My God and My Money
- Scriptures: Matthew 6:19-24; I Timothy 6:7-10
Transcript
Kerry Duke: Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you’ve learned with others.
It’s no wonder that the Sermon on the Mount is one of the most read parts of the Bible. Jesus deals with so many areas of your life in so few verses. He talks about your heart or your attitude. He discusses your influence with other people. He talks about getting along with other people. He talks about marriage and prayer and worry and criticism, and he also teaches us about one of the most common subjects in the New Testament and a very important part of our life, and that is our attitude toward money.
Let’s read Matthew chapter 6, beginning in verse 19. “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth,” Jesus said, “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. You cannot serve God and Mammon.”
Have you thought about how often this comes up in the New Testament? Evidently, the idea of money plays a big part in whether we are, in the end, saved or lost.
Think of the story of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19, or the story of the rich fool in Luke chapter 12, or the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke chapter 16. There are all kinds of warnings in the Bible about money. In 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 10, the Bible says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. In Matthew chapter 13 verse 22, the Bible says that some are choked with the cares and the riches of this life as Christian people. Now here again, in Matthew chapter 6, Jesus goes right to the heart of this subject. And that is, what is my attitude? So let’s begin by looking at verse 19. Jesus said, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth.” He says don’t lay up, that is, don’t store up treasures on earth. Now, obviously this is a relative statement. What I mean by that is Jesus is saying don’t make this your priority. Don’t make money your main goal in life, because it’s not the most important thing in life. At the same time, the Bible does teach us that it’s good to save—at least to save some to whatever extent that we can. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 14 that the parents ought to lay up, that is, they ought to store up or save, for the children. This is natural. This is normal. And it is biblical.
The Bible shows that the disciples of Jesus had to have some money on hand to buy food. You have to have money to live. John chapter 4 verse 8 is where the Bible says that the disciples went into the city to buy some food. God told the Israelites in the Old Testament to work hard and save when they had the opportunity so that they could prepare for bad times to come or times of need in the future. In Proverbs chapter 21 verse 20, the Bible says there is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the righteous. Why? Because he’s worked hard and he saved some. In Ecclesiastes 11 verse 6, the Bible says, ‘In the morning sow your seed,” that is, while you have the opportunity to work, work hard and save for the future.
The story of Joseph, when he was in Egypt, shows the value of saving. Remember that Joseph told the Egyptian ruler that he needed to save because hard times were coming. And there’s nothing wrong with that. As a matter of fact, that’s very wise. But there’s a kind of savings that’s more important, and that’s what Jesus is talking about.
He says these material things are not the most valuable things in your life. Then he tells us why in verse 19. He says lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth. That is, don’t make these things upon the earth your main priority. Why? Because he says the earth is the place where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal.
First of all, he says, you’ve got nature itself that works against you. You have the moth and you have rust. A moth eats holes in clothes. Rust eats away at the cars we own, the guns that we have, the tools that we own in this lifetime. This is life. After Genesis chapter 3 the earth turned on itself, and we live in that kind of world today.
Physical, material things decay. That’s what he means by the word corrupt. The moth eats and rust destroys. Think about something that you’ve gotten rid of. Why did you throw away shoes or clothes? Or get rid of a car? Or old furniture? Why? Because it was old, it was worn, it was faded, it had decayed. This is the nature of things.
Just look at the food that you buy. If you keep it too long, what happens? It begins to rot, it begins to decay. And what you bought this week, or what is in your house, or the house itself, or whatever you own, is going to decay. And that’s also true of your physical body. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16, that the outward man perishes, that is, it’s corrupting. It is decaying. That’s just the nature of this physical body that we have. Now, the good news, of course, is in the last part of 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16. That’s good news, that is, for the Christian. Because Paul says, even though our outward man, that is, the physical body, perishes or decays, he says the inward man, that is the soul, is renewed day by day.
So, the physical things are going down on a day-by-day basis. They are decaying. But the spirit of man is renewed. It is strengthened. It grows stronger and better day by day if we live for God. The Bible says in the end, the body will go back to the dust. In Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verse 7, the Bible says, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.”
So Jesus says don’t put too much confidence in the things that you own, because they are perishable. They will decay. They will not be here forever. And by the way, remember what the Bible says will happen in the end to all the things that you own or want to buy in this life. Second Peter chapter 3 verse 10 says all of these things will be burned up.
We need to think about that on a daily basis and not get so excited or worried about the things of this life. But Jesus said there’s another danger in this life. You will never have complete security in this life because thieves break through and steal. Back in those days, they would break through or dig through the walls of houses because those houses were often made of clay and sometimes of stone and timber, but they would break through or dig through.
So thieves were a common threat in Jesus day, just like they are a danger today. They may break into your house. They may break into your car. They may break into your business or even a church building. Or, they may hack into your account and steal your identity. Or, a man will lie to you and cheat you, a business will swindle you, a government may even extort money from you, a foreign nation may even conquer the nation and take everything that we have away from us.
Think of how much of our lives is spent protecting what we own. We buy locks. We buy alarms. We buy insurance. We put chains and bars on windows and do anything that we can to protect what we have. I’m not saying that that’s wrong. The Bible shows that we have the right to protect the things that we own.
But what Jesus is saying, even if you do everything that you can to preserve and to protect your material possessions, there’s always the danger that something or somebody is going to take them away from you. And, of course, we can add to that the fact that the Bible says in 1 Timothy 6, verse 7, that when we die, we’re going to lose those things anyway.
You’re not going to be rich or poor when you die. Everybody’s going to be on the same level economically, because nobody will have anything when he dies. 1st Timothy chapter 6 verse 7 says we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. We need this teaching. We need to be reminded of this.
We know these things. We know that things that are material corrupt. That is, they decay. They rot. They have to be preserved. We understand that. We know that. But Jesus reminds us of this. As far as things are concerned, there is no complete perfect security in this life. You can lose those things. So the Bible says instead of thinking so much and being so concerned about the things you own, you ought to be more concerned about heaven itself.
Instead of storing up for yourself so many things on earth and making that your priority, you need to store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. And he contrasts the treasures in heaven with what we have on earth. He says, you don’t have moth and you don’t have rust that corrupt things in heaven. And you don’t have to worry about thieves breaking through and stealing what you have in heaven.
Nothing wears out. Nothing grows old. Nothing decays or rust or dies in heaven. There’s no repair. There’s no maintenance work. There are no doctors. There are no hospitals. There’s no medicine for your body. There are no funeral homes in heaven. Heaven is incorruptible. It does not decay. And people who go to heaven will have an incorruptible, immortal body.
The Bible says that in First Corinthians chapter 15 in great detail. In First Peter chapter one, verse four, the Bible says that heaven is a place that is reserved for us in heaven and that it is incorruptible. That is, it does not decay. It does not fade away. And Jesus also said that there won’t be any thieves in heaven. There won’t be anybody that will break through and steal what you have in heaven because there won’t be any criminals. There will be no crime in heaven because there will be no sin in heaven. That’s extremely hard to even imagine because our lives are filled with all kinds of reports and all kinds of threats and dangers of people who are criminals, people who want to do us wrong.
Heaven is a place of perfect security. What do we have in this life that even comes close to that? What kind of investment today is without any kind of risk? Whether you’re talking about money, stocks, CDs, gold, land, nothing is 100 percent secure. In heaven, there’s no need for savings accounts. No need for insurance, no need for security. There’s no need for police and prisons. There are no locks and security systems and fences in heaven. It is a place that is completely secure and stable for all of eternity. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 18 that when we get there as Christians, so shall we ever be with the Lord.
And that’s what Jesus and the rest of the New Testament tells us to focus our hearts on. In 2 Corinthians 4, verse 18, you have a great commentary. Paul said, “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.” And notice that Paul gives a play on words here. He says we don’t look at things which are seen. How can you fail to look at things that are seen? Well, when he says don’t look at the things which are seen, he’s talking about aiming at them. He’s talking about setting your heart on them. We do not look or aim at the things which are seen, but we do aim for the things which are not seen. Because he says, “The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
In Colossians chapter 3, verse 1 and 2, Paul said it this way, “If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”
You might be wondering, “How do I lay up treasures in heaven?” I believe a great commentary on this is 1st Timothy chapter 6, verses 17 through 19. Paul said, “Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy, that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate” (and that means to share) “laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.”
So the Bible says just live the Christian life, do good to others, obey God, fear God and keep His commandments, and in doing that, you’re laying up treasures in heaven. Do you remember the story of the rich fool in Luke chapter 12? It starts in verse 13 where one of the company said to Jesus, “Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me.” There was an argument in this family over the will. There was an argument over the property in the inheritance, and this man wanted Jesus to speak to his brother so that his brother would divide that inheritance with him. And Jesus said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?”
And then in verse 15, he gave this warning, take heed and beware of covetousness. “For a man’s life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses.” And then in verse 16: “He spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do. I will pull down my barns and build greater. And there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then who shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
So, it all begins in the heart. This is what we have been seeing over and over again in the Sermon on the Mount. And that’s exactly how Jesus describes this in Matthew chapter 6, verse 21.
After he said don’t lay up for yourselves treasures on earth but do lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, He says these words in verse 21 of Matthew 6. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” What a person values, what a person wants the most, is where he will put his heart. That’s where his interests will lie. That’s where his excitement and his feelings will be. That’s where he will put his energy and his thoughts and his abilities in life. The Bible says in Proverbs 23 verse 7, “As he thinks in his heart, so is he.” So if we’re looking at the world and we value more than anything else the things that we see and touch and have, then our heart on the inside will be glued to those things. It will be attached to those things. But on the other hand, if heaven is our goal, if the most important thing to us is going to heaven, then that’s where our interest is going to lie. That’s what we’re going to be excited about. That’s what’s going to get our attention in life. That is what we’re going to dedicate our lives to. That is what we’re going to sacrifice for. You see, we’re creatures with feelings. And we’re going to attach those feelings to something or somebody. And the choice is, are we going to attach our heart to this world or to heaven itself?
Notice verse 22 and 23, because this is an illustration of what he’s talking about. He says, “The light of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is single, then your whole body shall be full of light. But if your eye is evil, then your whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness.” What is Jesus talking about here?
If somebody reads those verses without looking at the context, it’s easy to see how somebody might come up with all kinds of ideas as to what Jesus means here. But if you just remember the context, you’ll see that Jesus is still talking about our attitude toward money. Notice that verses 22 and 23 occur right in the middle of Jesus talking about the subject of money. In other words, verse 22 and verse 23 are sandwiched between two statements or two sections about money. In verses 19 through 21, the subject there is obviously money. In verse 24, the subject again still is money. He says, “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. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Mammon is the Aramaic word for wealth or money.
So, if Jesus is talking about money in verses 19 through 21, and then He’s still talking about money in verse 24, then the verses in between these verses, that is, verses 22 and 23, have to be about money. In the Bible, the eye often refers to your thinking, your attitude, the importance that you attach to something or to somebody. It talks about and it represents your outlook towards something. For instance, the Bible talks about an evil eye in Mark chapter 7, verse 22. The Bible says that Saul eyed David in 1 Samuel, chapter 18, verse 9. That means he was jealous of him. In Proverbs 6, verse 17, the Bible talks about a proud look. And literally, in the Hebrew, that means with high eyes.
Sometimes, it’s a good look in the eye. In Proverbs 22, verse 9, the Bible talks about a bountiful eye. But then the Bible says in a very interesting and very similar passage in Proverbs 28 verse 22 that a man who hastes to be rich has an evil eye, that is, somebody that is greedy has an evil eye. He has an evil outlook toward those things.
So Jesus in Matthew 6, is using the word eye in the same way. He’s saying there are two ways of looking at money. You can have a good eye toward it, or you can have a bad eye toward it. Now, if you have a good, single eye toward money, that means that you’re sincere. That means that you’re generous. That means that you have no underlying motives, that you have no mixed feelings. It means that you’re pure and honest. You have no ulterior motives. You’re not greedy. You’re not deceptive. You’re not dishonest. You have the right attitude toward money and how it’s going to be used. And if you have the right attitude toward money, then your whole life will be clean. That’s what he means when he says that if the light that you have is good, then your whole body will be full of light.
And that means that if you have the right attitude toward money, that is so important to our souls. That is so central to our lives that it affects everything else. If you have a pure, generous view of money and you’re unselfish in that way, you realize that you don’t own the things that you have anyway. You realize that God gives us everything and that we ought to help other people. If you have that kind of sincere and single and pure look at money, that will determine your whole life and your future. If your attitude toward money is pure, you will be pure in how you use your time and how you use your abilities. Your whole life will be full of light, peace, and joy, and contentment. Remember that Jesus said in Acts 20 verse 35, “It’s more blessed to give than to receive.” This will illuminate, this will lighten up your whole life if you have that kind of view of money.
On the other hand, if you have an evil eye, then your life is going to be full of darkness. Thinking about money in a selfish and stingy and greedy way will affect your whole life. A man who looks at money in the wrong way will look at everything and everybody in the wrong way. Again, Proverbs 23 verse 7 says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 9 says this, “They that desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, the which while some have coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
The difference in these two outlooks is this. A generous person, with this single or good eye, uses money to help people. But a selfish person, who has this bad evil eye, uses people to get money.
William Barclay once wrote, “There is nothing like generosity for giving you a clear and undistorted view of life and of people. And there’s nothing like the grudging and the ungenerous spirit for distorting your view of life and of people.” A man who looks at money wrong will look at things, other people, himself, and even God Himself in the wrong way. But a man that looks at money in the right kind of way, with purity of heart, is going to see everything around him clearly. And he’s going to be truly happy, he’s going to be truly content and peaceful in his life. But if a man is selfish, if a man is greedy, if a man places more value on money, than he does on God and other people and the Word of God, then he’s not going to be happy in this life.
One of the biggest lies that people believe today is what they’ve always believed, and that is, if I can just have more money, then I’m going to be more happy. Listen to what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes chapter five in verse 10. He says, “He that loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver. Nor he that loves abundance with increase. This is also vanity.” He said in verse 11, “When goods increase, they are increased that eat them. And what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?” Look at verse 12. “The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much. But the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.” The Bible says in verse 15, “As he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labor, which he may carry away in his hand.” It’s sad, folks, that people put their heart on money and they end up being miserable. A selfish spirit will cause darkness in a man’s entire life. It will bring fear, anger, suspicion, distrust, anxiety. It will destroy true friendships. It will destroy marital happiness. It will destroy real love for Christians and God and worship and saving souls and Bible study even in the lives of children of God because it is very deceptive. And that’s why Jesus warned about the deceitfulness of riches in Matthew chapter 13, verse 22, because sometimes Christians fall into that trap. Sometimes we become overconfident about money. We say, “Well, obviously money’s not the most important thing in the world to me” and we don’t realize that we may be falling into the devil’s trap with our actions. We may say those words, but we may not realize where our heart is. Remember the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 12, “Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”
Now this is also perhaps one of the reasons why Jesus gave this warning in Matthew six, verse 24, after He has said all of this in verses 19 through 23. He says in verse 24, “No man can serve two masters.” In Bible times, a servant had a master. He had an owner. He had one master. You didn’t hear a servant say, “Well, I have two masters. I’m part time with one and I’m part time with another one.” Jesus said you can’t do that. You can’t fully obey two people at the same time giving you different directions in your life. And this causes bad feelings. He says a servant is going to choose one or the other. If one is telling him one thing and the other is telling him something else, then he’s going to love one, but he’s going to hate the other one. He’s going to side with one and despise the other. So a servant trying to please both is just going to get frustrated and then angry, and then he’s going to be resentful. That’s the illustration. Jesus said the lesson is you cannot serve God and mammon or God and wealth or God and money at the same time.
He didn’t say you can’t have money and serve God at the same time. He said you cannot serve, that is, you cannot serve as you would a master both of these things. Let’s just contrast the two. If God is your master, then you’re going to give. Deuteronomy chapter 15 verse 10 talks about that. Second Corinthians chapter 9 verses 6 and 7 says that God loves a cheerful giver. But if you serve money, then you’re going to keep it. You’re going to be stingy with it. You’re going to close your hand like the Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter 15 verse 10. If God is your master, you’re going to read your Bible. Psalm one, verse two: “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day and night.” But if money’s your master, then you’re going to be checking up and keeping up with your investments and your property and everything you own constantly. It’s going to be on your mind.
If you serve God, you’re going to live one day at a time, and you’re not going to take tomorrow for granted (Matthew 6, verse 33 and 34). But, if you serve money, then you’re going to say to yourself, “I’ve got enough saved up for years to come” and you’re going to make the same mistake that the man made in Luke chapter 12.
If God is your master, you’re going to be content. The Bible says in 1st Timothy 6 verse 7 and 8 that we ought to be content with having food and clothes. But if you serve money, then you’re going to think constantly about getting more and more and more.
If God is your master, you’re going to pray and you’re going to be thankful for everything that you have because you will realize more and more that if it weren’t for God, you wouldn’t have anything anyway. But if money is your master, you’re going to be afraid that you’re going to lose it. You’re going to worry about that and you’re going to be insecure and you’re going to be even more selfish in the end. And the Bible shows that if we’ve got any mixed feelings about this, if we’ve got any doubts in our hearts, then we need to make sure that we make up our minds for God.
In James chapter four, verse four, the Bible says, “You adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” Earlier in this book in James 1, verse 8, the Bible says that “a double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
Back in the Old Testament, in 1 Kings 18, verse 20, Elijah told the Jewish people who were given to idolatry in his time, “How long halt you between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him.” And sadly, at that time, the Bible says the people “answered him not a word.” In other words, at that point, they were not ready to make up their minds.
In Matthew chapter 12 verse 30, Jesus said, “He that is not with me is against me.” In 1 John chapter 2 verse 15 through 17, the Bible says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof, but he that does the will of God abides forever.” You know, Jesus gave a warning about this in Matthew chapter 16 verse 26. He said, “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Now all these words ought to make us do some serious soul searching. They ought to make us look within ourselves and ask some very important questions. Am I more concerned about my things than I am about my soul? Do I think more about what I have and what I want than I do about going to heaven? Am I more interested in, do I get more excited about getting something that I want than I am about being involved in the church and saving lost souls?
Do I read and do I talk about the things of this world more than I read and talk about the Bible itself, the Word of eternal life? We make these choices every single day. The Bible says in Joshua 24, verse 15, that Joshua told the Israelite people, “Choose you this day whom you will serve.” You and I are doing that today. And my prayer is that we’ll take seriously what Jesus has said here and that we will remember his words, “Don’t lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”
Thank you for listening to My God and My Neighbor. Stay connected with our podcast on our website and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Tennessee Bible College, providing Christian education since 1975 in Cookeville, Tennessee, offers undergraduate and graduate programs. Study at your level. Aim higher and get in touch with us today.