Matthew 6:19 - Meaning and Application

Worldly-mindedness is as common and as deadly a sign of hypocrisy as any other. Satan can gain a surer hold on the soul by this sin than by many others, especially when a person keeps up an outward and acceptable form of religion. That is why Christ, after warning us against craving praise from people, next warns us against craving the wealth of this world. We must watch carefully, or we will become like the hypocrites and do what they do.

Their main mistake is that they choose the world as their reward. So we must guard against both hypocrisy and worldliness in the treasure we choose, the goal we pursue, and the master we serve.

First, we must be careful about what treasure we store up. Every person has something that he treats as his treasure, his portion, the thing his heart rests on, the place where he puts everything he can get, and what he depends on for the future. It is that chief good Solomon speaks of so strongly (Ecclesiastes 2:3). Every soul wants something it sees as best, something it trusts and delights in above all else. Christ does not aim to rob us of treasure, but to guide us in choosing it.

He gives a warning against making visible and temporary things our best things, or placing our happiness in them: “Do not lay up treasures for yourselves on earth.” Christ’s disciples had left everything to follow him, and they should keep that same spirit. A treasure is a store of things we consider precious and useful for the future. But we must not lay up our treasures on earth in this sense: we must not count earthly things as the best things, or the most valuable, or the most useful to us. We must not prize them as if they carried true glory, when they do not compare with the greater glory. We must not keep wanting more and more of them, as if we never had enough. We must not trust them for the future, as if they could secure us. And we must not be satisfied with them as all we need or desire. We may be content with little for the journey, but not with this world as our whole portion.

These things must not be our comfort or our “good things” (Luke 6:24; Luke 16:25). We should remember that we are laying up, not for our family in this world, but for ourselves in the world to come. We are, in a sense, choosing for ourselves, and what we lay up is what becomes ours. So it matters very much that we choose well. If we understand what we are, what we were made for, how great our souls are, and how long we will continue, then it is foolish to store up treasure on earth.

There is also a strong reason not to treat anything on earth as our treasure, because it can be lost and ruined. Some things decay from within. A treasure stored in fine clothes can be eaten by moths and spoiled before we even notice. If it is grain or food, rust or rot destroys it, as happened to the rich fool who had full barns (Luke 12:16-17). Even silver and gold can tarnish and corrode, and they become less useful the more they are handled or kept. Worldly riches have decay built into them. They fade on their own and seem to take wings and fly away.

There is also danger from without. Thieves break in and steal. Any house where treasure is stored becomes a target for violence. Nothing on earth can be made perfectly safe from loss. It is foolish to make our treasure something so easy to lose.

Christ’s better counsel is to make the joys and honors of the next world our best things, the things we do not yet see but will last forever: “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” There really are treasures in heaven, just as surely as there are treasures on earth. In fact, the treasures in heaven are the only true treasures, the riches, glory, and pleasures that are at God’s right hand, which holy people fully enjoy when they are made perfectly holy.

It is wise to store our treasure in those treasures. We should make sure of our right to eternal life through Jesus Christ, trust that as our happiness, and look on everything below with holy disregard, since it is not worthy to be compared with that glory. We must believe such happiness is real, and we must settle in our hearts to be satisfied with nothing less. If we make those treasures ours, they are safely stored, and we may trust God to keep them. So let us aim all our plans there, stretch all our desires there, and send ahead our best efforts and affections.

We should not burden ourselves with the riches of this world. They only weigh us down, stain us, and can sink us. Instead, let us store up good security in heaven. The promises of God are like bills of exchange, by which true believers send their treasure ahead to heaven, where it will be paid in the future life. In that way, we make secure what will surely be secured.

This choice also brings great comfort, because treasure in heaven is safe. It will not decay on its own. No moth or rust can destroy it, and no thief can take it by force or fraud. It stands above the changing chances of time. It is an inheritance that cannot decay.

There is one more reason to choose this wisely, and one sign that we have done so (Matthew 6:21): where your treasure is, whether on earth or in heaven, there your heart will be. That is why we must be careful and wise in our choice of treasure. The direction of our minds, and so the whole course of our lives, will follow it, either toward earthly things or toward heavenly things.

The heart always follows the treasure, just as a needle follows a magnet, or a sunflower follows the sun. Wherever our treasure is, there our value and love will be. That is where our desires and efforts will go, and that is what our plans will aim toward. Our cares, fears, hopes, joys, and frequent thoughts all gather there.

The heart is God’s rightful due (Pro 23:26), and if he is to have it, our treasure must be stored with him. Then our souls will be drawn up toward him. This fits well with the warning just before it, not to do religious acts to be seen by people. If we only pray, give, or fast to win human praise, then we have stored our treasure on earth, in the hands of men, and we should not expect anything more from it.

That is foolish, because human praise is weak and easily spoiled. It soon rusts, gets moth-eaten, and loses its shine. A little foolishness can ruin the whole thing, like a dead fly ruins perfume (Ecc 10:1). Gossip and false accusation can steal away that praise, and then we lose the reward of our work. We have run in vain and labored in vain, because our motives were wrong.

Hypocritical service stores nothing in heaven (Isa 58:3). Its gain is gone when the soul is called for (Job 27:8). But if we have prayed, fasted, and given alms with honesty and sincerity, looking to God and his acceptance, then we have stored treasure in heaven. A book of remembrance is written there (Mal 3:16). What is recorded there will also be rewarded there, and we will meet it again with joy beyond death and the grave.

Hypocrites are written in the earth (Jer 17:13), but God’s faithful people have their names written in heaven (Luk 10:20). Acceptance with God is treasure in heaven, and it cannot rot or be stolen. His “Well done” will last forever. If we have stored our treasure with him, then our hearts will be with him too, and where could they be better?

We must also guard against hypocrisy and love of the world in the choice of our goal. This concern is shown by two kinds of eyes, a single eye and an evil eye (Mat 6:22, Mat 6:23). Because the saying is brief, its meaning is somewhat hard to catch, so it can be understood in more than one way. The eye is called the light of the body, because it discovers and directs. Light in the world helps us little if the eye does not guide us well, and it is the light of the eye that makes the heart glad (Pro 15:30).

Some take the eye here to mean the heart. If the heart is single, meaning free, generous, and open-handed, as the word often means (Rom 12:8; Co2 8:2, Co2 9:11, Co2 9:13; Jam 1:5), then it will lead a person toward Christian actions. The whole life will be full of light, full of evidence of true Christianity, that pure religion that God the Father accepts (Jam 1:27). It will be full of good works, the kind of light that shines before others. But if the heart is evil, covetous, hard, envious, grasping, and stingy, as an evil eye often describes (Mat 20:15; Mar 7:22; Pro 23:6, Pro 23:7), then the whole life will be full of darkness and will look unchristian.

The plans of a selfish person are always bad, but a generous person makes generous plans (Isa 32:5-8). If the light within us, the feelings that should lead us toward what is good, is really darkness, then how great that darkness is. If a person does not even have a kind and good disposition, the corruption is very deep. This meaning fits the context well, since we are told to store treasure in heaven by giving to the poor, and to do it cheerfully, not grudgingly (Luk 12:33; Co2 9:7). Still, the same words in the parallel passage do not appear in that setting (Luk 11:34), so the connection here does not settle the meaning by itself.

Others take the eye to mean the understanding, or the practical judgment, meaning conscience. That faculty is to the soul what the eye is to the body, guiding its motions. If this eye is single, if it makes a true and right judgment, and can tell the difference between things, especially in the great matter of where to store treasure, then it will rightly guide the feelings and actions. The whole life will be full of the light of grace and comfort.

But if this eye is evil and corrupt, if it is led, bribed, and shaped by lower desires instead of leading them, then the heart and life will be full of darkness. The whole conduct will be corrupt. People who refuse to understand are said to walk in darkness (Psa 82:5). It is sad when a person’s spirit, which should be the lamp of the Lord, becomes a false light instead. It is worse still when the leaders of the mind lead everything astray, because then those who follow are destroyed (Isa 9:16). An error in practical judgment is deadly. It is what calls evil good and good evil (Isa 5:20). So we must understand things rightly and have our eyes sharpened, as it were, with eye salve.

Others take the eye to mean our aims and intentions. By the eye we set our goal before us, the mark we aim at, the place we are going. We keep that in view and direct our steps toward it. In everything we do in religion, we have something in view. If our eye is single, if we honestly aim at the right end and move toward it, seeking only God’s glory, favor, and honor, then the eye is single. Paul had this spirit when he said, “To me, to live is Christ.” If we are right there, the whole life will be full of light, with actions that are orderly, gracious, pleasing to God, and comforting to us.

But if this eye is evil, if we look, along with God’s glory, at human applause, if we pretend to honor God while trying to honor ourselves, and if we seek our own interests under the cover of seeking Christ’s, then everything is spoiled. The whole life will be crooked and unstable. When the foundation is out of line, the whole building will be confused and full of every evil work.

If the eye is not just dim but full of darkness, then the whole person is in serious error. What we aim at controls what we do, so it matters greatly in religion that our goals are right. We should set our hearts on eternal things, not on things that pass away (2 Corinthians 4:18).

A hypocrite is like a boatman who looks one way but rows another. A true Christian is like a traveler who keeps the end of the journey in view. The hypocrite rises like a kite, but always watches the prey below, ready to swoop down when the chance comes. The true Christian rises like a lark, going higher and higher and forgetting what lies below.

We must also guard against hypocrisy and a worldly spirit in choosing whom we will serve (Matthew 6:24). No one can serve two masters. Serving two masters goes against having a single eye, because a servant will look to the master’s hand (Psalm 123:1-2). Christ exposes the lie people tell themselves when they try to divide their lives between God and the world, with treasure on earth and treasure in heaven, trying to please God and people at the same time.

The hypocrite says, “Why not? It is good to have two strings to one bow.” Such people hope their religion will help their worldly interests, and so profit them in both directions. The pretending mother was willing to split the child, and the Samaritans tried to make a compromise between God and idols. But Christ says this will not work. It is only the false idea that gain is godliness (1 Timothy 6:5).

Christ first gives a general rule, one that was likely a Jewish proverb: no one can serve two masters. Much less can anyone serve two gods, because their commands will sooner or later clash. While two masters stay together, a servant may seem to follow both. But when they divide, it becomes clear where the servant truly belongs. A person cannot love both as he should, obey both fully, or stay loyal to both. If he is faithful to one, he must treat the other as less important.

Christ then applies this to the matter at hand: “You cannot serve God and Mammon.” Mammon is a Syriac word meaning gain. So whatever we count as gain in this world is mammon, whether it is money, comfort, pleasure, praise, or status (Philippians 3:7). For some, their stomach is their mammon, and they serve it (Philippians 3:19). For others, ease, sleep, sports, and amusements are their mammon (Proverbs 6:9). For others, it is wealth (James 4:13), or honors and promotion. For the Pharisees, it was the praise of people. In short, self, especially selfish and worldly self, is the mammon that cannot be served together with God.

Jesus does not say we must not, or should not, serve both. He says we cannot. We cannot love both (1 John 2:15; James 4:4). We cannot cling to both in trust, obedience, attention, and dependence, because they are set against each other. God says, “My son, give me your heart.” Mammon says, “No, give it to me.” God says, “Be content with what you have.” Mammon says, “Grab as much as you can.” God says, “Do not cheat or lie. Be honest and fair in all you do.” Mammon says, “Cheat even your own father if it will help you.” God says, “Be generous.” Mammon says, “Keep everything for yourself, because giving ruins us.” God says, “Do not worry about anything.” Mammon says, “Worry about everything.” God says, “Keep the Sabbath day holy.” Mammon says, “Use that day for the world too.” These commands cannot be followed together, because God and Mammon pull in opposite directions. So let us not stand halfway between God and Baal, but choose today whom we will serve, and hold to that choice.