Jesus tells us (Matt. 6:19-21) not to "store up treasures on earth". Some translations actually use the word "wealth" instead of treasure.
What does this mean?
Especially in light of our 401Ks, retirement plans, stuff in our houses, and so forth...
Is it possible that we really should not hang on to this stuff? Is this the real meaning of the words of christ, who we claim to follow?
*Credit on this subject belongs to the jack-of-all-trades, as he posed this question to me recently.
6 comments:
if you are going to believe that jesus actually said these words you have also believe that he said to store of treasure in heaven. that being the case then you would also have to ask the corollary - are you storing up treasure in heaven? and what the fuck does that even mean?
Good point Mike.
So everyone...what does "store treasure/wealth in heaven" mean?
well, looking a little further Jesus says you can't serve two masters, you will either serve one and hate the other or vice versa, you can't serve two masters.
it sounds like Jesus is saying that serving God is how you lay up treasures in heaven.
further, it sounds like storing up wealth on earth is the opposite of serving God.
interestingly enough he goes on to teach about not worrying which is an absolutely necessary skill when you don't have any padding in the ol' bank account!
what i hear in this particular text is that it is anxiety over how we will provide for ourselves in the future that keeps us from being generous with God and one another. but if we will just trust him he will take care of us even better than he does the birds and flowers.
sorry for such a long comment.
peace
hmm, it has been my experience that if i don't take care of myself i am SOL cause god sure isn't doing shit.
my experience, limited though it is, is that when i was taking care of myself i was SOL cause i couldn't get shit right.
God's been doing a much better job of taking care of me than i ever did.
peace
Why is Mike so angry?
Oh, Hey B, where do you get all your pictures from? Do those come from ClipArt in Windows XP? I somehow can't see some of those being manufactured by Microsoft....
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