What Do You Seek?

“Don’t be a set of memorized behaviors” ― Syed Sharukh

Admittedly, I lifted that line completely devoid of any context. I did because it reminds me of how we can sometimes approach Jesus’ Manifesto particularly, and the whole of the Bible generally.

God’s Word = rules to obey = outward compliace

Taking a step back, we have to ask “Is God’s primary concern our compliance?” We realize the answer is no.

We realize we are broken inside by disobedience. We realize that our relationship with God is broken by disobedience. God’s desire is to repair what has been broken. God’s means of repair was breaking Jesus: He took our brokenness and its consequences, allowing God to turn His attention to our repair, if we’ll let Him.

Once what was broken on the inside is repaired, our relationship and our response to God’s instructions will flow naturally. Compliance is no longer forced, is flows naturally.

We are no longer a set of memorized behaviors.

When we come to Jesus’ words it is important that we see them not as a series of rules—or even principles—to follow, but that we seem them as something to internalize, allowing His words to seal cracks in our person.

Starved for Attention, Matthew 6:16-18

Matthew 6:16–18 NKJV

16 “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 17 But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

Jesus’s words here do not speak to the mechanics of fasting. He assumes His audience is familiar with fasting. Their are proscribed fasts just like there were proscribed feasts in the Old Testament. His words speak to the heart of the person fasting.

If you starve yourself to demonstrate your commitment to people and they notice and think better of you, then you have attained your goal and received your reward.

If you starve yourself to demonstrate your commitment to God and He notices and thinks better of you, then you have attained your goal and will receive your reward.

The question is whose attention are you trying to get? IF you are trying to get God’s attention, than you need to take steps to ensure your demonstration is for Him alone.

Serving Two Masters, Matthew 6:19-25

Matthew 6:19–25 NKJV

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. 25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry 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?

Is Jesus saying that we should not have a savings account or a 401(k)? What does it mean to “lay up” treasures?

Laying up treasure recongized

Laying up treasure means to store it in a storehouse

While it can mean saving for future use, that is not its connotation

It’s connotation is store for the sake of storing, accumulating, or hoarding

The ideas of earning enough that you can provide for the current and future needs of those for whom you are responsible while still being generous to those in need and still being supportive of accomplishing God’s work is biblical and not what Jesus had in view here.

Laying up treasure repudiated

If and when we accumulate wealth for the sake of accumulating wealth, we become a servant of wealth

When we serve wealth, we become distracted by wealth: it demands constant attention because it is vulnerable, and always insufficient

When we serve wealth, we become loyal to it, and disloyal to God: we cannot serve two masters

For most people, conversations about wealth don’t seem applicable. Historically, civilization has been driven by securing the basic needs of food, shelter, and clothing.

Most of us would view ourselves as similarly committed. Granted, most of the world would view us as wealthy, we do not. We view ourselves as trying so secure the same basic living necessities the rest of the world does. It just costs more in western culture.

Jesus addresses us too.

Seeking the Source, Matthew 6:25-34

Matthew 6:25–34 NKJV

25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry 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? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Worry is akin to accumulation

worry means caring to the degree that you are distracted

Worry about provision is same as worrying about accumulation

While the extent is not the same as accumulation, the effect is the same

Worry is akin to competition

worrying about provision, as a distraction, is in direct competition with God for attention

worrying about provision, is in direct competition with provision (that is counter-intuitive, but true)

worrying about provision has an alternative: focusing on God’s kingdom and kingship and letting God focus on your needs

Conclusion

Similar to accumulation, God does not mean for us become lazy or wholly unconcerned when it comes to the positions and functions in which we are engaged. There is plenty of teaching in the Bible that makes it clear we are to work and provide.

What Jesus wants is our hearts.

He wants us to trust Him while we obey Him.

He wants us to focus on Him while we function as we must.

He wants us to depend upon Him rather than depending upon ourselves

It is not about a set of memorized behaviors. It is a about a heart that is set on God as our first and highest prioirty and everything else second.