Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. (Matthew 6:19-24)

When we read brilliant words such as these, many of us scramble about in our hearts, seeking shade from such intensity. Note: It is helpful to think of the heart as that place where something can become a treasure or remain just a thing. There in the center of our hearts, where life either begins or ceases (see Proverbs 4:23), there is a conversation underway between the Holy Spirit and us. When this conversation reflects into our minds, it is often in the form of questions such as: “Is it possible to have wealth and not treasure it?” “What would actually constitute slavery to mammon?” “Am I a slave to materialism?”

If things are still too bright for us, we can push the questions further away from the center and, seeking a bit more shade, ask (perhaps with an attitude), “Well, why does Jesus have to use words like hate my earthly family and despise wealth anyway?”

If the remaining light is still too bright, the question gets shoved all the way to the periphery of our hearts where shade is abundant. Here in the shadow lands, we ask the wrong questions and unavoidably arrive at the wrong answers. Our wrong answers form a hard shell capable of deflecting light. This condition is evidenced by rationalizations such as, “Well, I was born into this culture. It’s not my fault. I didn’t choose affluence.  And after all, wealth is God’s sign of blessing to America and me.”

Do you see the progression in the heart from the light, through the shadows on into the darkness? If one stays in this place, tragically safe from the Light of the world, a destruction of conscience can occur where there is no Light at all. The Bible calls this a hardening of the heart and God, who gives us our heart’s desire, permits it. If one continues along this broad path, the inner, often-troubling conversation with the Holy Spirit may cease altogether and one will be troubled no more. We learn to live without questions, keeping a safe distance from those who do. Biblically speaking, what has just happened?

 The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! (Matthew 6:22-23)

So, just how great is our darkness?

In a culture such as ours, where there is much affluence and much religion, it is not surprising that our particular darkness would be reflected by the idea that one can be saved from Hell without knowing Jesus as Lord. An analogy by Dallas Willard from Divine Conspiracy seems appropriate. It begins in Chapter 1, called “Entering The Eternal Kind of Life Now.”

 Life in the Dark. Recently a pilot was practicing high-speed maneuvers in a jet fighter. She turned the controls for what she thought was a steep ascent—and flew straight into the ground. She was unaware that she had been flying upside down. 

Her darkness was indeed great, and her inability to reckon with it cost the ultimate price. Following Professor Willard’s analogy, I believe that many of us are unknowingly flying upside down. I believe, if we are asking questions like, “Why does Jesus have to be so harsh?” we are just flipping switches on a control panel that is shorting out and is no longer feeding back to us accurate information about our flight path.

Our darkness is very great because we are infected in mass. Not wanting to be troubled by deeper heart-level questions regarding our true motives, we have accumulated for ourselves voices that tell us to steer clear of this domain. By cutting and pasting select ideas from scripture, we have redefined normal spirituality, excluding the heart, which is the birthing place of God’s kingdom. How does this happen?

I believe we form unspoken yet powerfully binding contracts with these voices. Their power rests in the fact that they form a collective to which people belong if they agree to not ask troubling questions. These quiet agreements work out like this: “If you (the voice) will steer clear of (or just give lip service to) these heart-level discipleship issues we (your patrons) will sustain your institution with our support.” The cannon of these unspoken agreements have redefined the gospel to suit western culture. The consequence? A church that wants a savior but not a Lord, a church that is saturated with knowledge and tradition yet void of transformational Life.

If this seems harsh, I believe it is only because we measure from the wrong benchmarks. We have exchanged New Testament Christianity (which was given as a plumb line) for a convenient collection of ideas that shield us from the light of Jesus’ most penetrating words.

Back to our flight. If we want to know whether we’re flying upside down or right side up, we must ask ourselves if Jesus himself is our navigational gyroscope, orienting our hearts toward reality. If we have not yet given our lives to him unconditionally, the gyro is not spinning. If we are not maintaining this conversation with his Holy Spirit, which assumes that all Jesus’ words apply to our hearts, we are likely inverted in our flight.

We may think the trajectory of our lives is a nice ascent while in reality an eternally consequential crash is imminent. The only way for any of us to have a functional gyro and repair our damaged navigation system is to live out of the center of our beings where we have given him permission to live and reign and say and do whatever he deems best. This requires that we keep this dialogue with the Holy Spirit, regarding wealth (and other messy things), alive. This is, in large part, what I believe it means to live with Jesus as our Lord.

It truly is Him with whom we have to do because it is before Him we will one day stand in order to give account of our lives. Here we shall finally discover which kingdom we treasured and which one we despised. It will be clear who was Lord in our lives, Jesus Christ or ourselves. All men’s secrets will then be revealed. If we have loved this world, if we have pushed this two-masters issue away from our hearts, our darkness will be great. Just how great it is will be exposed on that Great Day.

 Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. (Psalm 139:1-3)

 Therefore

 Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way. (Psalm 139:23-24)

If the type of conversation that was going on in the center of the psalmist’s heart could gain traction in our own, it would invite the Light of this world His rightful place as our Avionic system and our Pilot.

I believe our ongoing willingness to be searched by the Light of God’s Word is the only way we can live in harmony with Jesus’ words…and avoid a crash.

 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Father, teach us to intentionally identify and repent of every lie that has become a part of the bad wiring in our hearts. Come Helper and grant us the grace to be humble enough to break the agreements we’ve made with this temporal world.  Allow our definitions of your words to be refashioned to reflect their rightful kingdom meanings. Help reestablish your kingdom in our hearts as the beachhead for a fuller gospel in a culture contentedly flying upside down. Amen.

 

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