Ambition & Loyalty

Matthew 6:19-34

Introduction

Ambition is a prized characteristic in our society, and it can be a good thing when directed correctly. However, it can also challenge loyalty by redirecting focus from meaningful relationships and core values. When ambition prioritizes goals over everything else, it creates conflict between achieving goals and staying true, which can lead to all sorts of issues.

Everybody at the center of their soul has something they treasure. What does it mean to treasure something? It means to look at something and fill your heart with the beauty and value of it. To treasure something is to say, “If I have this, everything is worth it. If I have this, it’s all worth it.” In other words, everybody has something that drives them, that gives them ambition. It might be money, career, or status. It might be romance or family. You’re looking at it, and it’s your treasure. You say, “If I could have this, it’ll all be worth it.” Everybody has something on earth they’re doing that about. Everybody. “If I had this, it would all be worth it.”

This drive, this ambition, can become so strong that it grows into a controlling influence in our lives. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses this drive that our souls can have for these things. According to Jesus, Jesus’ followers must be primarily motivated by their love relationship with God. Jesus says not only that but the more we make God’s kingdom the priority of our lives, the less we will worry.

The last half of Matthew 6 deals with wrong perspectives. Jesus teaches about the proper attitude toward wealth and material possessions and the importance of trusting in God's provision rather than worrying. Jesus says the things that drive our souls and our lives should be more about the eternal than the temporary.

Matthew 6:19–34 ESV

“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. “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Scriptural Analysis

Verses 19-24

Jesus begins by advising against storing up earthly treasures, which are vulnerable to decay and theft. Instead, he encourages storing up treasures in heaven, which are eternal and secure. He emphasizes that where one's treasure is, their heart will also be. The contrast of “treasures on earth” with “treasures in heaven” implies a contrast of personal values.

Jesus goes beyond good works to focus on the heart: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” The “heart” represents the core of a person’s being, the real inner person, the causative source of a person’s spiritual, emotional, and psychological life. What a person values is driven by the nature of a person’s heart. This means that one's priorities and ambitions reveal who one truly is.

Then Jesus uses the eye in a different metaphorical sense, as a lamp that illumines a person’s inner life. Jesus uses the metaphor of the eye as the lamp of the body. If the eye is healthy, the whole body will be full of light. Conversely, if the eye is unhealthy, the body will be full of darkness.

There was a close connection between the heart and the eye in Jewish literature. By using the symmetry in this passage, the “good” eye means “single” in the sense of singleness of purpose or undivided loyalty. Since the heart is the true repository of treasure, Jesus suggests that the eye, when it focuses on what is truly valuable, becomes a pathway through which the heart is filled. If the eye is clear, it channels the light of God's treasures into the heart. If a disciple’s eyes are fixed on earthly treasure as her or his value, personal significance, and earthly security, then the heart will likewise be full of darkness. When our eyes on focused on earthly things, that darkness blinds us.

The proverbial part of the verse is that no one can serve two masters. In Jesus’ time, the cultural context was slavery, not employment. One can work for two employers, but no slave can belong to two masters because masters can demand a slave’s presence or service at any time. Single ownership and full-time service are the essence of slavery. No one can serve two gods, God and money, since each demands absolute loyalty.

Verses 25-30

Jesus was fond of rhetorical questions that invited people to reason with him. First, is life not more than the food and clothing that sustain it? Yes. Second, if God feeds birds who work but have no organized plans to sow, harvest, or store food, will he not care for people who are more valuable? Yes. We are more valuable in God’s eyes because we are the only creatures made in his image.

Worry doesn’t accomplish anything, at least not in terms of enabling us to live longer. Most people in antiquity had little beyond basic necessities—food, clothing, and shelter. They had plenty of cause for stress even about the basics of food and clothing. So Jesus is speaking straight to their issues and ours.

The command to not worry about everyday life does not imply a complete lack of concern, nor does it call people to be unwilling to work and supply their own needs. Food, drink, and clothes, however, are less important than the life and body that they provide. Jesus was teaching total dependence upon God as opposed to humanity’s self-sufficiency. All that we have ultimately comes from God’s hand.

Jesus did not prohibit his followers from sowing, reaping, and gathering food, but he did prohibit worrying. Worry is essentially a failure to trust God. It can damage our health, cause the object of our worry to consume our thoughts, disrupt our productivity, negatively affect the way we treat others, and reduce our ability to trust in God.

When disciples are of little faith, that reveals the issue of their hearts. It means we do not trust God. It means that we do not put him first, but instead all these things come first. Our ambition as disciples must be to put God and his kingly rule at the top of our list of priorities. Then, we will find that God takes care of the necessities of life. You can summarize Jesus’ words here simply: You must not be distracted by temporary cares when God says focus on the eternal.

Verses 31-34

Verses 31-34 bring this teaching to its climax. When priorities regarding treasures in heaven and on earth are right, God will provide for fundamental human needs. Seeking first the righteousness of the kingdom implies obedience to all of Jesus’ commands. When God’s people corporately seek first his priorities, they will be taken care of by God and God’s people. These verses encapsulate the central theme of trusting in God's provision and aligning one's life with His will.

We are to seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness. Everything starts here. This is to be our consuming ambition. The use of the imperative “seek” does not mean to look for something not present, for Jesus has already announced the arrival of the kingdom. In this context, it means that his disciples are to make the kingdom of heaven the center of their continual, daily priorities. They have already entered the kingdom of heaven and are to live with that reality, drawing on God’s structuring of their daily lives.

To seek the kingdom is chiefly to love and seek the King, to pray for his kingdom to come, to submit to his reign in every area of life, to declare the gospel widely, and to aim for his righteousness socially as well as personally.

Jesus concludes by advising against worrying about the future. Learned reliance on God’s care for present needs will cause his disciples to develop trust in him for their future needs. The two expressions in this verse, “for tomorrow will worry about itself” and “each day has enough trouble of its own,” reiterate the same basic truth. All the worry in the world today can do nothing about the cares and problems of tomorrow. God has beautifully promised that He has today and tomorrow in His hands.

TODAY’S KEY TRUTH

Worldly Ambitions Can Challenge Our Loyalty to God.

Application

Jesus’ followers must be motivated by trust in God’s provision rather than trust in any earthly source, including themselves. Matthew 6:19-34 teaches about prioritizing spiritual over material wealth, maintaining a clear and healthy perspective, trusting in God’s provision for daily needs, and living free from anxiety by focusing on God's kingdom and righteousness. The passage emphasizes the importance of faith, trust in God, and the assurance that He will take care of those who seek Him first.

Jesus is examining our ambitions. ‘What do we really value?’ ‘What do we worry about?’ He turns to these twin areas of money and worries as he seeks to show with embarrassing directness what it means to be a citizen of the kingdom. Our ambitions should be to put God first and avoid the worldly preoccupation with wealth and the daily concerns of life outlined in the second half of chapter 6.

There are two idols Jesus is directly addressing. The first idol is materialism. We are driven to accumulate treasures on earth by the perceived need for security, personal worth, power, independence, or pleasure. Jesus is clearly saying here that materialism has the power to blind you to materialism.

Over the years as a pastor, I’ve had people come in to talk to me about sins, to confess sins, to come in and say, “I want to talk to you about a real problem I’m having. Something is wrong. I haven’t confessed this to other people, but you’re a pastor, priest, rabbi type, and I’ll tell you about it.” They do. They’ll come and talk about anger, and they’ll talk about bitterness, and they’ll talk about lust, and they’ll talk about pride, and they’ll talk about everything. But, I don’t think I ever remember anybody coming to me to confess the sin of greed. I don’t think anybody ever came in and said, “Pastor, I’m materialistic.”

They never have done it. Why? Because Jesus is saying that we are blind to it. We don’t consider the possibility that we’re greedy. We just don’t think we are. We just say, “Me? Greedy?” We think of greedy rich people. We think of people who spend tons of money. All you have to do is know of somebody who’s really greedy, and then you don’t think you’re greedy. You wouldn’t even consider the possibility that you’re materialistic.

That’s Jesus’ whole point about greed. Money has the power to blind you and keep you from asking questions about how you spend it and how you make it, the hard questions. That’s the power of greed; it blinds you to reality. The power of greed is to not ask. The power of greed is to not think. The power of greed blinds us. Jesus says running after these things, greed, cannot add a minute to your life. It’s God who is in control of these things. Jesus is revealing that money is not going to be able to get you even a little bit of control, so why make it your treasure?

The second idol Jesus addresses here is worry. We probably do not think of worry as a form of idolatry, but it is when we allow it to take our eyes off Jesus. We substitute despair, hopelessness, or fear in place of God and turn to our own efforts at trying to control our world. Warren Wiersbe once said, “We are continually being crucified between two thieves—the regrets of yesterday and the worries about tomorrow.” Jesus’ message is this: Meet today’s problems with today’s strength. Don’t start tackling tomorrow’s problems until tomorrow. Why? You do not have tomorrow’s strength yet. You simply have enough for today. The key to overcoming worry is to learn how to utilize God’s strength to accomplish what is set before us today because today’s lessons are tomorrow’s guides. We learn through today what we will need for tomorrow.

As a side note, one of the most important ways of carrying this out is to learn to express our gratitude to God daily by looking around today at what we have and what God has done and then saying, “Thank you.” That reminds us that tomorrow, he will do the same again.

The fundamental commandment of the Old Testament was to “love the Lord your God with all your heart.” Such whole-hearted devotion to God leaves no room for love for material things or the stress of worrying about material things. This entire section (6:19–34) is concerned with an absolute loyalty to God, a loyalty that prevails over our worldly concerns, ambitions, and results.

Worldly Ambitions Can Challenge Our Loyalty to God.

Conclusion

Wherever our focus lies, whatever occupies our thoughts and our time, that is our “treasure.” Our culture is all about getting all the treasure that you can: always grow your wealth, never stop seeking your fortune, hustle, hustle, hustle. All that does is create a sense of unfulfillment, anxiety, and worry. Christ changes our attitude toward material wealth and possessions. Jesus contrasted heavenly values with earthly values when he explained that our first loyalty should be to those things that do not fade, cannot be stolen, used up, and never wear out.

Jesus is also indirectly saying how to combat our natural tendencies of greed, stinginess, and selfishness. Give. Every time I give financially or materially, I am also giving away part of my stinginess and selfishness. God doesn’t need my money, but I need to give to counter my selfishness. The Lord wants my heart, not my money, and He knows that wherever my treasure is, that’s where my heart will be. If I have financial investments, I will follow the stock market carefully. If I hold real estate, I will follow the housing market with genuine interest. If I have treasure in heaven, guess where my heart will be? Jesus says, “Put your treasure in heaven, and your heart will inevitably follow.”Our supreme ambition is the glory of God.

Worldly Ambitions Can Challenge Our Loyalty to God.

Worrying about material things and wealth is practical atheism. There is no God, so I have to do it. Worry is useless. Anxiousness cannot add a single hour to life. The past cannot be changed; the future cannot be charted. So worrying is useless and debilitating. Worry is blinding. Worry refuses to learn the lessons of God’s providence taught us by the birds and flowers. Short-lived as they are, in their quiet dependence on their environment they display that ‘peace’ that should mark believers who know that behind their environment there is a loving heavenly Father. Our ambition as disciples must be to put God and his kingdom at the top of our priority list. Then, we shall find that God takes care of the necessities of life.

Worldly Ambitions Can Challenge Our Loyalty to God.

Jesus is saying that a generous and trusting spirit brings moral health and wholeness, whereas a greedy and selfish spirit prevents a person from seeing what is really important. You cannot take your treasure with you into the next world, but you can send it on ahead through kingdom-oriented giving.

Seek reward from your Father in heaven, not treasures on earth that will one day find their final destination in a landfill. Seek first to serve God and advance his kingdom. Do not allow the distractions of materialism and worry to pull down God’s Kingdom on your priority list. When worry or anxiety intrudes, turn to God, who cares for the flowers and provides food for the birds. God loves you and provides. He is the one to remain loyal to because He will take care of those who seek Him first.

The Bible says every treasure but Jesus will insist that you die to purchase it. Jesus is the one treasure who died to purchase you. Anything else you make your supreme value will say, “Die for me,” but if you make Jesus Christ your supreme value, he’s the One who said, “I’ve died for you.” The gospel is you’re more sinful than you ever dared believe; you’re more loved than you ever dared hope. Nothing or no one deserves our loyalty more than Jesus.

Worldly Ambitions Can Challenge Our Loyalty to God.