Matthew 6:22-24

This year we are covering the four Gospel Accounts together in chronological order.

In the previous post, we covered Matthew 6:16-21. Here was the conclusion:

Jesus said to fast (Right WHAT) with an anointed head and washed face (Right HOW) so that God will recompense you (Right WHY). Jesus summarized His presentation on Reward by encouraging His believers to store up Reward (which was different than Salvation) in heaven so that it would motivate us to make it to heaven.


During the Matthew Series, we covered these chapters in detail. Remember, the purpose of this year's Series is to show the chronology and the role of each passage relative to the occurrence of other passages. For the rest of this Series, with each post I will provide a link to the associated Matthew Series post for those who want to go in depth with each passage. For example, here is the link to the Matthew Series for today's post: Matthew 6:22-24.

Today's post is short and serves as the transition between the first half of Matthew chapter 6 which dealt with Reward and the second half of Matthew chapter 6...


Matthew 6
"22 The lamp of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light."

(The verse previous to verse 22 recorded that Jesus stated that focusing on Reward in heaven would help us pursue Salvation. Verse 22 referenced the theme of verse 21 by stating what the person focused their eyes on would cause their entire being to follow. Basically, if the eyes are focused on heaven, then the person will pursue Salvation...the person will be full of light. Jesus then gave the contrastive option...)

"23 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 the darkness!"

(If the person's focus was not on heaven, but on evil, then the person will be full of darkness...the person will not pursue Salvation. Since everyone will exist forever, the darkness in a person that leads to eternal torment is very great.)

"24 No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."

(This verse removed the option of being both light and dark...being able to pursue Salvation (God) while also storing up earthly treasure...which was called "mammon". Everyone is either serving God or serving the world...there is no in between according to Jesus.)

(If we serve God, then mammon ought to serve us. However, if we serve mammon, then we are asking God to serve us. The rest of Matthew chapter 6 focused on how to resist serving the world's system with specific examples.)


CONCLUSION
Jesus stated that everyone is either serving God or serving the world.

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