§ 6. The Sermon on the Mount (According to Matthew)

The main idea of Jesus's teaching is that spiritual riches are eternal and guaranteed by right living, while earthly riches will not profit in the day of death.

Proverbs 11:4

Riches do not profit in the day of wrath,
but righteousness delivers from death.

Ecclesiastes 3:9, 12

What gain has the worker from his toil…?
I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live.

Ecclesiastes 12:13

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

It is no sin to make or to have money, but what do we truly treasure?

The word here rendered "destroy" (ἀφανίζω) first appeared just three verses earlier in Matthew 6:16, "they disfigure their faces." Both instances represent frustration: the hypocrites do not get credit for fasting, and the greedy do not get to take their riches with them into eternity.

The Greek lexicon tells us the word means "to make unseen or hide; to make disappear; to do away with or carry off."

The same word appears in connection with boastful enterprises, again drawing attention to the uncertainty of riches and brevity of life.

James 4:13-14

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

Consider the sin of the former sorcerer who tried to buy spiritual gifts from the apostles. It seems his heart may still have been with the power and influence sorcery used to afford him.

Acts 8:18-21

Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, "Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit." But Peter said to him, "May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God."

Luke brings into his account selfless concern for the poor. In this exact opposite of holding onto treasures, we sell our things and don't even keep the money!

We're reminded of those earliest Christians who sold off their foreign holdings (since they were not going to return) and gave the proceeds for the charitable work of the church.

Acts 4:34-35

There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.