On Fasting And Heart Traesure.

ON FASTING and HEART TREASURE.

Matthew 6:16-24.

MATTHEW 6:16-18. True Christianity is not the dour, miserable affair which some of its play-actors portray. So when we fast, we must wash-and-brush up in our usual manner. The approval of God is far more to be desired than the applause of men.

MATTHEW 6:19. “Treasure not up for yourselves treasures upon earth.” Moths destroy clothes (cf. Isaiah 51:8). Even gold and silver can become cankered (cf. James 5:2). Thieves can literally “dig through” mud-brick houses. The hypocrites will find that, when the cheering has at last died down, they have nothing at all.

MATTHEW 6:20. No, “but treasure up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” The ‘where?’ is as important as the ‘what?’ We are challenged into the prayer-closet (cf. Matthew 6:6), into the storeroom where the Father is already laying up our heavenly treasures. When we go about our pious duty without drawing attention to ourselves, we are laying up treasure in heaven.

MATTHEW 6:21. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” The heart is a metaphor for our very being. The God who reads our hearts and motives better than we can read them ourselves will make an open show of His approval at the final curtain: ‘Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’ (cf. Matthew 25:34). What greater plaudit can we possibly require?

MATTHEW 6:22. Jesus is concerned that His disciples should have a “single” eye. Elsewhere this is described as a ‘bountiful eye’ which shall be blessed; ‘for he gives of his bread to the poor’ (cf. Proverbs 22:9). Jesus may be changing the metaphor from heart to eye, but He is not changing the subject.

MATTHEW 6:23. The opposite of this is an eye that is “evil.” The person who ‘makes haste to be rich’ is described as having ‘an evil eye’ (cf. Proverbs 28:22). In the parable of the vineyard-workers, the self-appointed union representative (who complained that those who had worked less hours were also getting enough wages to see them through to the next day) was asked, ‘Is your eye evil because I am good?’ (cf. Matthew 20:15).

MATTHEW 6:24. So, we must choose between “God” and “Mammon.” It is all a question of priorities. If we are a slave to the things of this world, then we cannot be an effective servant of the kingdom of God.