THE CAREFREE LIFE
Matthew
6:19-24 "Do not store up for yourselves
treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and
steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do
not destroy, 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. If your eyes are good, your whole
body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be
full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that
darkness! "No one can serve two
masters. 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 both God and Money.
Worldly possessions tend to turn the hearts of the
disciples away from Jesus. What are we really devoted to? That is the question.
Are our hearts set on earthly goods? Do we try to combine devotion to them with
loyalty to Christ? Or are we devoted exclusively to him? The light of the body
is the eye, and the light of the Christian is his heart. If the eye be dark,
how great is the darkness of the body! But the heart is dark when it clings to
earthly goods, for then, however urgently Jesus may call us, his call fails to
find access to our hearts. Our hearts are closed, for they have already been
given to another. As the light cannot penetrate the body when the eye is evil,
so the word of Jesus cannot penetrate the disciple’s heart so long as it is
closed against it. The word is choked like the seed which was sown among
thorns, choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life.
The singleness of eye and heart corresponds to that
“hidden-ness” which knows nothing but the call and word of Christ, and which
consists win perfect fellowship with him. How can the disciple have dealings
with earthly goods and yet preserve this singleness of heart? Jesus does not
forbid the possession of property in itself. He was man, he ate and drank like
his disciples, and thereby sanctified the good things of life. These
necessities, which are consumed in use and which meet the legitimate
requirements of the body, are to be used by the disciple with thankfulness.
The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, pg.
193.
