SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/20/2020 3:51 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “A Single Treasure”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
6:19-21
Message of the verses: “19 "Don’t
pile up treasures on earth, where moth and rust can spoil them and thieves can
break in and steal. 20 But keep your treasure in Heaven where there is neither
moth nor rust to spoil it and nobody can break in and steal. 21 For wherever
your treasure is, your heart will be there too!”
One
of the reasons that I like to look at John MacArthur’s commentaries is because
he explains the Greek in many of the verses that I look at. He writes ‘Lay up’ (thesaurizo) and ‘treasures’ (thesaurus)
come from the same basic Greek term, which is also the source of our English thesaurus, a treasury of words. A literal translation of this phrase would
therefore be, ‘do not treasure
up treasures for yourself.’
“The
Greek also carries the connotation of stacking or laying out horizontally, as
one stacks coins. In the context of this
passage the idea is that of stockpiling or hoarding, and therefore pictures wealth
that is not being used. The money or
other wealth is simply stored for safekeeping; it is kept for the keeping’s
sake to make a show of wealth or to create an environment of lazy
overindulgence (cf. Luke 12:16-21).” “16 And He told them a parable, saying,
"The land of a rich man was very productive. 17 “And he began reasoning to
himself, saying, ’What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ 18
“Then he said, ’This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger
ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 ’And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you
have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink
and be merry."’ 20 “But God said to him, ’You fool! This very
night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have
prepared?’ 21 “So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not
rich toward God.’” We have said before
that there is no u-haul that goes behind a hearses.
As
we look at this passage and many others in Scriptures confirm that Jesus is not
talking about people who are to stay in poverty as a means to spiritualality. In all of Jesus’ teaching there was only one
time when he told someone (a rich young ruler) to sell all that he had and the
reason that he told him that was because his riches were what was holding him
back from becoming a believer in Jesus Christ.
This is seen in Matt. 19:21. The
young man’s riches were an idol to him, more important that his soul. So as we look at this story we find that the
problem was not in the wealth itself, but the man’s unwillingness to part with
it. The Lord did not specifically require
His disciples to give up all their money and other possessions in order for
them to follow Him, although it may be that some of them did so in a voluntary
way as we can see in the early chapter so the book of Acts.
We
continue to quote from Warren Wiersbe in situations like this in that he said “The
heart of the problem is the problem with the heart.”
12/20/2020 4:14 PM
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