“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. — Matthew 6:19-24
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Read the passage
- Read the devotional
- Spend time in prayer
- Leave a comment
Jesus wants us to get a better perspective on life. Way too often, we think that life is about the gathering of money or the collection of items, but Jesus looks us square in the eye and says, “That’s wrong.” In fact, he gives four reasons why the focus on material wealth or even having a heart for material gain will destroy us.
- Material wealth won’t last.
- Your heart follows your treasure.
- Generosity fills your life with light.
- Either God or money will rule your life.
Each of these four statements gets progressively more challenging and enlightening, and even though the final statement is the strongest and most profound, the two in the middle deserve more attention than they are usually given. Without taking a great deal of time on them today, I just want us to reflect on them a little more deeply in the form of a question.
I need to explain #3 a little. Jesus’ actual words are about your eye being full of light or full of darkness and what that means for your whole body. It seems way out of context unless you understand that the Greek word Jesus uses for “good” in the line “If your eyes are good” is a word that has a double meaning. It can also mean “generous.” Likewise, the word used for “bad” can also mean “selfish.” In other words, Jesus’ point is that if you use your eyes to see how you can give, your life will be filled with light, but if you use your eyes to see what you can gain, your life will be increasingly dark. So here’s the question. Do your eyes prompt a desire to give or a desire to get?
Secondly, back to #2, the teaching is that if you put your treasure somewhere, your heart will follow. Therefore, if you want your heart to be with another person, you will invest your wealth in that person (give gifts, etc.). So the question for this is a two part one: Where do you want your heart to be? Where are you putting your treasure?
Of course, I won’t be shy about this. One way to have your heart be with God is to invest financially in a church that is focused on Him above all else. By giving your finances to God through a church (particularly through the commitment to regular, percentage-based giving), you can quickly see your heart turn more often to the things of God. But don’t stop there. It’s too easy to put 10% of the paycheck in a basket and then spend the other 90% willy nilly. Why not also consider how to use the 90% to invest in the work God is doing in a friend’s life? Why not use some finances to invite another family over for dinner just to get to know them and perhaps help them take a step closer to Jesus? Of course, I want people to tithe, because I know the church will benefit, but more than that, I want people to develop eyes of giving and use of treasure so their heart is drawn closer to God every day.
BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY: Does my use of money draw me closer to God?
