, as it were, to the starting point, since anxious care for the morrow leads to heaping up of treasures on earth.