Posted on 08/09/2017 9:07:16 AM PDT by metmom
“‘Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth’” (Matthew 6:19).
A true believer is not to hoard earthly possessions.
You may remember this old adage: “The miser says coins are flat that they may rest in stacks; the spendthrift says they are round that they may roll.” In Matthew 6:9 Jesus is specifically talking about the miser. The Greek verb translated “lay up” is thesaurizete, from which we get the word thesaurus—a treasury of words. Jesus is using a play on words by saying, “Do not treasure up treasures for yourselves.” The context of the passage shows that He is referring to stockpiling or hoarding.
The Greek also conveys the idea of stacking or placing something horizontally, as one stacks coins. When something is stacked, it is not being used—it is in a passive condition. Conversely, whenever the Greek has the idea of a vertical sense, it speaks of an active use—being invested for some worthwhile purpose or goal. Jesus is here referring to wealth that is being placed in stacks—simply being stored for safekeeping; it is stored that way to make a show of wealth or to create an environment of lazy indulgence (cf. Luke 12:16-21).
It’s clear from this passage, as well as from many others in Scripture, that Jesus is not advocating poverty as a means to spirituality. He only once told a person to “sell your possessions and give to the poor” (Matt. 19:21). In that particular case, the young man’s wealth was a barrier between him and the lordship of Christ. It was a test to see if he was fully committed to turning over the control of his life to Christ. His response proved he was not (v. 22).
Unlike the rich young man, you are a follower of Christ and are to be fully committed to Him, no matter what it may cost you. If you have that kind of commitment, you will seek God’s kingdom first instead of hoarding earthly possessions (cf. Matt. 6:33).
Suggestions for Prayer
Ask the Lord to help you live unselfishly, not hoarding earthly possessions.
For Further Study
Read Proverbs 3:9, 13-15; 8:10, 19; 16:16. What virtues are better than temporal riches?
Studying God’s Word ping
[[Handling Possessions Properly]]
They are mine mine mine- keep your hands off them!
That’s basically how we respond....
lol i forgot about that scene
This infers that any collector is not a True Christian. However I don’t believe having a hobby is in and itself enough to damn someone.
we don’t become damned by anything- but we do commit sins that hurt our relationship with Christ if we do them
So, I have a bunch of mid-1970’s high powered hi-fi separates in storage for later use (that seems to never come). I’ve been swapping them out of my main vintage system. Should I just keep one and sell all the others?
“Keep your hands off my stack!”
not sure what that means, but ok
It’s from Pink Floyd Money...
Oh, by the way, “Which one’s Pink?”
“Don’t give me that do goody-good bullsh......”
If you’ve ever had to clean out an elder relative’s home you will learn things about those people that you never knew.
After spending a summer doing that three times; I came to my wife and said,”If I ever need storage space, buy Contractor trash bags.”
Collecting for a hobby’s sake is fine. Not throwing anything away is not.
you gotta remember though that older people grew up with practically nothing- ‘waste not want not’ attitude- so they tended to collect lots of stuff ‘just incase’- it wasn’t that they were materialistic so much as it was that they were afraid of bad times descending on us again- it’s a holdover attitude fro mthe depression years- but of course it can get so bad that they hoard things like burnt out light bulbs, and toasters that don’t work anymore too-
I have, when my m-i-l passed away.
She owned two homes. One in NY and one in FL.
BOTH needed to be cleaned out.
She was not a hoarder per se, but still, more stuff than we wanted or needed.
However, it cured me of keeping stuff. I am going through mine and weeding out a lot of stuff. I do not want to do to my kids.
It’s a line from Money, by Pink Floyd. :)
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