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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Matthew 6:19 - 6:23
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat_6:19-23
19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal; 21for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!"
Mat_6:19 "do not store up" This is literally "stop treasuring up treasures." This same word play is also found in Mat_6:20. This is a present imperative with a negative particle, which usually means to stop an act that is already in progress. The desire of fallen humanity is to try to provide, by means of their own resources, all that is needed for a happy life. The grammatical construction here shows that this is also a temptation for redeemed humanity. True happiness and success are found only in dependence on God and contentment in what He has provided (cf. Ecclesiastes 1-2; Ecc_2:24-25; Ecc_3:12; Ecc_3:22; Ecc_5:18; Ecc_8:15; Ecc_9:7-9; Php_4:11-12).
▣ "treasures" In the ancient world wealth emanated from three sources: (1) clothing, (2) food stuffs, and (3) precious metals or jewels. Each of these items may either be destroyed or stolen. Moths will attack clothing. Rust is from the root "to eat" or metaphorically "eat away" or " corrode" and was used of vermin eating food. Stealing referred to robbery of precious metals, jewels or the other two items. Basically this means that all of our worldly possessions are vulnerable. If one's happiness depends on possessions, one could lose them at any moment. The false concept that contentment and happiness are found in physical things is stated in Luk_12:15.
▣ "destroy" The term meant "disfigure" (Mat_6:16), "to cause to disappear" (cf. Mat_6:20, Act_13:41; Jas_4:14).
▣ "thieves break in and steal" The term "break in" literally was "dig through." Many homes of this period had mud walls. In the Greek language, the word for "robber" was from the compound term "mud digger."
Mat_6:20 "but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven" This is a present active imperative, essentially referring to spiritual attitudes and actions. 1Ti_6:17-19 beautifully expresses the same concept. God Himself protects our heavenly treasure (cf. 1Pe_1:4-5).
The verb in Mat_6:20 is from the same root as the noun (cognate accusative). Literally this word play would have been "treasure up for yourselves treasure in heaven."
Mat_6:21 "for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" It is significant that the plural pronoun which has been used in the previous verses now changes to the singular. This section teaches the transitoriness of earthly things and the eternality of spiritual things. It also emphasizes that where one puts one's interest, resources, and energy truly reveals one's priorities. The heart (a Hebrew idiom) is the center of the person. It expresses the totality of one's self.
Mat_6:22 "The eye is the lamp of the body" The background of this statement was the Jewish concept of the eye being the window of the soul. What one allows into his thought-life determines who he is. Thought produces desire, desire produces action, action reveals the person.
Mat_6:22-23 These two verses are obviously antithetical. The antithesis was expressed in the terms: "good" versus "bad" ; "singular" versus " double" ; "generous" versus "stingy" ; or "healthy" versus "diseased." The eye was used because of the singleness that healthy vision provides versus the double or blurred vision which disease causes.
These verses contain three conditional sentences (" ifs"). The first two are third class conditional which speak of probable action. There are those who clearly see spiritual truths and there are those who are spiritually blind.
The last "if" is a first class conditional sentence which characterizes the blind who think they see!
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