“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. -Matthew 6:19-24
Giving (including tithing) and service to the Lord are often misunderstood acts of devotion. These works are, in fact, acts of worship. When we tithe, give charity or serve we are not doing these things for the church or the pastor, we do this to lay up treasures in heaven.
But what does it mean to lay up treasures in heaven? Is there a bank in heaven, like Wells Fargo? Maybe it is called The Chariots of Fire Savings and Loan. In order to better understand what Jesus means by “treasures in heaven” we must look earlier in the chapter.
Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 6:1
Often, Jewish rabbis use a circumlocution to avoid saying the name of the Lord (like I just did by saying the Lord). The phrase “kingdom of Heaven” is a good example. In Matthew (written to a mostly Jewish audience) it is Repent for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand, but in Mark (written for a gentile audience) it is Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.
With this understanding, when we are laying up treasures in Heaven, we are really laying up treasures in the Father. This is consistent with what Jesus taught. We do our good works for the glory of the Father and it is the Father who rewards us for doing His will and walking in His ways.
What does that have to do with the eye? Right in the middle of His saying to lay up treasures in heaven, Jesus starts talking about a healthy or good eye vs a bad or evil eye. Say what?
The phrase doesn’t mean much to us today, but Jesus is using a common phrase for the first century, the beautiful eye. This phrase has a simple understanding. A beautiful eye is an eye that looks at the world around it with compassion and generosity. In contrast, the evil eye is an eye without compassion, it is stingy.
When we put these thoughts back together, the words of our Lord become easier to grasp. Once again Jesus give us a choice of two paths, two masters.
If we choose the Lord in His grace and mercy, we will do things His way. The Father is generous and merciful. He feeds the hungry and clothes the naked and He visits the sick. He shows compassion. He has a beautiful eye. If we imitate Him, we too will have a beautiful eye. Our lives will be filled with the light as He is filled with the light.
If, on the other hand, we chose ourselves. We chose to live according the flesh, a self-centered life, then we become stingy. There is no light in us and our eye is evil, we serve mammon or money.
The choice is straightforward. Chose the Lord or chose ourselves.
