Bible Reading:
Matthew Chapter 6 Verses 19 to 33

Priorities

Think for a moment and ask yourself what is most important to you - just think about it and don't tell anyone. Can each of us say, honestly and without a hint of a doubt that our one and true priority, all the time, is to love God, to obey what He says and to serve Him?

I know that I can't. You might say I should and I would agree. I'd like it to be that way but the truth is that none of us does and there is nothing that any of us can do about it for ourselves. We have a sinful nature that clings to worldly things and selfish attitudes.

The Lord Jesus taught that all who want to truly follow Him should direct their attention to the things of God, to what God has said and to what they can do to serve Him.

This is what the passage we read is about. The last verse we read is a command from The Lord Jesus, not an option. We read in Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. We are not to spend our lives trying to make ourselves comfortable and wealthy with the things of this world. God created the heavens and the earth for His glory so that people should praise Him for Who He is and for what He has done. They were not created so that we could make them our god in the place of The One True God who created all things.

Many people ask what is the meaning of life. The Bible tells us that as part of Gods creation we are to love, worship and serve God, this is our reason for being here on the earth at all. This is why mankind was created.

The truth is that we have lost our way. We serve the creation rather than the creator. The whole human race, by nature, is going its own way. Instead of loving and honouring God, instead of seeking to please Him we love ourselves, we honour ourselves and we seek to please ourselves. This is how we are by nature. We hold on to this way of life with both hands and we do everything we can to avoid letting go.

We all have priorities. Each of us has things that are important to us. We might have some things that are important to all of us and some things that are important only to one or two of us. There might be things that are important to just one of us and nobody else.

Satan deceives people into refusing to let go of things that stop them being free to love, honour and serve God.

The teaching of The Lord Jesus in the passage we read is about selfishness and unselfishness. It is about obedience to Gods word and not living life to please ourselves. It is not about living in a cardboard box with no possessions and avoiding every comfort. God knows we all need to eat and drink and keep warm and dry. Jesus' teaching is about the thoughts and intents of our hearts; it is about our attitude of mind.

We read in Mattheww 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. This refers to seeking and struggling to have lots of clothes, stacks of good food and lots of valuables for us to use for our own pleasure and enjoyment. (Moths eat clothes. Rust here means mould and pests that corrupt food rather than what we think of as rust on metal. Thieves steal valuables) These three types of things would be what wealthy eastern people would value. They are not wrong in themselves but obsession with increasing our wealth is wrong. The Lord Jesus commands the opposite. Matthew 6:20-21 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

The Lord Jesus commands that we put first the things to do with our relationship with God and our eternal future. This is what He refers to when He speaks of laying up treasure in heaven. This is what our priority should be. If we value the things of God then our whole attitude and way of life will be to set those things as our priority in life and the obsession with doing our own thing will fade away.

He goes on to talk about the eye being the light of the body. This refers to a generous or a selfish attitude. The person whose eye is referred to here as single is a person who looks to God alone. Such a person sees everything as usable in Gods service and for the benefit of people around them. They see something and their mind begins to work out how best to use it. The opposite is someone with an evil eye. They see something and they want it for themselves. They might well get it too because they'll make it a priority and add it to all the other things they have stored up and they'll keep it away from everyone else.

The next part of the teaching is about trying to serve two masters. Matthew 6: 24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (Mammon refers to the things of this world.) If one master says one thing and the other master says the opposite what can a person do? The Lord Jesus here explains that we cannot serve God if we are taken up with the things of this world. Being taken up with the things of this world is the opposite of the way of God.

The Lord Jesus goes on to tell us how we should trust God to provide everything we need - this includes our physical and our spiritual needs. We are to do what we can to look after ourselves but we are not to worry about it. We are not to be anxious and obsessed with the things we need in this world because God knows what we need. Once we realise what God is like then it becomes clear that we can rely on Him for our eternal life too. This is what it means to have faith in God. A person who has faith in God knows that they can have every confidence in Him.

I read an account about how they catch little monkeys in Africa. Little monkeys are very quick. They move so fast its almost like they disappear. It's no good running round trying to grab them. It is not even any good having a net because they move too fast and escape nets being thrown over them.

The only way to catch little monkeys is to slow them down.

The monkey hunters get a jug with a narrow entrance that they fill almost to the top with rocks and sand to make it very heavy. Then they put in a piece of fruit that only just fits through the hole in the top of the jug. Then they move well away and watch.

The little monkey smells the nice fruit; perhaps it is his favourite fruit. He runs to the jug and reaching in to it, opens his hand to take the fruit. His thoughts are about how nice it will taste as he draws his hand out of the jug until he comes up against the inside of the hole. His hand went in OK but now he has a handful of nice fruit and cannot get his hand out unless he lets go of the fruit. He wants the fruit so he will not let go - even when the hunter comes he tries to drag the heavy jug away but he cannot move fast enough. The hunter comes quickly, puts the net over the monkey and catches him. This is how sinners are with their sinful selfishness. They won't let go even though it means they are trapped into hell.

There's a saying - "When you've dug yourself into the bottom of a hole stop digging." This is not something understood by sinful people in a spiritual sense. Our sin, your sin and my sin, our sinful selfish attitudes and actions put a barrier between each of us and God. The more we sin the more we add to that barrier. We daily add to the weight of sin that will one day mean we are cast into hell forever unless we can escape. Satan tempts sinners deeper into the habits of sin and we grasp at sin and won't let go - just like the little monkey with his hand in the jug - even though it is so dangerous!

This brings us back to Jesus' command to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. The Lord Jesus directs us to what should be our priority. We must admit what we are like and ask God to change us and to give us the power to let go of the things that stop us making God and His ways our priority - this is our only hope. 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sin He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There is only one way for anyone to be delivered.

None of this is possible for us to achieve for ourselves. This is why The Lord Jesus came into the world. He came to save people like you and I who have done nothing but offend God and can do nothing to change the way we are. It is only because The Lord Jesus suffered in the place of sinful people that anyone can be forgiven and cleansed. Keeping the things of this world as our priority in life will get us nowhere but to a lost eternity in hell. Mark 8:36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Said The Lord Jesus in another place. The world will one day be completely burned up and gone. Even if someone actually could gain the whole world in this life they'd lose it all when their earthly life came to an end and then they'd be back to having nothing.

Only those who are given the power by God to seek first the kingdom of God and to truly seek to be covered by the righteousness of The Lord Jesus and to trust God for everything will ever find peace in this world and peace at last with God.