Matthew 6
19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. We will always put our money where our heart is.
Where we have most of our focus and commitment is where we shall put most of our money. You can know where your heart and trust is by where your money is.
22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
Jesus is speaking of our focus and pursuit. If our singular focus is the Jesus and His Kingdom then all that we will be filled with is the light and glory of God.
This is one of the most important keys to success and victory in life. Singleness of purpose. Paul said this in Philippians3:13 “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.”
This is what makes a laser beam very potent. The fact that all of the light is concentrated on one single point. Likewise, our strength comes from being singular in vision and focus upon Jesus and His Kingdom.
Your sole purpose and focus in life must be God and God only. Your eye must be single focused on God solely. There should be no other.
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 that darkness!
The alternative to a single eye is an evil eye. An evil eye in this passage is not referring to someone interested in doing bad things. It is referring to someone whose focus is not Jesus and His Kingdom.
Anything that is outside of Jesus and His purpose and Kingdom is evil as far as God is concerned. And yet this is where all of us naturally belong. Our focus is on ourselves. We are motivated every single day by our survival and how to achieve our goals and build our businesses, careers, ministries and so forth. This is how we were raised and this is how we lived every single day of our life.
“Ephesians 2: 1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”
We are born in satan’s kingdom of darkness and live all of our lives being led by this selfish desire that satan works in us.
24 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. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
You can’t serve God and mammon. You can’t seek God and mammon. You can only serve one of them. You are always trusting one or the other. You are always pursuing and serving God or mammon in everything you do at all times. It is impossible to serve God and money. It is impossible to pursue God and pursue money at the same time. It is impossible to pursue money and pursue God at the same time.
From the time you wake up to the time you sleep. Your motivation is always God and His purpose or mammon. There’s no exception to this. It is why we do whatever we do. It is why we go to school, go to work, start a business, marry someone, etc.
This verse doesn’t say that you can’t have God and riches. It is saying you can’t serve both of them. You can only serve one of them. God doesn’t forbid us from having money. He warns us against serving money instead of serving God.You can have money and love and serve God.
The problem is not having money, it is serving money. When you improperly relate to finances, riches and wealth you begin to serve and worship them instead of God. Instead of having riches, the riches now have you.
“Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry” Col3:5
When you covet you are committing idolatry. You are worshiping another god. A false god. This god is mammon. Material possession. Self-aggrandizement.
Money has no power of itself. It’s not evil or good. It’s not moral or immoral. It’s amoral. It’s just paper or coin or gold etc. How we relate to the money determines what power controls our lives.
Mammon was a Syrian god and it was the god of wealth and riches. The Amorites worshipped mammon. When Jesus spoke about mammon He wasn’t just talking about money. These people knew it was more than money. He was talking about the false god and the spirit behind him.
The spirit of lust and greed and cupidity. If you pursue riches you will never get enough. This spirit of greed and cupidity will take over and drive you to utter destruction pursuing gain and riches. Mammon is the false god of riches and avarice.
This is the god worshipped in our world today. Our culture is all about material wealth, possession and greed. It is about getting more and more and pursuing wealth at the expense of everything else. Mammon controls our culture today, tells us what to do and what not to do. Mammon runs the world today.
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