Here Jesus reaches His climax, and He is not speaking loosely. The word for serve is the language of slavery, not the flexible arrangement of working two part time jobs. A slave was wholly owned by one master and could not divide his allegiance. The older word mammon...
This is the dense, brilliant center of the passage, and the wordplay is easy to miss in English. The word translated healthy is haplous, which does not simply mean physically well; its most natural sense is single, undivided, and generous. The word for bad is poneros,...
This single verse lands like a verdict. Notice that the logic runs in both directions. It is not merely that your heart will follow wherever you put your money; it is that your money already reveals where your heart has gone. What you value determines what you invest...
Jesus does not open gently. The phrase translated do not lay up carries the force of a present prohibition, closer to stop laying up. He is not warning the disciples about a temptation they might face someday; He is calling them away from something they are already...
By the time Jesus completes his third repetition of ‘your Father who sees in secret will reward you,’ he has finished the opening argument of Matthew 6. Three disciplines, one pattern, one verdict. The hidden life is not invisible. The Father who dwells in...
