The Sermon on the Amount

Matthew 6:19-24 New King James Version

Since Matthew 5-7 is known as the Sermon on the Mount, then Matthew 6:19-24may be the Sermon on the Amount.

Each of the three section that make up Matthew 6:19-24 relate to wealth, possessions and money:

· Treasure (Matthew 6:19-21)

· Generosity (Matthew 6:22-23)

· Money (Matthew 6:24)

Joe Gibbs, former head coach of the Washington Redskins and owner of Joe Gibbs Racing, wrote in his book Racing to Win: “The Bible has much to say about money. More than 2,300 verses relate to finances. About 500 verses talk about faith, while less than 5000 verses pertain to prayer, but more than four times as many apply to money – our attitude toward it, how we get it, what we do with it, and how we manage it. Jesus talked about money far more than He did about heaven or hell.

So what is the BIG deal about money?

Three Truths Regarding Money

1. How we handle money is a reflectionof our heart (Matthew 6:19-21).

a. Matthew 6:19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;

b. Matthew 6:20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

c. Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

i. There is a clear continuity of thought between the idea of a secret, heavenly reward in vv. 1–6, 16–18 and the subject of treasure in heaven which opens this section of the discourse with its focus on the disciple’s attitude to material security. [1]

ii. The instruction “Do not store up for yourselves” might better be rendered “Stop storing up for yourselves”;[2]

1. A present imperative in the negative often implies that the act prohibited is already occurring, as against an aorist subjunctive, used to prevent something contemplated but not yet actual.[3]

2. Our perspective on money determines the outlook of our life (Matthew 6:22-23).

a. Matthew 6:22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.

b. Matthew 6:23 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!

i. To convey this sense we might expect an adjective meaning “healthy,” but that is not in itself a normal meaning of haplous, “single,” and the choice of this term suggests that something more is being said about what makes an eye “healthy.”[4]

ii. But ponēros, “bad,” is not a natural opposite to haplous in that sense. There is, however, another probable sense of haplous which does provide a natural opposite to ponēros: the meaning “generous” is suggested by the use of the derivative noun haplotēsfor “generosity” in e.g. Rom 12:8; 2 Cor 8:2; 9:11, 13, and the adverb haplōs in Jas 1:5 for God’s giving “generously” (cf. LXX 1 Chron 29:17; Prov 11:25). If generosity is to be understood as the outworking of the “simplicity,” “openness” denoted by haplous, this would form a direct counterpart to the phrase ophthalmos ponēros, “bad eye,”25 which is used for a jealous stinginess in 20:15. In view of the recognized meaning of the “bad eye” to denote selfish greed or meanness,26 it seems likely that this saying is meant to indicate that one indication of a person’s spiritual health is their generosity or lack of it in the use of their material possessions.[5]

iii. So this rather obscure little saying seems to be using a word-play28which the English translator cannot reproduce without extensive paraphrase in order to commend either single-mindedness (in pursuing the values of the kingdom of heaven) or generosity, or more likely both, as a key to the effective life of a disciple.[6]

iv. Haplous (“good,” v. 22) and its cognates can mean either “single” (vs. diplous, “double,” 1 Tim 5:17) in the sense of “single, undivided loyalty” (cf. 1 Chronicles 29:17) or in cognate forms “generous,” “liberal” (cf. Rom 12:8; James 1:5). Likewise, ponēros(“bad,” v. 23) can mean “evil” (e.g., Rom 12:9) or in the Jewish idiomatic expression “the evil eye” can refer to miserliness and selfishness (cf. Prov 28:22).[7]

1. Proverbs 22:9 He who has a generous eye will be blessed, For he gives of his bread to the poor.

2. Proverbs 28:22 A man with an evil eye hastens after riches, And does not consider that poverty will come upon him.

a. Evil eye = miser

i. Proverbs 23:6 Do not eat the bread of a miser, Nor desire his delicacies;

1. Miser Lit. one who has an evil eye[8]

3. How we manage money is a demonstration of our trust (Matthew 6:24).

a. Matthew 6:24 “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.

i. But a slave was not employed under contract, but was normally wholly owned by the person who had bought him or her (though see Acts 16:16 for the possibility of joint ownership).[9]

ii. “Money” renders Greek mamōna(“mammon”), itself a transliteration of Aramaic māmônāʾ (in the emphatic state; “wealth,” “property”). The root in both Aramaic and Hebrew (ʾmn) indicates that in which one has confidence; and the connection with money and wealth, well attested in Jewish literature (e.g., Peah 1:1; b Berakoth61b; M Aboth 2:7; and not always in a negative sense), is painfully obvious.[10]

b. Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

c. Malachi 3:10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.

d. Hebrews 7:8 Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives.

e. Malachi 3:10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.

Application

1. If you are a follower of Jesus begin to tithe as a demonstration of your trust in the Lord.

2. If you are already tithing, grow in your generosity by giving above the tithe with offerings such as missions, homeless, etc.

3. If you are not a follower of Jesus, trust the Lord with your life today.

a. 2 Corinthians 8:5 And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God.

[1]France, R. T. (2007). The Gospel of Matthew (p. 257). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co. [2]France, R. T. (2007). The Gospel of Matthew (p. 258). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co. [3] France, R. T. (2007). The Gospel of Matthew. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co. [4] France, R. T. (2007). The Gospel of Matthew (p. 261). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co. LXX Septuagint 25 In many cultures an “evil eye” denotes a magical influence or curse, but a study of such usage by F. C. Fensham, Neot 1 (1967) 51–58, concludes that the phrase does not generally carry this sense in biblical literature. See J. H. Elliott, BTB 22 (1992) 52–65, for the primary sense of envy in ancient use of the phrase. 26 Cf. Mark 7:22, and for wider Greek usage LXX Deut 15:9; Sir 14:10; 31:13. In Prov 22:9 the Hebrew translated “generous” is literally “good-eyed,” while in Prov 23:6 and 28:22 the stingy are the “bad-eyed.” [5] France, R. T. (2007). The Gospel of Matthew (pp. 261–262). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co. 28 “A cleverly constructed riddle which can be read on two different levels,” Davies & Allison, 1.639. [6] France, R. T. (2007). The Gospel of Matthew (p. 262). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co. [7] Carson, D. A. (1984). Matthew. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke (Vol. 8, p. 178). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House. [8] The New King James Version. (1982). Nashville: Thomas Nelson. [9] France, R. T. (2007). The Gospel of Matthew (p. 262). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co. b Babylonian Gemara M Mishnah [10]Carson, D. A. (1984). Matthew. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke (Vol. 8, p. 178). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.