Matthew 6:19-24

Jesus uses three metaphors to call us away from an ungodly attachment to material wealth—the metaphor of treasure (vv19-21), eye sight (vv22-23), and serving a master (v24). In each case, Jesus is not trying to be a kill-joy to keep us from enjoying life. Quite the opposite—these admonitions come from a heart of love that wants to protect us from insecurity, blindness, and slavery. These are what result from an inordinate love of material wealth. The solution to greed (as we talked about last week) is not to strive to love material wealth less. The solution is, as Jesus says, to strive to love eternal things even more. To store up treasures in heaven is to set our thoughts and our hearts on all the eternal riches that are ours in Jesus Christ and to long for the day of his return with ever-increasing longing. As we do that, then our love for material wealth will automatically dwindle… “for where our treasure is, there our heart will be also.”