CRITICAL NOTES
Matthew 6:19-20. Lay not up … lay up. An instance of “the idiom of exaggerated contrast.” A literal compliance with the negative half of this precept would discourage thrift, destroy commerce, and deprive the world of the manifold benefits of capital. It is plain that our Lord, in contrasting the two kinds of treasures, uses this emphatic idiom in order to point out in the most forcible way the kind which is beyond measure the more important (J. G. Carleton). Rust.—Money was frequently buried in the ground in those unsettled times, and so would be more liable to rust. Banks in the modern sense were unknown (Carr).
Matthew 6:22. Light.—Lamp (R.V.). The eye is not itself the light, but contains the light: it is the “lamp” or candle of the body, the light-conveying principle (ibid.). Full of light.—As it were all eye (Benyel).
Matthew 6:23. Evil.—I.e. affected with disease. The whole passage is on the subject of singleness of service to God (ibid.). How great is that darkness?—As the conscience is the regulative faculty, and a man’s inward purpose, scope, aim in life, determine his character, if these be not simple and heavenward, but distorted and double, what must all the other faculties and principles of our nature be, which take their direction and character from these, and what must the whole man and the whole life be, but a mass of darkness? (Brown).
Matthew 6:24. No man can serve two masters.—The application of the foregoing. Mammon.—Or mamon, was a common word in the East, among Phœnicians, Syrians and others, signifying material riches or worldly wealth. It is here personified, as a kind of god of this world (Morison).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Matthew 6:19-24
The evils of covetousness.—The great Teacher passes here from one snare to another; from the danger of thinking too much of the praises of men to that of thinking too much of the riches of earth. When we make them our “treasure”—when we so delight in them that we always long to have more of them—that is the evil meant here. Against this “covetousness,” this craving for more, we are here warned, as being at once:
1. A great folly.
2. A greater danger.
3. A deadly offence.
I. A great folly.—This folly is shown, first, in regard to that which this spirit seeks. Is it not foolish, indeed, to make that our “treasure” which we can never reckon on keeping; which nature herself is bent on “corrupting” by all sorts of agencies which cannot be guarded against by our powers; and which the envy and covetousness of other men always desires to appropriate (Matthew 6:19)? Probable disappointment, more probable loss, certain anxiety, are the necessary results of so doing. Next, in regard to that which it misses. It misses that “treasure in heaven,” which can always be attained through the gospel; which never decays because there is nothing to defile it (cf. 1 Peter 1:4), and is never stolen because there are none to steal it. Here is the vital difference between these two aims. In earthly riches my gain is another man’s loss. In heavenly riches my gain is my neighbour’s gain too. As a mere question of prudence, therefore, seek earnestly for this heavenly treasure, and “covet” nothing beside.
II. A greater danger.—When men do bring themselves, notwithstanding all this, to prefer earthly riches to heavenly, how is it done? It is done, as it can only be done, by shutting their eyes to the truth. The “deceitfulness” of such “riches,” to use the Saviour’s own words (Matthew 13:22), blinds their minds on the subject. In other words, they bring themselves to the conclusion spoken of, by contriving to see only what they wish to see in the matter; and so, in regard to it, are without that “single” eye of which the Saviour here speaks (Matthew 6:22). But this is a kind of process which cannot be made to terminate when and as we desire. If we thus pervert the instrument we look through in order only to see what we wish to see in one direction, it will inevitably, of course, do the same when we look in another. There is no direction, in fact, in which we can rely upon it, where such is the case; and no use we can make of it which, in the end, will not rather obscure than enlighten. Such is the result of trifling, in any way, with the light; and of wilfully looking at things, as covetousness does, as they are not. No darkness can be at once more complete and more dense (Matthew 6:22-23). Who can, in anything, trust a judgment which has brought itself thus to think of earth as being higher than heaven?
III. A deadly offence.—We say this because there is more in this matter than mere perversion of judgment. Such intellectual misjudging implies also perversion of will. Devotion to wealth is more than an error—more even than such an error as leads to worse error in turn—it is also a sin. It is a sin, first, because it robs God of His due. What we ought to live for—what we ought to devote ourselves to—is obtaining His favour. If we devote ourselves to money-getting instead, we make money-getting our “god.” This is why covetousness (or πλεονεξία) is so often spoken of in the Bible as idolatry (Ephesians 5:5); and why both it and idolatry are so often compared in the Bible to the sin of unfaithfulness in the marriage relation (ibid.; 1 Corinthians 5:11, etc.). It is like a man’s taking away from his wife that exclusive love which he has promised to give her wholly all the days of his life. Also, this covetousness is sin because it transfers to the creature what it thus abstracts from the Creator (cf. Romans 1:25); and because it does so, also, to a creature or idol of a peculiarly contemptible kind. Is not this true of this money-greediness, this craving to grasp, this utter concentration on self? And is not this proved, also, by the very name we give to a man utterly under its power. We call him—and we call him rightly—a “miser” or “wretch.” We call him so because it is to such a “wretch” of an idol that he bows himself down. Hence, therefore, the peculiar offensiveness of this kind of spiritual “adultery,” and the utter impossibility of combining it with the worship of God. “Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). Even if such double worship were possible in other cases, it would be out of the question in this.
This very difficult lesson, for such it is to us, may be further confirmed by remembering:—
1. Who traversed it at the time.—Viz. about the most unreliable teachers ever known in the world (see Luke 16:14; Matthew 23:16-17; Matthew 23:19).
2. Who afterwards received it.—Viz. the wisest teachers, after Christ, ever known in the world. Not at first, indeed, even they, when only partly knowing the truth (Matthew 19:23-25); but afterwards, when fully knowing the truth (Luke 24:44-48; John 16:12-13), acting on it in full (Acts 3:6; 1 Peter 1:18; 1 Peter 5:2); also, through their example (Acts 2:44-45; Hebrews 10:34; Hebrews 13:5); also in the case of one afterwards added to their number (1 Timothy 6:5-10; Philippians 4:11; Philippians 4:18). And thereby, indeed, only reviving, and as it were countersigning, that ancient deed and distinction of Psalms 10:3, “blessing the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth.”
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Matthew 6:19-21. Warning against greed.—Christ does not speak against material wealth; rather He implies in the text and words of similar meaning, that His disciples are not forbidden to accumulate the things of this world. Capital and property are necessary to social progress, civilisation, evangelisation, and the temporal well-being of mankind. But He does speak against making a god of them, and in all His teaching strikes deeply at the worldly-mindedness and disposition of those who are absorbed in “greed of gain.” Observe:
I. The treasures referred to.—Two kinds—“treasures upon earth” and “treasures in heaven,” The words contain an antithesis—
1. As to their nature.—“The treasures upon earth” are not only earthly, but earthy. “They are but earth, and it is but upon earth they are laid up,” including costly dresses and all worldly possessions. In eastern countries they treasured up gold, silver, precious stones, corn, wine, oil, and garments. To gain these the most sacred things often were bartered. So now. Character and most sacred rights have been and are sold to gain earthly treasures. But “treasures in heaven” are absolutely different in nature and tendency, and inestimably more valuable, and hence should be more diligently sought after.
2. As to their influence upon character.—“For where your treasure is” etc. This is important, for it shows clearly that wherever the heart is the man is. The betting man is at the Derby, the mercenary in his office, the politician in the strifes of ambition, etc. But if the treasure be in heaven there is a transformation.
3. As to the nature of the places where these treasures are laid up.—Which is the best place to treasure up in—“earth” or “heaven”?
(1) Earthly treasures are precarious at best. Think of the risks, etc. Riches of grace and everlasting peace and happiness are in Christ, which are the true and lasting wealth and glory of the Christian man. Paulinus, when he was told that the Goths had sacked Noia and plundered him of all that he had, lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Lord, Thou knowest where I have laid up my treasure.” It was in heaven—the right place, the only safe place.
(2) Earthly treasures are perishable—“moth and rust corrupt.” But spiritual treasures are absolutely secure and imperishable.
II. The exhortation enjoined.—“Lay up.” The love of accumulation is so strong in our nature that it behoves us to beware continually in “laying up earthly treasures” that we do not become avaricious and miserly. The prohibition, “lay not” has reference to that kind of spirit; for the more we gain and possess, the more we shall love that gain, until we become fully absorbed in it, make a god of it, and worship it. The whole of life is a treasuring up for eternity, either character “unto eternal life,” or “wrath against the day of wrath.” Use your time, your talents, your influence, your money, your life to this great and glorious end—the chief end of being.—J. Harries.
Treasures in heaven.—
I. The character of the covetous man.—He lays up for himself treasures upon earth, and not in heaven.
1. Our hearts are too much set on the world if we are strongly bent and resolved to be rich (1 Timothy 6:9).
2. If we make too much haste to be rich (Proverbs 28:20).
3. If we look on our neighbour’s thriving and prosperity with envy and discontent.
4. When we contemplate our own wealth and flourishing circumstances with too much complacence and delight. Good men delight themselves in God.
5. When we come to put our trust and confidence in our wealth; like the rich man in the Gospel, who trusted more in his full barns than in God.
6. When our time, thoughts, projects, etc., are spent chiefly on worldly things.
7. When upon any great losses, or even poverty itself coming upon us, we grow angry, peevish, and discontented.
8. Whenever, to save or increase our wealth, we betray our duty and conscience (1 Timothy 6:10; 2 Timothy 4:10).
II. Our Saviour’s dissuasive from this practice of the covetous man.—“Lay not up,” etc.
III. The reasons of this exhortation.—
1. The one is an earthly, the other a heavenly treasure.—
(1) The gross, earthly nature of these blessings. We may as well think to make fish feed upon grass and corn, and oxen live upon water and mud like fish, as to make men happy only with worldly things.
(2) But suppose they were ever so well fitted to make us happy during our stay in this world, how small a part of man’s immortal duration is included in this present life!
2. The earthly treasure is liable to perishing by divers accidents.—Some native, breeding in itself, such as moth and rust which corrupt it; some foreign, as thieves that break through and steal it; whereas the heavenly treasures are secure.
(1) They are fitted for our heaven-born souls.
(2) They last for ever.
(3) They are subject to no accidents, either of inward corruption or external violence.
3. If our treasures are upon earth they will draw our hearts after them and make them earthly too.—Consider:
(1) The influence our treasure has upon our hearts, to draw them after it. The heart runs out naturally after that which it loves best.
(2) The influence the heart has on the whole man, to govern all his thoughts, words, and actions. As the mainspring of the heart goes, the man thinks, contrives, speaks, and acts.
(3) From whence the conclusion follows very naturally, that the laying up our treasure on earth makes us worldly, and forgetful of heaven; and that the laying up our treasure in heaven makes us of a heavenly temper, and reforms the whole heart and life.—Jas. Blair, M.A.
Treasure.—According to our Lord’s metaphor, His followers are to treasure up treasures in heaven. This cannot mean to wish for high seats in heaven, with great lustre and distinction for themselves, for such desires may indicate nothing more than a new form of selfishness. The treasure must be of a more spiritual character, and such as a lowly heart may crave. It must be riches towards God and in God. It must mean the satisfaction of longings of the human spirit which the world cannot meet. It must be treasure of a calm conscience and a holy mind, resting in the love of God and sustained by the fellowship of the Spirit. The portion of the wise deserves to be called treasure because it is:—
I. Precious, as meeting not the fancy of a day or even the wants of the passing years, but the most profound requirements of the human soul, and that, too, when Divine regenerating grace has made it capable of eternal life and joy.
II. Secure, as laid up in heaven above the risk of loss.
III. Capable of indefinite increase.—D. Fraser, D.D.
The passion for hoarding.—In one of the best of his essays Montaigne tells how a passion for hoarding money possessed him at one period of his life, and plunged him in continual solicitude. “After you have once set your heart upon your heap it is no more at your service; you cannot find in your heart to break it; ’tis a building that you fancy must of necessity all tumble down to ruin if you stir but the least pebble.”—Ibid.
Dr. South’s sermon.—In the year 1699, Dr. South preached on this theme before the University of Oxford. The sermon appears in his works under the title, “No man ever went to heaven whose heart was not there before.”—Ibid.
Matthew 6:21. The heart and the treasure.—The heart follows the treasure, as the needle follows the loadstone, or the sunflower the sun.—M. Henry.
Matthew 6:22-23. Singleness of aim in the kingdom of God.—The text bears on what went before, which is, that the supreme attraction of the heart should be spiritual and heavenly and not secular and earthly. And it bears also on what follows, viz. that right and acceptable service in the kingdom of God must be a single service.
I. The truth here taught.—“The light of the body is the eye.” This expression is misleading. Literally interpreted, it is not correct. The eye is not the light, but it is the medium of light to the body, it is the window that admits light. The human eye is the most striking feature in the human constitution. It is the closest to the soul. Hence, spiritually, the great truths suggested by the text. Notice:
1. The soul of man has perceptive faculties—the spiritual eye of his moral constitution. Some say that this “eye” is the intellect, whereby we discover causes and effects, and trace their logical relation, processes, and products. But it is not the mere intellect that is suggested by the figure “eye.” Some say it is conscience, whereby we arrive at the knowledge of things unseen, the conception of God, of moral truth, and spiritual force, by which we judge of acts as right or wrong, and by which we discover the reality of the moral law and determine our character according to that law. But it cannot mean any one faculty, but the seat of all faculties and affections, purposes and inclinations; the undivided spirituality of our being, represented again and again in Scripture, as the heart.
2. The heart, the organ of sight, requires light.—We have only to open our hearts and Christ, the Light, enters.
3. The organ of sight is subject to disease.—Spiritually, there is one word expressive of moral darkness and blindness, viz. sin. No man can see either earth or sky aright, God, truth, or man aright, if the coloured glass of self is always in the window.
II. The condition specified.—“If thine eye be single,” etc. The idea conveyed by the singleness of eye is threefold:
1. Oneness.—The contemplation of one object. The heart bent on one thing.
2. Clearness.—When the eye is directed singly and steadily towards an object, and is in health, everything becomes clear, distinct, and plain.
3. Concentration.—The eye is “single” when it not only sees or lives for one thing, but also when it concentrates all its power in one direction. All thoughts and all actions are focussed in one object.
III. The inevitable result.—“The whole body shall be full of light.”
1. The blessed state of those in the kingdom of God whose aim is single.—The light of personal knowledge of salvation. The light of holiness—purity of heart. The light of peace and joy.
2. The awful result of “the evil eye.”—Full of darkness. Dark in himself and dark to every good around. He may be a man of talent, and learning, and genius, and yet blind spiritually. Darkness is a symbol of misery, adversity, and death; of ignorance and alienation, from the darkness of death to the “outer darkness.”—J. Harries.
The single and the evil eye.—
I. There is an inward light of the mind and conscience, which is to direct the moral part of our actions, as the eye directs the external motions and actions of the body.
II. Every evil affection obscures this inward light, that it cannot so well perform its duty, but is apt to mislead us into sinful courses.
III. This is particularly verified in the evil affection of covetousness or worldly-mindedness.
IV. When the inward light of the mind and conscience is darkened, this occasions a vast number of other errors and follies in the life and conversation.
V. It is our duty to use our utmost endeavours, to keep that inward light free from all clouds of evil affections and inclinations, that it may give us clear direction in all duty; and to follow those good directions in our life and conversation.—Jas. Blair, M.A.
Matthew 6:22. The single eye.—The idea conveyed by a “single eye” appears to be, from its etymology, threefold. First, it means clear, with no film; secondly, it means in opposition to double, seeing one object at a time; and thirdly, it means concentration, centred upon a focus. These three thoughts mainly go to make up the word “single,”—distinctness, oneness, fixedness.
I. Many things may give a dulness to the moral sight.
1. If it be impaired by disuse.—If you do not exercise the spiritual perception which God has given you, by meditation, by prayer and religious thought, then the perception must grow weak.
2. Things coming in between, veil and darken that higher vision. A worldly life is sure to do it. Much care will do it. Luxury will do it. But, still more, any wilful unbelief or any strong prejudice.
II. A clear eye must be often cleared.—It is the great secret of a happy, holy life—to have made up your mind, once and for all, to live for one thing—to do what is right, and to live to the glory of God. And then upon that one object you must concentrate yourself.
III. There are two worlds around us—a seen world and an unseen world; and we move equally in the midst of both. And the unseen system is far more beautiful, and far grander and more important than the system that we see. The seen is mainly the type and the shadow of the unseen. It is the unseen which is the real, for that unseen is for ever and ever. But it is not all of us who see the unseen. Few of us are seeing the unseen very distinctly, and none of us are seeing it as we might; and the reason is the state of the eye of the soul, which is as really an eye to see the unseen as that natural eye by which you gaze upon a star or by which you admire a flower.—J. Vaughan, M.A.
Matthew 6:23. The evil eye.—The eye which is sharp for self-interest is dimmed for moral insight.—W. Jackson, M.A.
Matthew 6:24. One Master only in the kingdom of heaven.—These words of the great Teacher plainly indicate not only, as in the previous verses, that the aim of the true disciple in the kingdom should be “single,” but also that the service must be single, the motive single, the purpose single, the object single, and the Master single. The object we love most rules us. Robert Hall once wrote the word “God” on a small slip of paper, showed it to a friend, and asked whether he could read it. He replied “Yes.” He then covered the word with a guinea, and again asked “Can you see it?” and was answered “No.” He did this in order to show his friend how easy it is for the world to shut out of the mind a sight and sense of God.
I. The great principle here emphasised.—“No man can serve two masters.” “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” We desire to show the impossibility of serving two masters—God and mammon.
1. Philosophically.—Dr. Brown’s and Dugald Stewart’s proposition is irrefutable—“That the mind cannot exist, at the same moment, in two different states,” proving, so far, the great maxim of the text, that, if the mind cannot exist in two different states at the same moment, it cannot be heavenly and worldly at the same time. We cannot concentrate our mind, which is indivisible, upon more than one object. Sir Isaac Newton, it is said, was so absorbed in his endeavour to discover the law of gravitation that he knew not his surroundings; could not hear or recognise the voice and calls of his wife; and when one morning he was roasting before a big fire he called the servant to move the fire back. The servant said, “Please move back your chair, sir.” “Ah,” replied the great man, “I did not think about that!” A man must have two hearts, two souls, and two selves, before he can give a heart to God and a heart to the world too. The utter impossibility of serving two masters, God and mammon, is further shown:—
2. Morally.—
(1) God and mammon are absolutely opposites.
(2) The interests of the two are absolutely diverse.
(3) The effects of the two are absolutely different. “For either he will hate the one and love the other.” The chief point of our Lord is that the man of the world cannot be truly religious; that is, the man that makes worldly gain supreme—such a man, generally speaking, hates religion.
II. The important truths here implied.—The key-word is “serve.” A man may try to serve God and mammon, because self is so dear, and the world is so sweet; but Jesus Christ shows that even the attempt is an absurdity. The practical truths inferred are—
1. That religion is a spiritual service.
2. That religion demands one supreme object.—“Serve God.”
3. That religion requires wholeness of heart in its service.
4. That religion implies the power of choice.—God or mammon. Which?
5. That religion teaches and enforces the necessity of immediate and manly decision.—We act upon decisions. When Alexander the Great was asked how he conquered the world, he answered, “By not delaying.”—J. Harries.
Neutrality.—“Of all unsuccessful men in any shape, whether Divine, human, or devilish,” says a secular historian, “there is no equal to Bunyan’s ‘Facing-both-ways’; the fellow with one eye on heaven and one on earth, who sincerely professes one thing and sincerely does another, and from the intensity of his unreality is unable either to see or feel the contradiction; he is substantially trying to cheat both God and the devil, and in reality only cheating himself and his neighbours. This, of all characters upon the earth, appears to us to be one of which there is no hope at all—a character becoming in these days alarmingly abundant.” Now, no one who. has learnt the lesson of the gospel will say of any character that there is no hope for it at all But it is true that this class of characters, the insincere professors, the Mr. Anythings, are hardest of all to deal with.
I. The characteristics of neutrality.—Scripture is full of indications of the peril and shame of this compromise—e.g. Samaritans, Israelites, Laodiceans, Balaam, Pilate, young ruler who made “the great refusal.” And Scripture being thus full of warnings, the significance of those warnings has not been lost upon the great Christian teachers—e.g. Dante, Bunyan (man with the muck rake). In the precincts of this insincere religion good and evil are not wrestling as they should be, shoulder to shoulder, in an irreconcilable antagonism, but they are feebly walking together, hand in hand, in futile amity.
II. The causes of neutrality.—Mainly two.
1. Indolence and unbelief.
2. Some besetting sin.—With one man it is drink, with another it is gold, with another it is envy, hatred, or refusal to forgive; with others it is impurity. And thinking that they can give the rest of their heart to God, men try to reserve this one dark corner, this one secret chamber of unhallowed imagery for their own idolatry. St. Augustine tells us, in his terrible Confessions, that in his unconverted days he used indeed to pray to God to deliver him from lusts of the flesh, but he prayed with the great desire that God would not hear him yet, because he still desired to live in their base indulgence.
III. The issue of neutrality.—Death. The poet saw in the lowest hell the soul of the Prior Elbrigo, and was amazed because he knew that the man was still alive; but when he asks for explanation he receives the awful answer that sometimes a man seems to live above, and eat, and drink, and sleep, and put on clothes, but in reality his soul is sunk down even in his life-time into the abyss; he has become that most fearful kind of ghost—not a soul without a body, but a body without a soul. Give up this shameful attempt to deceive God by semblances and shams! Be not like that Dead Salt Sea, of which it has been said that it reflects heaven on its surface and hides Gomorrha in its heart.—Archdeacon Farrar.
Mammon the greatest of all idols.—
1. The idol of all times.
2. The idol of all nations.
3. The idol of all unconverted hearts.
4. The origin of all idolatry.
5. The first and the last among all the hidden idols of God’s people, both under the Old and the New Testament.—J. P. Lange, D.D.
Matthew 6:24-34. Greed and care.—On the one side must be shunned the Scylla of greed, on the other the Charybdis of care.—J. M. Gibson, D.D.