We’re beginning a study of the next section of the Sermon on the Mount, looking at verses 19 to 24. These are wonderful, eye-opening, thrilling, challenging, and convicting verses. It’s very important for all of us because it teaches us how to view wealth and money. May the Holy Spirit use this to bring a great sense of deliverance in our midst and transform our hearts.
The Best Financial Advice
Our Lord talks about money here. Money is a big part of what life is all about. We work hard for money, we put in a lot of effort for money, and we think a lot about money (and the things money can buy). If anyone says they don’t care about money, don’t believe them. Everyone cares about it. That’s why Jesus talked about it in the Sermon on the Mount. He knew His disciples would be thinking about it and would have to make critical decisions about how to make it, spend it, and invest it.
Today, financial advisors are in high demand. Companies like ICICI Prudential and Birla Sun Life have lakhs of advisors who tell people how to invest and get good returns. However, in Matthew 6:19-21, our financial advisor is the Lord Jesus Christ. Financial advice is crucial because it requires the ability to accurately predict the future. If you knew the future, you could invest in the right assets and get great returns. Some advisors will scare you by saying, “Sir, if you don’t invest this, your 1 lakh will be worthless.” But their predictions are just guesses with no knowledge of the future. The one who knows the future and the past gives the best financial advice to His people, so they can get the maximum returns on their investment. He explains in simple terms how His followers should handle their money.
I know I rarely speak about money, but we have to in this passage. Interestingly, in the Book of Matthew, the Lord talks about money 109 times; in Mark, 57 times; in Luke, 94 times; and in John, 88 times. The Lord talks about money five times more than He talks about any other subject in the Bible. I guess He figured we’re a little hard of hearing when it comes to that topic, knowing that this is our main problem.
If we ask, “Why is my life like this?” we may have many reasons. But the true reason is because of our heart. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” Guard it very carefully—what it desires and thinks—because from it flows how you live. The question that arises from this text is a very simple one: Where is your heart? Verse 21 says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
We’re not talking about the physical heart or someone you love. We are talking about the investment of your life, which is the basis of your motives, attitudes, and thought patterns. What is the concentration and preoccupation of your life? What do you spend most of your time thinking, planning, striving, earning, and saving? What is the main object you spend your energy on? Maybe a good financial status, land, a house, a car, clothes, jewelry, a bank account, or a future plan. It’s about a thing. We are creatures captivated by things, and that’s part of the curse of the society we live in.
All our efforts and concentration go toward things, one after another. We measure a man by his possessions—the house he lives in, the car he drives, the clothes he wears—things, things, things. Until one day when we die, there is only one thing they will put in a box: our body. There are no pockets in a burial shroud. We cannot take a single thing with us. Not only in death, but even in this life, things don’t give us the joy or satisfaction we expect. The story of Solomon is a good example; he kept amassing fortunes until he was the wealthiest man in the world, and when it was all said and done, he said, “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.” This meant emptiness, uselessness, and meaninglessness.
Even Bill Gates, one of the richest people in the world, said, “Money has no utility to me beyond a certain point. Its utility is entirely in building an organization and getting resources out to the poorest in the world.” Do you know who is the richest man in India? Mukesh Ambani, with a net worth of over 90 billion dollars. I personally think money can do very little for our happiness; this is my experience across all things. Even so, this deadly plague reigns everywhere throughout the world. Men have gone mad with an insatiable desire for gain. But in these great verses, for His children living in this world of vanity, God gives us a place in heaven to lay up a treasure and kindly invites us to enjoy riches that never perish.
A Deeper Look at Hypocrisy
In this whole sermon, Jesus is exposing the hypocritical religion of the Pharisees. The subtlety of false religion is that you can call upon the name of God, be in a church, and do a lot of things, thinking you are very godly, but have no true relationship with God and His kingdom. This is what the Sermon on the Mount shows.
The central point of the entire sermon, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, is to show that there are people who appear religious on the outside and claim to worship God, but their faith and religion are completely false and far from God’s standard. Our Lord points this out step-by-step throughout the sermon by contrasting it with true religion. The key to the whole sermon is in Matthew 5:20, where the Lord says, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” So, the whole sermon contrasts true and false religion, using the Pharisees as a contrast.
For example, in chapter 5, He said, “To be in My kingdom, you must have the right view of yourself, the world, the Word of God, the Law, and spiritual practices.” The Pharisees had a carnal, self-centered view confined to temporal things. They were proud, egocentric, and self-sufficient. But the born-again and repentant child of the King will be broken in spirit, mourning over sin, meek, and hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
You must have the right view of the world. The world is corrupt and in darkness. Only then can you have an impact on it. You must be different, like salt and light. The Pharisees loved the world and its things and were part of its corruption and darkness. But you must be salt that retards corruption and light that dispels darkness. False Christians are those who lack the eight traits and are part of the world.
You must also have the right view of the Word of God. The Pharisees had a low regard for it and developed their own system based on tradition and experience. But you must know that the Word of God is what you must be committed to; you must read and learn it day and night. Jesus Himself came not to break but to fulfill the Law. He lifts the Word above heaven and earth, saying that not one jot or tittle shall pass from the Law until it is all fulfilled. Has God opened your eyes to see your spiritual poverty, to see how corrupt the world is, and to see the glory and certainty of God? That is the view a child of the kingdom must have, or you are deceiving yourself with a false religion.
Then, in verses 21-48 of chapter 5, you must have the right view of the Law and sin. The Pharisees were only concerned with the externals. They would go to church and not be like “him or her.” They were only concerned with not killing or committing adultery or with loving their neighbor. He shows that obeying the Law is not just about what you do or don’t do, but also what you think or don’t think. A true Christian, a child of God’s kingdom, will realize that anger in your heart is “heart murder” and shows that God’s grace is not reigning in your heart. “Heart adultery” is lusting at everything you see and shows how much you need God’s grace. If God’s grace reigns, the King reigns, you will not sin in your heart. Do you see the great need and how spiritually poor you are? Only when you see the Law and sin from that perspective can you grow in this kingdom and yearn for this King to always reign in your heart. And so, you must have the right view of sin and the Law. That is how you will be humble and poor in spirit.
Then in chapter 6, He says you must have the right view of religious issues—spiritual practices. For the Pharisees, their fasting, praying, and giving were all hypocritical, done to be seen by others. You must fast, give, and pray, but with a right motive: with the single motive that your Father sees you in secret and will reward you. After pointing all that out, He touches on an important point: how we see money. This could be a great test of whether you are a child of the kingdom. In chapter 6:19-24 and following, He says you must also have the right view toward wealth and luxury. And watch this, then from 25 to 34, you must have the right view of necessities. So He’s talking about things here: first luxuries, and then necessities.
First, it is the wealth or property we have, and then it is just the necessities: to eat, to sleep, to have a place to stay, and some clothing to wear. In both cases, the Pharisees had missed it. They had the wrong perspective on wealth and the wrong perspective on necessities. Your view of wealth and luxury must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees if you are to enter My kingdom. They had the wrong perspective. In verse 19, they are doing exactly what it says not to do, laying up for themselves treasures on earth. They are consumed with greed and covetousness.
So our text, from verses 19 to 24, deals with how we view our luxuries and wealth, more than our necessities. It’s not about whether we have a lot of wealth or not; our attitude toward it is what is important. Whether we have it or not, our inner attitude should be proper. Some may not have anything but yearn very deeply for luxury and are always unhappy and grumbling. Some may have it but use it for God’s glory instead of for themselves. Some may have it but use it for their own selfish reasons. So this is a lesson for everyone. In many cases, like a good Father, if we don’t develop the right attitude and aren’t good stewards of all that God gives, the Lord may not even bless us with wealth. So it’s very important to learn this lesson: how to view our wealth.
Our text is talking about how we handle our luxuries, our possessions beyond eating, drinking, sleeping, and clothing. If we’re in His kingdom, we have to face what He says here. This is a very convicting message. It’s very provocative and heart-searching. But this isn’t my message; this is the Lord’s Word to us, and God always gives us a good word to free us up to know His great blessing, right? So don’t cheat yourself by closing your ears. If the Lord points out your sin, repent and change, so God may richly bless you.
False Religion and Greed
There is a marvelous, deep connection and order in the flow of this sermon. The first 18 verses of chapter 6 showed the hypocrisy of the Pharisees’ religion. I’ll tell you something, as surely as night follows day, wherever you have hypocritical religion—where even sacred things like giving, praying, and fasting are done to be seen by others—you will have greed and covetousness. It follows right after the 18 verses on the hypocritical religion of the Pharisees that the Lord would talk about their view of wealth and money, because inevitably, where you have false religion—with no proper view of self, the world, God’s Word, the Law, sin, and no proper relationship with the Father who sees in secret—you have greed. Where you find a false teacher, you get behind the scenes and you’ll invariably find that he is in it for the money.
What worldly-mindedness is greater than that which prostitutes even religious acts to worldly advantage and is laying up the treasure of men’s good opinion on earth even while pretending to pray to God? The history of every age has illustrated the close connection between a false religious profession and the love of money.
The order of truth followed by Christ in Matthew 6 is very striking and blessed. In the first eighteen verses, we are conducted into the Sanctuary of God’s presence, instructed to have our hearts occupied with Him who sees in secret. In verse 19 and onward, we come out to face the responsibilities, temptations, and trials of the world and money. This order is of vital importance, for it is only as we maintain communion with God in the secret place that we are equipped and enabled for the trials of the journey toward the heavenly Canaan.
That’s why the Bible says we are not to be those who discharge our ministry for the sake of filthy lucre, because that is inevitable. In fact, the Bible usually characterizes hypocritical religion in two ways: it is greedy for money and it is immoral in its lusts. Those two things follow in the course of false religions and false religious leaders.
We find in the Old Testament that all through Israel’s history, when their religion was hypocritical, there was greed for money. Greed for money is a sign of a hypocritical religion. And the Pharisees were doing the same thing. They were using their religious position to fill their pockets. The system was a system that filled their greed. And let me tell you, there’s nothing more foul-smelling to the nostrils of God than that. I dare say there are people in our own country who are doing exactly the same thing. Wherever you have religious hypocrisy, you inevitably have the problem of greed.
The Pharisees were living this way. To them, to be rich was to be holy. To be rich was to say, “Hey, look how much I’ve got. God is blessing me. I’m rich because God is saying, ‘You’re so righteous that I’m giving it all to you.’” That’s why when the Lord said, “It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get into the kingdom,” it was absolutely and utterly shocking. To them, riches were a stamp of divine approval on your life. You had it because God gave it to you because you were so righteous. They equated money with the blessing of God. That was their whole system.
Three Choices
Now, to know how to handle our luxuries, we have three alternatives in this text. There are two treasuries (verses 19-21), two visions (verses 22-23), and two masters (verse 24). In each of these three alternatives, you have the same principle hit from a different angle, and then you have some subordinate reasons why that principle is to be obeyed. The principle is given, then the reasons are given in each case.
And so we have to make a choice—a very important choice. Our future and eternity depend on it. We make a choice, first of all, in verses 19 and 20, whether we lay up our treasure on earth or in heaven. We make a choice, secondly, in verses 22 and 23, of whether we are going to exist in light or whether we’re going to exist in darkness. We make another choice in verse 24, whether our master will be God or our master will be money, because it can’t be both. So the Lord gives us three choices, which really come together to be one choice: to choose properly how we handle our wealth.
This is a tough message, people, and it’s tough on me because I am also a creature of my time. As John Stott has said, “Worldly ambition has a strong fascination for us, and the spell of materialism is very hard to break.” And he’s right. It’s difficult to deal with this, so I want us to be very conscientious as we let the Spirit of God speak to our hearts about this matter.
Let’s look at the first choice, verses 19 to 21: Two Treasuries. If you examine these verses, you find they have a very simple and easy-to-understand structure:
- Verse 19 gives us the negative command.
- Verse 20 gives us the positive command.
- Verse 21 gives us the reason.
I’m just going to read the first part of verse 19 and the first part of verse 20, and we’re just going to touch the principle this morning and get into the reasons for it in detail next time.
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth—” (verse 19) “—But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” (verse 20)
That is a very simple statement. You have two treasuries you can choose. You have a treasury on earth. You have a treasury in heaven. And Jesus said, “Put it in heaven, not on earth.” What do you do with your wealth? Don’t invest it here. Invest it there. “For where your treasure is, there your heart is going to be, also.”
This introduces us to the whole concept of our money. You know, the apostle Paul said to Timothy, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” It isn’t money that’s the root of all evil, it’s the love of it. You can have none of it and love it like mad. You just can’t get a hold of it. It’s the love of money that corrupts.
We have seen in the Old Testament how Achan, because of the love of money, was destroyed with his whole family instead of entering a glorious future in Canaan. You know Ananias and Sapphira who decided to keep some of the money they promised to the Lord, and God struck them dead. And then there was Judas, who for a pittance sold the Son of God and went out and hanged himself. And then there was Demas, of whom Paul said, “He has forsaken me because he loved the system.” You could go through many other illustrations of people who, because of the love of money, were devastated and destroyed. And so we all need to first learn about this because it is self-destructive if we don’t, as well as destroying everyone around us. So we have to understand what He’s saying.
Let’s go to verse 19, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth.” What does that mean? It’s a play on words that means “do not treasure up treasures.” Don’t stockpile, to put it simply. The idea of the word “treasure” is to place something someplace, to stick it somewhere, to stash it somewhere. To gather, gather, gather, and keep.
So what the Lord is talking about here is not what we use to live every day but that which we just pile up. It’s not our necessities. It’s not what we use to meet the needs of our own life, our family, the poor, or the Lord, or for setting aside money for the future, or for making wise investments so we may be better stewards of God’s money in days to come. It is not that which is active; it is that which is stockpiled just to amass for our own selves. That’s what He’s talking about. He’s talking about luxury.
I. The Followers of Jesus Are Not to Store Up Treasures on Earth
Note carefully that this is a negative command. Jesus is here forbidding something to His followers. In the realm of money, there is something they are not to do. They are not to “lay up treasures on the earth.” That is clear enough. But what exactly do those words imply? Let us understand what he doesn’t forbid here. Does He forbid a bank account, savings account, life insurance policy, or a wise investment? Does He say we shouldn’t possess anything? “Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth.”
Some false teachers misuse and abuse this text. They say, “Oh, that means you shouldn’t possess anything. Don’t have any earthly wealth, no house, no jewelry, sell everything. Give it to me, and I will use it for God’s kingdom.” They bend God’s clear Word, which uses such simple words. They say, “You should sell it all and walk the street, get a brown bag, and go as a missionary.” Is that what He’s saying? They say, “Ah, the rich young ruler, Jesus said to him, ‘Sell all you have and give to the poor.’” But have you ever noticed that that’s the only person He ever said that to? Never to His disciples, Lazarus, or Nicodemus. He also said, “You won’t forsake anything just to become a disciple of mine.”
In the Old Testament, we have seen that Achan, due to his love of money, was destroyed along with his whole family, instead of entering the glorious future of Canaan. You know about Ananias and Sapphira, who decided to keep some of the money they had promised to the Lord, and God struck them dead. And then there was Judas, who for a pittance sold the Son of God and went out and hanged himself, and his body burst open, with his bowels gushing forth as he crashed to the rocks below. And then there was Demas, of whom Paul said, “He has forsaken me because he loved the system.” And you could go through many other examples of those people who, because of the love of money, were devastated and destroyed in some way or another. So, we all need to first learn about this because if we do not, it is self-destructive and will destroy everyone around us. So, we have to understand what he is saying.
Let’s go to verse 19, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth.” What does that mean? It is a play on words. It means “do not treasure up treasures.” Do not stockpile, if you want it in a simple sense. The idea of the word “treasure” is to place something somewhere, to stick it somewhere, to stash it somewhere. To gather, gather, gather and keep.
And so, what the Lord is talking about here is not what we use to live every day, but that which we just pile up. It is not our necessities. It is not what we use to meet the needs of our own life, our family, the poor, or the Lord, for setting aside money for the future, or for making wise investments so that we may be better stewards of God’s money in days to come. It is not that which is active, it is that which is stockpiled just to amass for our own selves. That is what he is talking about. He is talking about luxury.
I. The Followers of Jesus Are Not to Store Up Treasures on Earth
Note carefully that this is a negative command. Jesus is here forbidding something to his followers. In the realm of money, there is something they are not to do. They are not to “lay up treasures on the earth.” That is clear enough. But what exactly do those words imply? Let us understand what he does not forbid here. Does he forbid a bank account, savings account, life insurance policy, or a wise investment? Does he say we should not possess anything? “Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth.”
Some people, especially false teachers, wrongly use and abuse this text. They say, “Oh. That means you shouldn’t possess anything. Don’t have any earthly wealth, no house, no jewelry, sell everything. Give it to me. I will use it for God’s kingdom.” They are trying to bend God’s simple and clear words. They might say, “What you should do is sell it all and walk the street, get a brown bag, and go as a missionary.” Is that what he is saying?
They might say, “Ah, the rich man, the rich young ruler. Jesus said to him, ‘Sell all you have and give to the poor.'” Have you ever noticed that he only said that to one person? He never said that to his disciples, Lazarus, or Nicodemus. He also said, “You will not forsake anything but to become a disciple of mine.”
Can we give a teaching like that? We should never give a teaching based on just one verse. As I told you before, you must always compare a verse with other parts of the Bible and then understand what it says. He is not forbidding material possessions in and of themselves. He is not forbidding the private ownership of property. The Lord is not saying we should not possess anything. The law always recognizes the right of ownership of property. In Exodus 20:15, it says, “Thou shalt not steal.” And the very statement of God in the Ten Commandments, “Thou shalt not steal,” assumes that something can be mine that you cannot have. Many principles in the Law accept the right to own property. We have a right to our possessions. You not only have no right to steal what is mine, but you do not even have a right to want what is mine because Exodus 20:17 says, “Thou shalt not covet.” So the Lord recognizes the right of ownership of goods and the right of personal property.
Another illustration is in Acts 5. Ananias and Sapphira had a piece of property, so they said, “Hey, let’s sell the property, and we’ll give all the money to the Lord.” They decided in their heart and made a big announcement about it. “We’re going to sell our property and give all the money to the Lord.” The Bible did not tell them to do that. God did not tell them to do that. They said they wanted to do that voluntarily. They sold the property and looked at all that money and said, “Oh. We said we were going to give all of that to the Lord. Boy, let’s keep a little back.” And the Lord struck them dead in front of the whole church. But before he did, he gave them a message through Peter. “Ananias,” in Acts 5:3, “why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land?” Then Peter said, “While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own power?” In other words, it was theirs. You had power over it. You had control over it. You did not have to sell it. You did not have to promise it. The issue is that you decided in your heart you would give it to God, you vowed to God and announced it, and then lied to God. But the point I want to make is that it was theirs. But once they had given it as a promise, they needed to follow through. God always takes our vows seriously, as we saw in Jephthah’s case.
So it does not forbid property ownership. Deuteronomy 8:18 says, “For it is God who gives you the power to get wealth.” He gives so that you honor him. In fact, in 1 Timothy 6:17, it says, “God gives us richly all things to enjoy.” Isn’t that great? And it is a section about money. And he has given it to us to enjoy. We do not have to live a monastic life, sell everything, and live a life of begging. God is not withholding from us, and he is a God of great generosity. In fact, I think if you study the history of the world, you will find that the nations that have been the most godly have known the greatest prosperity. This is generally true even in the Christian life. God is a God of generosity. So he gives us wealth; he does not forbid us to own things. In the Old Testament, many saints owned great property, such as Abraham, Isaac, and Job.
He is not forbidding saving money for future needs. He is not forbidding investing for a greater return, through fixed deposits, land, or business. Do you know that business, for example, and wise banking principles are encouraged by our Lord in his parables in Matthew 25 (the talents) and Luke 19? And you know if you study the Book of Proverbs again and again, the Bible encourages us to be careful about how we handle our funds so that we make wise investments? In Proverbs 6, it says to go to the ant and see how the ant works. She provides food in the summer and gathers food during the harvest. An ant is smart enough to plan for the future. An ant knows how to save. Wise savings are very important.
In Proverbs 14:23, you read this, “In all labor there is profit: but the talk of the lips tends only to poverty.” In other words, if you want to be rich, work; if you want to be poor, talk. In Proverbs 28:19, “He that tills his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that follows after empty persons shall have poverty enough.” In other words, you are better off working your ground than chasing wild schemes. Be wise. You have a right to possess and to add to your possessions and to enrich those possessions. God has given us that. And so, wise business practices are indicated throughout Scripture. In Proverbs 24:3, it says, “Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established: And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.” In other words, a wise person knows how to build a house and fill it with pleasant and precious treasures. God is not against that. God has given us graciously these wonderful things to enjoy.
So, what we see, then, is that passages in Scripture tell us that laying up treasure in heaven or laying up treasure on earth is not an issue that says we are not to possess anything, we are not to enjoy anything, or we are not to accept from God’s good hand those abundant things he has given us. He is not forbidding saving money for the future. The New Testament says the same thing. In Romans 12:11, it says, “Be not slothful in business.” In 1 Timothy 5, it says that we are to plan and prepare to take care of our own and to provide for our household, or we are worse than an infidel.
The True Meaning of “Lay Not Up for Yourselves Treasures on Earth”
Now, what is he saying, then? What is he forbidding here? “Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth.” What does that mean? He is not talking about what we have. He is talking about our attitude toward what we have. What do we do with what we have? It is right to seek needed things. It is right to provide for my family. It is right to plan for the future. It is right to make wise investments. It is right to help the poor. It is right to have enough to carry on my business.
The key lies in the little phrase “for yourselves.” Jesus is forbidding the selfish, self-centered, self-indulgent, self-satisfying, self-prideful accumulation of wealth as the major end of life. That is, we are not to live as if self-consumption was the goal of life. It is wrong to be greedy. It is wrong to be covetous. And we come right back to the motive again. If I am doing this to use it for the glory of God in the lives of those around me and in his kingdom, then I have a right to all of it. But if I am gaining it to stockpile it, to hoard it, to keep it, and to amass it, to indulge myself in it, that is sin. And you are right back to dealing with that attitude again.
I work hard, I earn, and I save, not to show off or for my own pride, but for God’s kingdom. I need to have resources when there is a need for God’s kingdom and when there is a need for the poor. John Wesley was an extremely wealthy man. We think of John Wesley as a great man of God, a great man of prayer, and a man devoted to spending hours every morning studying the Greek text, and we think of him as a man of some low means. John Wesley was an extremely wealthy man. He gained his wealth from the hymns he wrote and the books he penned. And at one period of time in his life, he gave away well over 50,000 pounds sterling to God’s kingdom and for souls, which was a fortune in his time. He was a wealthy man, and he gave this fortune away. And when John Wesley died, his estate was worth 28 pounds. I will promise you one thing, he did not lay it up on earth. When it came in, it went right back out in the lives of people. It went right back out invested in the kingdom of God. You see, the issue of the Greek word here is that we should not pile up what we do not need and do not plan to use.
I might add that some people do this under the guise that they are protecting themselves against some coming doom. We are taught to tithe and give to God and trust. We have not seen parents who have trusted and lived a satisfied life. From my Hindi background, all they taught me was, “What if something happens in the future? Who will help you? Where can you go and ask?” So they just taught to save, save, save. And then they died without enjoying anything. That’s a problem because you are not living by faith. Do you not believe God will take care of you in the future? We should not be people enjoying luxury and saving for an unknown future. We should be trusting God. He will take care of me; my needs are small anyway. I live a simple life and invest in his kingdom.
It is a problem if God’s people live in luxury and worry about future needs, not investing in God’s kingdom. It is a problem when we are adding to our bank balance and have no care for that, and the work of God that goes on on a shoestring, struggling and stretching for everything. It is not that we are giving all we can give, is it? It is just that we are possessive. That is the problem. We just pile it up.
I know some people are very rich and make good investments and earn a lot of money, but they give it for the kingdom, like for the printing of good books and other gospel works. One pastor was very wealthy. When he was younger, he made some investments that were very good. And then one day, after 30 years as a pastor of the church, he presented a check to the church as a gift. The check was for the amount of every penny they had ever paid him in 30 years, plus interest. Somebody asked one of the people on the church staff, “Does he get a salary?” And they said, “Well, kind of. But he gives more than he gets, every year.”
Now, you see, it is not an issue of whether you have; it is an issue of what you do with what you have. Is it for you or for the kingdom of God and his purposes? Colossians 3:5 says, “Covetousness is idolatry.” And that is what our Lord has in mind. Money becomes your god.
Some people are obsessed with money, the stock market, or business. The things that we possess can become the idols of our lives. And the Lord is saying, “Do not pile up stuff.” The selfish accumulation of goods, extravagant luxury, and an inordinate desire to stock up can cause hard-heartedness toward the cause of God.
One pastor shares his experience. One man in his church came to him one day and said, “Pastor, I have a spiritual problem.” The pastor said, “What is it?” He said, “I have 500 shares of stock in an oil company, and it’s ruining my spiritual life.” He says, “I keep looking at that stuff. It’s like idolatry to me.” And he says, “I’m having trouble with my spiritual life, and so I’m here to give it to you.” The pastor said, “Hey, I don’t want your spiritual problems. I have my own.” The man insisted. He said, “No. I think it’ll be a test of your spirituality. I’ll watch how you handle it.” So he gave the pastor 500 shares of stock in this company.
Well, you know what that did to the pastor? It messed up his mind. He would call and worry about that stock, and he would watch it go up and go down. And he finally said to himself, “You know, this is messing me up about as badly as it did him.” And so he sold it for 50 cents a share, $250.00. That was it. But, you know, he had not even thought about that since then until the other day when somebody said, “Hey, do you still have your stock? It’s worth $10.00 a share.” And then he thought about it again. But, he says, “I’ll tell you one thing. I am glad I had not had the four years in between to worry about that stuff.”
Listen. Look at the words in verse 19 again. “Lay not up…” and here’s the key. Underline it in your Bible: “for yourselves.” Isn’t that the key? If I want to invest, pursue a successful business, be aggressive and honest in what I do, and do the best I can for others, my responsibilities, and for God, my children, my parents, and the poor, and the depressed, and the oppressed, that is one thing. But when I start piling it up for myself in extravagant luxury and become materialistic, then I have violated this principle.
A rich man died. And one of his acquaintances said to another, “Hey, I heard that so-and-so died.” He said, “That’s right.” He said, “What did he leave?” To which the friend replied, “All of it. All of it.” What good does that do? “Lord,” said the Old Testament saint, “Give me enough so I don’t starve and doubt your faithfulness, but don’t give me too much or I’ll forget you.” You see?
Examine your heart, beloved, because what Jesus is saying here is this: “People in My kingdom don’t amass fortunes for themselves. They don’t stockpile things for themselves.” Are you in contrast to the Pharisees, or do you have a problem with it? You need to examine a very basic thing in your life.
If you are obsessed with money, you may not even be a Christian because people in Christ’s kingdom are laying up treasure in heaven. They are investing in eternity. If you asked me whether I would rather spend money on a luxury house/car or whether I would rather put it into the life of a missionary, it is a simple choice for me. It is simple. Because I would rather see the eternal dividend, wouldn’t you?
And so that choice is easy for me. And I have to make that choice day by day. And I examine my life. If I do not see that desire in my life to invest in eternity and in God’s causes and to be unselfish about it—if I do not see that, if I do not see myself giving more and more to God’s work, and freely dispensing it with joy in my heart—then I should question the legitimacy of my claim to be a believer, because it is a characteristic of a believer that his treasure is in heaven.
Examine your heart. Are you really a Christian? That might be a good indicator. You need to examine your heart. What is your attitude toward luxury, wealth, and money? God help us to put these things into practice.
The love of accumulation is a principle in our nature; no person is free from its fascination. The only true investment for an immortal being must be in eternity. Everything done for God’s grace and glory is like something planted out of this world into the soil of another state. It is a deposit that will appear again.
This negative command forbids:
- Rejecting extravagant living. We are to reject the ostentatious lifestyle of the rich and famous who parade their wealth in public. I recognize that extravagance for me might be common for you. I also realize that a lower-middle-class lifestyle in Chicago might seem upper-class in some sections of Haiti. Although the standards for extravagance vary from culture, the principle still stands. We are to reject extravagant living, however it might be measured in a given culture.
- Ignoring the needy. Instead, we are to seek ways to share our wealth with the less fortunate. Remember, some of the harshest condemnations in the Bible are reserved for those who close their eyes to those in need.
- Living as if this world is the only one. Rather, we are to live always in light of the fact that there is another world coming, a world in which we will live forever, a world where our status will be largely determined by the way we treat others in this world.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 