| on the mount. Back in Matthew 6:19-24, Jesus expands on how complete our submission is to be, "Lay not up for yourselves treasure upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, where thieves break through and steal: 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 light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! 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.". Here, Jesus has very plainly told us how complete our commitment has to be. He has told us that we must choose which camp we will be in, that there is definitely no way to flit between camps as our emotions ( self will ) dictate. God has told us over and over again that the ways of the materialistic world are not, and cannot be His ways. Once again the question comes to us, what is the desire of my heart in everything I say and do? Is my desire to please God, or myself? God knows, and he expects total and complete honesty from us when we search our hearts. He doesn't want us to be fooled by Satan into believing that we are in a different state than we really are. There is only one defense against Satan in this area, that is to take God seriously at his word. We need to read his word carefully and completely searching diligently for the total meaning that God meant for us to understand. We'll see in Matthew chapter 7, that God has promised us, that if we seriously seek the truth, He will provide it. Matthew 6:25-34 furthers this thought that we must surrender all, "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of 35 _____________________________________________________________________________ the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? ( For after all these things do the Gentiles seek: ) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.". Did God tell us here that if we get saved we no longer have to live by the sweat of our brow? No, we are still yet under the curse that God put down in Genesis 3 until the time we see in Revelation 21:1-4, "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.". Jesus wants us to keep our eyes on things above, while still living out the curse that we brought on ourselves in the garden of Eden. That is exactly what we just read of Paul saying to the Romans. Jesus is quoted in the balance of the gospels, expanding on the sermon of the mount. Every thing comes back to this one simple truth; you 36 ______________________________________________________________________________ |
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