In Matthew 6:19-34 the Lord Jesus spoke regarding dealing with material riches. In this portion of the Word the Lord told us not to love or serve mammon but to love and serve God. In verse 20 He said, “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” To store up treasures in heaven is to give material things to the poor (19:21) and to take care of the needy saints and the Lord’s servants (Acts 2:45; 4:34-35; 11:29; Rom. 15:26; Phil. 4:16-17).
In Matthew 6:21 the Lord said, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” We must send our treasure to heaven so that our heart can also be in heaven.
In verse 22 the Lord continued and said, “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light.” Our two eyes can focus on only one thing at a time. If we endeavor to see two things at once, our vision will be blurred. If we focus our eyes on one thing, our vision will be single and our whole body will be full of light. If we store up our treasure in heaven and on earth, our vision will be blurred. For our vision to be single, we must store up our treasure in only one place.
In verse 24 the Lord told us that we cannot serve two masters: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” The word mammon is an Aramaic word signifying wealth, riches. Mammon stands in opposition to God, indicating that wealth, or riches, is the opponent of God, robbing God’s people of their service to Him. As people who live in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens, we should not let mammon replace God in our living. Instead of loving and serving riches, we should love and serve God. This is an aspect of living in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens.
In verse 33 the Lord Jesus said, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” The Father’s kingdom is the reality of the kingdom of the heavens today, the reality of the church life today, and will be the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens in the coming age. The Father’s righteousness is the righteousness expressed by keeping the new law of the kingdom. This righteousness is Christ lived out by the kingdom people. If we seek first the kingdom of our Father and His righteousness, not only will His kingdom and His righteousness be given to us, but also all that we need will be added to us.
As those who live in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens, we should deal more with ourselves than with others (7:1-12). The Lord Jesus said, “Do not judge, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged; and with what measure you measure, it shall be measured to you” (vv. 1-2). Living in a humble spirit under the heavenly ruling of the kingdom, we should always judge ourselves, not others. Under the heavenly ruling of the kingdom, the believers will be judged with what they judge others. If we judge others with righteousness, the Lord will judge us with righteousness; if we judge others with mercy, we will be judged with mercy by the Lord.
Matthew 7:3-5 says, “Why do you look at the splinter which is in your brother’s eye, but the beam in your eye you do not consider? Or how can you say to your brother, Let me remove the splinter from your eye, and behold, the beam is in your eye? Hypocrite, first remove the beam from your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.” In these verses we see that as people living in a humble spirit under the heavenly ruling of the kingdom, we must consider the beam in our own eye whenever we look at a splinter in our brother’s eye. A splinter in our brother’s eye must remind us that we have a beam in our own eye. Then we will deal with ourselves more than with others. We must deal more strictly with ourselves than with others.