Yesterday, we saw that the word “judgment” can be used in two ways. It may either mean to discern or to condemn. Discernment is an essential part of wisdom, and something Jesus expects his followers to do. The kind of judgment Jesus forbids, however, is the sort that condemns another person or group. It diminishes their inherent worth as those made in God’s image. Unfortunately, religious people regularly fall into the trap of believing that discernment necessitates condemnation. Or, said another way, that a person’s value directly correlates to their righteousness.

We may discern that a person or group is wrong about a belief or behavior, but too often this becomes an excuse to value them less. At that moment we have entered into the kind of judgment Jesus forbids. Sometimes we are drawn into this condemning posture of ungodly exclusion because it magnifies our own righteousness. The more forcefully we condemn those people, the more we simultaneously elevate the superiority of our people.

Sadly, this sort of rhetoric fills our culture and has become acceptable in the public square. A recent example was posted on the official White House webpage. The site is black with a glowing green font declaring “They Walk Among Us.” It is designed to look like a sci-fi website with space imagery and X-Files-like intrigue. It talks about a government cover-up, an alien invasion, and the threat to our families, communities, and nation. It features an “alien encounters” ticker and an “arrest map.” It takes some time before visitors to the site realize the White House is equating immigrants to extraterrestrials; to non-human invaders.

I generally avoid politics in this devotional and certainly anything partisan, but sometimes, as Karl Barth said, we must read the Bible and the newspaper together. Fixing America’s broken immigration system requires wisdom and discernment. No doubt that will lead faithful Christians to advocate for different solutions, and we should have a vigorous debate about what policies are best. What is absolutely unacceptable for Christians, however, is the dehumanization of anyone made in God’s image—even someone who has broken the law.

When the government declares a group of people to be sub-human, it is saying that they are not subject to the same rights or dignity as the rest of us. They should not matter to us, because they do not matter to God. In other words, condemning and dehumanizing rhetoric is not only a way of diminishing the value of those we disagree with, but it is also a way of elevating our own sense of superiority. This is why Jesus is so adamant that those who belong to the kingdom of the heavens not engage in condemning judgment. It is the antithesis of love. Author and pastor Greg Boyd puts it this way: “You can’t love and judge at the same time,” because “It’s impossible to ascribe unsurpassable worth to others when you’re using others to ascribe worth to yourself.”

Daily Scripture

Matthew 7:1–5

1 John 4:7-21

Weekly Prayer

From Ashton Oxenden (1808–1892)

God, I want your guidance and direction in all I do. Let your wisdom counsel me, your hand lead me, and your arm support me. I put myself into your hands. Breathe into my soul holy and heavenly desires. Conform me to your own image. Make me like my Savior. Enable me in some measure to live here on earth as he lived, and to act in all things as he would have acted.

Amen.

Many parts of the Sermon on the Mount have entered our cultural lexicon. Sometimes phrases like “the meek shall inherit the earth,” “turn the other cheek,” and “a city on a hill” are quoted by people who have no clue of their origin in Jesus’ sermon. Perhaps the verse most cited by non-Christians is Matthew 7:1, “Do not judge.” In this case, however, many people do know Jesus said it and will quote the command back to his followers who often seem the least interested in obeying it.

The straightforward prohibition against judgment is a favorite because it fits the spirit of our age that sees all choices as valid and all values as equally noble. To those with only a soundbyte knowledge of Scripture, taking Matthew 7:1 out of context makes Jesus seem like a postmodern relativist with no interest in the behavior of others. Of course, anyone who has listened to his sermon up to this point would know that is lunacy. After all, in the previous two chapters Jesus had a lot to say about greed, lust, anger, divorce, hypocrisy, generosity, and non-violence. So, how can the command to not judge sit alongside Jesus’ many moral and ethical commands?

The popularity of this verse stems from a misunderstanding of what it means to judge. F.F. Bruce, a New Testament scholar, explains the problem this way. “Judgment is an ambiguous word, in Greek as in English: it may mean exercising a proper discernment, or it may mean sitting in judgment on people (or even condemning them).” Therefore, we must be clear about what kind of judgment Jesus forbids if we are to properly understand and apply this part of the sermon.

On the one hand, to judge can mean to discern or differentiate between things, as in “I judged the red car to be in better condition than the blue one.” If Jesus meant for us to avoid acts of discernment, it would render all of his teachings, not to mention all of Scripture, meaningless. Let’s remember that in the same sermon where he says, “do not judge,” he also calls his followers to judge between right and wrong and good and evil (see Matthew 7:15–20).

The second meaning of judge is to sit in a place of superiority to condemn, or to declare another person is worthless. This is the sort of judgment Jesus warns us against. Those who belong to the kingdom of the heavens are to see other people from God’s point of view. That means we are to recognize them as valuable objects of God’s love, never beyond the reach of his care or redemption. So, when Jesus says, “Do not judge,” he is forbidding us from dehumanizing condemnation. It is never our role to pass final judgment upon another person, or declare them to be irretrievably guilty and without any value.

What do these two kinds of judgment look like in practice? Our world is a very broken place, and sometimes we must identify injustice, greed, violence, and evils of many kinds, as well as the people and systems that perpetrate them. That requires the discerning sort of judgment. But we must not allow this to descend further into the judgment that condemns. That means seeing in those who practice evil a reflection of ourselves, and believing that, as someone made in God’s image, they carry inherent worth.

Daily Scripture

Matthew 7:1–5

1 Corinthians 4:1-5

Weekly Prayer

From Ashton Oxenden (1808–1892)

God, I want your guidance and direction in all I do. Let your wisdom counsel me, your hand lead me, and your arm support me. I put myself into your hands. Breathe into my soul holy and heavenly desires. Conform me to your own image. Make me like my Savior. Enable me in some measure to live here on earth as he lived, and to act in all things as he would have acted.

Amen.

shamrocks, leprechauns, and pints of Guinness, few remember the remarkable story of Saint Patrick, but for me he exemplifies Jesus’ message in the Sermon on the Mount.

Patrick was not Irish. He was born in Britain but kidnapped when he was 16, sold as a slave, and shipped across the sea to Ireland. While a shepherd in a foreign land, he learned to commune deeply with Christ and trust him for his needs. His faith grew so strong that years later, after escaping from Ireland, he chose to return to bring the liberating message of Christ to the people who had enslaved him.

His unwavering faith and lack of fear make Patrick a vivid example of the life without anxiety that Jesus spoke about in the Sermon on the Mount. Rather than worrying about his life, Patrick recognized the presence of his Lord everywhere he went. This prayer, known as The Breastplate of Saint Patrick, captures his vision of God’s ever-present provision. Historians say the prayer was probably not written by Patrick but composed centuries later. Still, it captures the faith and courage of the saint, and I hope it inspires you to release your fears today.

Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

Daily Scripture

Matthew 6:25–34

Luke 12:32–34

Weekly Prayer

From Ashton Oxenden (1808–1892)

God, I want your guidance and direction in all I do. Let your wisdom counsel me, your hand lead me, and your arm support me. I put myself into your hands. Breathe into my soul holy and heavenly desires. Conform me to your own image. Make me like my Savior. Enable me in some measure to live here on earth as he lived, and to act in all things as he would have acted.

Amen.

The unintended consequence of this, however, is that we jump to the topic we are interested in and consume those verses in isolation from what has preceded it. This leads us to see the Sermon on the Mount as a collection of disconnected teachings of Jesus that the gospel writer just happened to include together. We assume it’s a coincidence that Jesus’ instructions about worry happen to follow his words about greed, but they could have just as easily been in the opposite order or nowhere near one another.

In truth, the entire sermon is a unified, cohesive argument, with each section building upon the previous one. Therefore, to fully grasp what Jesus says about worry in Matthew 6:25-34, we must see how it connects to his message about greed and generosity in the preceding verses, 6:19-24. When we read them together, we will begin to recognize the link between worry and greed.

Both are rooted in how we perceive the world and the God who governs it. If we believe the world is a dangerous place in which God cannot be trusted, it makes perfect sense to be afraid and hoard our resources. However, if we see the world as Jesus does, as a God-with-us creation in which our heavenly Father is seeking our well-being and where we are perfectly safe in his hands, then worry and greed aren’t just unnecessary; they are illogical. In other words, these topics are linked together in Jesus’ sermon because they have the same solution. Both greed and worry are overcome with a proper vision of God’s love for us.

Thomas Aquinas, the great theologian of the Middle Ages, said fear causes a contraction of the soul. He compared its effect on a person to a city under siege. When an army attacked a city, the inhabitants in the countryside would gather their resources and barricade themselves behind the city’s walls. From this contracted, inward-focused position, they would hunker down and hope their food and water would outlast the attacking army’s will to fight.

Similarly, when we perceive the world as threatening, we contract; we pull our resources inward in a posture of protection and self-preservation and worry. We can only think about ourselves, our needs, and our survival. From this defensive position, we cannot love because we cannot give. This is exactly what Jesus wants to set us free from. When we come to see that our heavenly Father cares for all he has made, from blades of grass to birds in the air, and that he will take care of us as well, we can be released from our captivity to self-centeredness, which manifests as both worry and greed, and begin instead to see and meet the needs of others. As Henri Nouwen said, “Fear engenders fear, it never gives birth to love.”

Daily Scripture

Matthew 6:25–34

Ephesians 4:28

Weekly Prayer

From Ashton Oxenden (1808–1892)

God, I want your guidance and direction in all I do. Let your wisdom counsel me, your hand lead me, and your arm support me. I put myself into your hands. Breathe into my soul holy and heavenly desires. Conform me to your own image. Make me like my Savior. Enable me in some measure to live here on earth as he lived, and to act in all things as he would have acted.

Amen.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus flatly denies the view that life is the pursuit of material desires. He reminds us that life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing, despite what the 5,000 daily advertisements would like us to believe. Jesus’ call to take our focus off of material needs and desires is intended to alleviate our anxiety. When we see the world from God’s perspective, as a place under his providential care and provision, we can release our fears. When we see the world from the perspective of Madison Ave., not only will our fears remain, they will multiply.

Back in 1897, at the dawn of the modern advertising industry, one newspaper reader said that in the past we “skipped ads unless some want compelled us to read, while now we read to find out what we really want.” Most of the 5,000 ads we see every day are not designed to remind us of our needs, but to manufacture new ones. Imagine if you were reminded 5,000 times a day of God’s presence, love, and promise to care for you. How would that affect your level of anxiety?

If you are struggling with fear or the stress of trying to acquire more, consider removing some of the ads you encounter each day. What media can you turn off? What places might you avoid? Replace them with prayer, reading Scripture, or time with things that lift your imagination to God.

Daily Scripture

Matthew 6:25–34

Philippians 4:8–9

Weekly Prayer

From Ashton Oxenden (1808–1892)

God, I want your guidance and direction in all I do. Let your wisdom counsel me, your hand lead me, and your arm support me. I put myself into your hands. Breathe into my soul holy and heavenly desires. Conform me to your own image. Make me like my Savior. Enable me in some measure to live here on earth as he lived, and to act in all things as he would have acted.

Amen.

In the Exodus story, for example, Pharaoh and Egypt represent the myth of scarcity. They are threatened by the growth of the Hebrew people, so to protect their power and limited resources, the Egyptians persecuted the Hebrews and killed their children. A fear of scarcity led Pharaoh to violence, injustice, and greed. God’s people, on the other hand, experienced his abundance. Every day, he provided them with meat and bread in the wilderness, and water flowed from rocks. Assured of God’s provision, they were called to walk with him and put aside vengeance and greed and instead seek justice, love, kindness, and humility.

We see the tension between scarcity and abundance throughout Jesus’ ministry as well. Many of his miracles are signs pointing to God’s abundant provision, where people fear not having enough. The turning of water into wine at the wedding in Cana and the feeding of the multitudes with a few fish and loaves show that everywhere Jesus went, there was always more than enough to drink and to eat. The raising of Jairus’ daughter and Lazarus reveals that God can even overcome death with an abundance of life.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explains the terrible outcomes of embracing the myth of scarcity and why we are called to believe the reality of abundance in God’s kingdom. If we live in constant fear of not having enough—as Pharaoh did—it will lead us to greed and injustice in the name of self-preservation. We will fall into the trap of believing that in order for us to have enough, someone else must have less. It is a zero-sum vision of the world that always leads to anger, division, and suffering.

If, however, we believe the message and ministry of Jesus and trust that with God there is always an abundance, then we can be set free from a self-centered posture of fear and greed. And from this new position, we will be set free to truly be generous, self-giving, and loving toward others—even those we previously viewed as threats.

How do you see the world? Do you believe in the myth of scarcity, or have you been liberated by the abundance of God’s kingdom? And what voices are you listening to? The Pharaohs of this world telling you who to blame for the scarcity you fear, or are you listening to the voice of Jesus calling you to trust in God’s loving provision of your needs?

Daily Scripture

Matthew 6:25–34

Ephesians 3:20–21

Weekly Prayer

From Henri Nouwen (1932–1996)

Dear Lord, help me keep my eyes on you. You are the incarnation of Divine Love, you are the expression of God’s infinite compassion, you are the visible manifestation of the Father’s holiness. You are beauty, goodness, gentleness, forgiveness, and mercy. In you all can be found. Outside of you nothing can be found. Why should I look elsewhere or go elsewhere? You have the words of eternal life, you are food and drink, you are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. You are the light that shines in the darkness, the lamp on the lampstand, the house on the hilltop. You are the perfect Icon of God. In and through you I can see and find my way to the Heavenly Father. O Holy One, Beautiful One, Glorious One, be my Lord, my Savior, my Redeemer, my Guide, my Counselor, my Comforter, my Hope, my Joy, and my Peace. To you I want to give all that I am. Let me be generous, not stingy or hesitant. Let me give you all—all I have, think, do, and feel. It is yours, O Lord. Please accept it and make if fully your own.

Amen.

Whenever we read about slavery in the Bible, it’s normal to assume it resembled the sort of slavery that existed in the United States before the Civil War. While there were certain similarities, the two institutions differed in significant ways. First, America’s form of slavery was race-based. It was widely believed that people of African or Native American descent were inherently inferior to Europeans, and therefore destined by God and nature to be ruled over and enslaved. Slavery in ancient Rome was not race-based. Anyone could be enslaved regardless of their ethnicity or skin color.

Secondly, unlike American slavery, Roman slavery was not hereditary, and there were more opportunities for freedom and social advancement. A person born into slavery in ancient Rome could work for their freedom, become a full citizen, and even rise to a powerful position in Roman society. That was inconceivable for an enslaved African in the American South.

Of course, slavery in both the U.S. and Rome was brutal and inhumane, but it’s important to recognize the differences so that we don’t misread or misapply the teachings of Scripture. But in both settings, the idea of loyalty to one’s master was similar. The fact that Jesus says everyone—both free and enslaved—has a master is revealing. He’s saying we are all enslaved to something or someone, regardless of our economic or social status. The only question is—who is our master?

In Maryland, before the Civil War, there was an enslaved man named Jacob who made it his habit to pray three times each day. At regular intervals, he would stop his labor, rest quietly, and commune with God. This enraged his master, a cruel and terrible man named Saunders. While kneeling in the field to pray one day, Saunders approached Jacob and pointed a gun at his head. He ordered him to stop praying and get back to work.

Jacob calmly finished his prayer and then invited Saunders to pull the trigger. “Your loss will be my gain,” he said. “I have two masters—master Jesus in heaven, and master Saunders on earth. I have a soul and a body; the body belongs to you, but my soul belongs to Jesus.” Saunders was so shaken by Jacob’s lack of fear that he never touched him again.

Jacob said he had two masters, but his commitment to prayer and his defiance proved he really had only one. His example validates Jesus’ words that anyone with two masters “will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” Jacob was devoted to Jesus and despised Saunders.

No one can have more than one master. Who is yours?

Daily Scripture

Matthew 6:19-24

Exodus 20:1–3

Weekly Prayer

From Henri Nouwen (1932–1996)

Dear Lord, help me keep my eyes on you. You are the incarnation of Divine Love, you are the expression of God’s infinite compassion, you are the visible manifestation of the Father’s holiness. You are beauty, goodness, gentleness, forgiveness, and mercy. In you all can be found. Outside of you nothing can be found. Why should I look elsewhere or go elsewhere? You have the words of eternal life, you are food and drink, you are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. You are the light that shines in the darkness, the lamp on the lampstand, the house on the hilltop. You are the perfect Icon of God. In and through you I can see and find my way to the Heavenly Father. O Holy One, Beautiful One, Glorious One, be my Lord, my Savior, my Redeemer, my Guide, my Counselor, my Comforter, my Hope, my Joy, and my Peace. To you I want to give all that I am. Let me be generous, not stingy or hesitant. Let me give you all—all I have, think, do, and feel. It is yours, O Lord. Please accept it and make if fully your own.

I don’t entirely agree with Kierkegaard because I think some parts of the Bible are quite difficult to understand, but his point remains valid. The part of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus speaks about money is quite clear, and that is what makes so many of us scramble for a convoluted and complicated explanation full of loopholes and exceptions. We become “scheming swindlers” of the Scriptures in order to escape simple obedience to Jesus’ words. Ironically, in the process, we validate Jesus’ point about the idolatrous power of money to twist our loyalties.

But why does Jesus single out money as a temptation when there are so many other false masters we may choose to serve other than God? First, we should note that Jesus is not saying that money or wealth are inherently evil. Scripture is full of godly people who are wealthy. Some were even disciples of Jesus who funded his itinerant ministry. Although it may be used for great good in the hands of a righteous person, money also possesses a dangerous dark side.

Money is an alluring false god precisely because it provides the feeling and illusion of divine power. With money, we can control the world and conform it to our will. It allows us to provide for our needs and desires, overcome scarcity, and manipulate those around us. Wealth can isolate us from the challenges that others face; money can create unique opportunities for those with it that are unavailable to those without it. In this way, unlike many other potential idols, money appears to possess magical abilities. It is near supernatural in its capacity to conform the world to our wills. For this reason, it is one of the most appealing and tempting alternatives to trusting God.

This is why Jesus warned, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24). A heart dedicated to an idol as powerful as wealth may feel no need to trust in God. In fact, such a heart will inevitably seek to reduce God to a tool employed to gain more money. This is precisely what “prosperity preachers” tell their misguided flocks that long for control over their lives: Praise Jesus, follow God’s rules, and he will give you the desire of your heart, which is money. And they will cleverly employ, isolate, and twist Scripture to validate this false teaching, which is what scheming swindlers always do.

Daily Scripture

Matthew 6:19-24

Luke 12:13–21

Weekly Prayer

From Henri Nouwen (1932–1996)

Dear Lord, help me keep my eyes on you. You are the incarnation of Divine Love, you are the expression of God’s infinite compassion, you are the visible manifestation of the Father’s holiness. You are beauty, goodness, gentleness, forgiveness, and mercy. In you all can be found. Outside of you nothing can be found. Why should I look elsewhere or go elsewhere? You have the words of eternal life, you are food and drink, you are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. You are the light that shines in the darkness, the lamp on the lampstand, the house on the hilltop. You are the perfect Icon of God. In and through you I can see and find my way to the Heavenly Father. O Holy One, Beautiful One, Glorious One, be my Lord, my Savior, my Redeemer, my Guide, my Counselor, my Comforter, my Hope, my Joy, and my Peace. To you I want to give all that I am. Let me be generous, not stingy or hesitant. Let me give you all—all I have, think, do, and feel. It is yours, O Lord. Please accept it and make if fully your own.

Amen.

Haidt draws on psychological research and his deep concern about the negative effects of social media on the mental and social health of young people, but his call to guard our attention aligns with centuries of Christian theology and wisdom. For example, according to theologian Paul Tillich, everyone is religious because everyone has something of ultimate concern. Tillich’s understanding of “ultimate concern” is congruent with Haidt’s words about paying attention: where we focus our attention determines what we believe is of ultimate concern, and that ultimate concern will demand ever-increasing amounts of our attention. It is a self-reinforcing dynamic.

Haidt is worried that our attention and concern are increasingly being directed toward trivial things because of mobile technology and dehumanizing algorithms. But even if our ultimate concern is more noble—our children, our spouse, our country, our profession—in the theological sense, these very good things may serve as a false god. By definition, a person can only have one thing of ultimate concern. Whatever this treasure is will define our life and determine our destiny.

For this reason, Jesus tells us to be careful about what we treasure; what we give our attention to. “No one can serve two masters,” he said, and “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” With these important remarks, Jesus is revealing the power and centrality of our hearts in setting the direction of our lives. As James K. A. Smith has said, “We are not primarily thinkers but lovers.” We are defined by our affections, which are, in turn, shaped by where we direct our attention.

What is your ultimate concern today? What occupies your imagination, your attention, and motivates your actions? Jesus warns us not to give our precious, life-defining attention to anything or anyone unworthy of it—it belongs to God, who is a treasure of immeasurable value.

Daily Scripture

Matthew 6:19–24

Mark 12:28–31

Weekly Prayer

From Henri Nouwen (1932–1996)

Dear Lord, help me keep my eyes on you. You are the incarnation of Divine Love, you are the expression of God’s infinite compassion, you are the visible manifestation of the Father’s holiness. You are beauty, goodness, gentleness, forgiveness, and mercy. In you all can be found. Outside of you nothing can be found. Why should I look elsewhere or go elsewhere? You have the words of eternal life, you are food and drink, you are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. You are the light that shines in the darkness, the lamp on the lampstand, the house on the hilltop. You are the perfect Icon of God. In and through you I can see and find my way to the Heavenly Father. O Holy One, Beautiful One, Glorious One, be my Lord, my Savior, my Redeemer, my Guide, my Counselor, my Comforter, my Hope, my Joy, and my Peace. To you I want to give all that I am. Let me be generous, not stingy or hesitant. Let me give you all—all I have, think, do, and feel. It is yours, O Lord. Please accept it and make if fully your own.

The basic principle behind the Rorschach test can help us understand one of the trickier parts of the Sermon on the Mount. After his remarks about our treasure, and before his warnings about wealth, Jesus speaks about the importance of our eyes. He says, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body is full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.” To modern readers, this business about eyes, light, and darkness sounds both odd and out of place within a discussion of treasure, money, and greed, but to Jesus’ ancient audience, the connection would have been clear.

Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has been focused on our inner orientation because it determines our outward behavior. Remember, he shifted from the command against murder (external) to the danger of anger (internal). And he pivoted from the sin of adultery (external) to the sin of lust (internal). He makes the same move here regarding wealth, but using the ancient world’s odd understanding of anatomy.

We know the eye is an organ that allows light to enter our bodies, making sight possible, but in the ancient world, it was thought that sight was a process by which light passed out of the body through the eyes. Jesus is referencing this common idea to say that the way we see the world indicates what is inside us—just like a Rorschach test. We may either see the world from a righteous perspective —light—or a wicked perspective—darkness. In other words, how we perceive and interpret the world says less about the world and much more about us.

Taking this further, when Jesus uses the words “healthy” and “unhealthy” to describe how people see, he connects our vision to the broader economic context of this part of the sermon. In other passages of Scripture, these words are often translated as “generous” and “stingy” (see Deuteronomy 15:9; Matthew 20:15). Jesus is saying that the way we handle our wealth reflects what is in our hearts. Those who practice generosity and see those in need with compassion are full of light. Those who are greedy, who see only their own need and desire to acquire more for themselves, are full of darkness.

Therefore, these verses are more than a call to generosity or a warning about greed. Once again, Jesus isn’t just concerned with our behavior but with our inner transformation. Said another way, while so many religious communities are fixated on changing the inkblot, Jesus recognizes that what really needs to change is how we see the inkblot. To live within the kingdom of the heavens, we must be changed on the inside to see the world differently, and only then will our behavior follow.

Daily Scripture

Matthew 6:19–24

Deuteronomy 15:7–11

Weekly Prayer

From Henri Nouwen (1932–1996)

Dear Lord, help me keep my eyes on you. You are the incarnation of Divine Love, you are the expression of God’s infinite compassion, you are the visible manifestation of the Father’s holiness. You are beauty, goodness, gentleness, forgiveness, and mercy. In you all can be found. Outside of you nothing can be found. Why should I look elsewhere or go elsewhere? You have the words of eternal life, you are food and drink, you are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. You are the light that shines in the darkness, the lamp on the lampstand, the house on the hilltop. You are the perfect Icon of God. In and through you I can see and find my way to the Heavenly Father. O Holy One, Beautiful One, Glorious One, be my Lord, my Savior, my Redeemer, my Guide, my Counselor, my Comforter, my Hope, my Joy, and my Peace. To you I want to give all that I am. Let me be generous, not stingy or hesitant. Let me give you all—all I have, think, do, and feel. It is yours, O Lord. Please accept it and make if fully your own.

Modern Christians associate heaven with the afterlife. It’s the “good place” that dead souls go who are right with God. Therefore, heaven is understood to be a distant, disincarnate realm that is inaccessible to us right now, but that we hope to enter sometime in the future when our bodies reach room temperature.

If this is our understanding of heaven, it will profoundly influence our interpretation of Matthew 7:19-20, where Jesus says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth . . . but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” Many assume Jesus is calling us to a form of delayed gratification. In other words: “Rather than enjoying life now on earth, serve God and his kingdom, and you’ll really be well off after you die.” These verses from the Sermon on the Mount are then used to compound another erroneous idea not found in the Bible: that heaven is full of mansions and material rewards for the righteous.

This very popular teaching is flawed from top to bottom, but it begins to go off course with a false understanding of heaven. When Jesus speaks about “heaven,” which is more accurately translated as “the heavens” (yes, it is always plural in the Bible, despite our English translations making it singular), he is talking about a present, accessible reality, not a distant celestial realm for the dearly departed.

Therefore, when he calls his followers to “lay up for yourselves treasures in the heavens,” he is not inviting us to make deposits into a trust fund that we may access after we die. Dallas Willard captured Jesus’ intent more accurately in his book, The Divine Conspiracy:

“The treasure we have in heaven is also something very much available to us now. We can and should draw upon it as needed, for it is nothing less than God himself and the wonderful society of his kingdom even now interwoven in my life . . . Eternity is now ongoing. I am now leading the life that will last forever. Upon my treasure in the heavens, I now draw for present needs. If, with a view to my needs in this life, I had to choose between having good credit with a bank and having good credit with God, I would not hesitate a moment. By all means, let the bank go!”

To grasp what Jesus is saying, we must recognize the heavens as something available and accessible to us right now. This changes our understanding of the contrast he is making. Amassing treasure on earth will give us a good reputation with others, allow us to borrow money easily, and generally make life easier. But, Jesus says, these things are not guaranteed, and earthly treasures are temporary at best. But the treasure we can accumulate in the heavens is a communion with God himself. By investing our energy and attention there, we gain access to the infinite resources of his character—including his power, grace, love, and strength—which are available to us right now and forever more.

Daily Scripture

Matthew 6:19–24

Hebrews 12:22–24

Weekly Prayer

From Martin Luther (1483–1546)

O God, graciously comfort and tend all who are imprisoned, hungry, thirsty, naked and miserable;

also all widows, orphans, sick and sorrowing.

In brief, give us our daily bread, so that Christ may abide in us and we in him forever, and with him we may worthily bear the name of ‘Christian.’

Amen

No doubt, there are many obstacles to spiritual maturity, and volumes have been written to diagnose them. Some are unique to our modern, tech-saturated, consumer culture. Other obstacles, however, are as old as time. For example, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus identifies two perennial barriers to spiritual growth: the love of money and the desire for others’ approval. Let’s look more closely at the latter.

One of the many graces of growing older is caring less about what others think about me. I have not been fully released from this temptation, but it’s definitely less than when I was a teenager or young man, feeling like I had something to prove. So much of adolescence is pretending to be someone we are not to win the approval of more experienced pretenders. With age, however, comes a bit more wisdom and the realization that seeking others’ approval is an unwinnable game. As Elenore Roosevelt said, “If you wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you, you’d realize how seldom they do.”

Throughout Matthew 6, Jesus emphasizes the danger of living to win the approval of others rather than God. He showed how this can undermine the authenticity of our giving, praying, and fasting and derail the true intent and benefits of these spiritual disciplines. Of course, approval-seeking is not limited to these activities, but may corrupt any facet of our life with God. This is because the fear of people is a massive barrier to our growth in God’s kingdom, and living for the approval of others is a sure way to remain in perpetual spiritual adolescence. In his book The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard wrote:

“If we honestly compared the amount of time in church spent thinking about what others think or might think with the amount of time spent thinking about what God is thinking, we would probably be shocked . . . Whatever our position in life, if our lives and work are to be of the kingdom of God, we must not have human approval as a primary, or even major, aim. We must lovingly allow people to think whatever they will.”

Willard is revealing an aspect of approval-seeking we rarely consider. Our attention is a finite commodity, and the more of it we give to worrying about what others think, the less we will have to focus on God. Ultimately, we will become more like whatever we give our attention and affection to. Therefore, if these are spent seeking human approval, we shouldn’t be surprised to discover we are not becoming more like our heavenly Father. That is why the desire for respectability and esteem by others will always result in perpetual spiritual immaturity.

Daily Scripture

Matthew 6:16–18

Ezekiel 33:31–32

Weekly Prayer

From Martin Luther (1483–1546)

O God, graciously comfort and tend all who are imprisoned, hungry, thirsty, naked and miserable;

also all widows, orphans, sick and sorrowing.

In brief, give us our daily bread, so that Christ may abide in us and we in him forever, and with him we may worthily bear the name of ‘Christian.’

Amen.

However, political and media pressure for the launch was intense. Not least because the Challenger crew included Christa McAuliffe, a public school teacher who was central to NASA’s public-relations campaign. This is why those calling for a delay because of safety concerns were told, “Take off your engineering hat and put on your management hat.” In other words, the space agency’s public image was more important than an invisible and unlikely safety failure. The launch proceeded, and 73 seconds later, the Challenger exploded, killing all seven crew members.

The Challenger tragedy illustrates the danger of overvaluing public perception. The need to please an audience, to appear flawless, and to win the approval of others can lead us to downplay or ignore the less visible yet more critical aspects of our lives. When this posture is applied to our life with God, we can begin to think that looking righteous is more important than actually being righteous. This is the very definition of hypocrisy that Jesus addresses repeatedly in the Sermon on the Mount.

For example, in Jesus’ culture, fasting was a mark of deep commitment to God. It was a holy practice for the truly devout. In a society where religiosity was rewarded, to be seen fasting gave a person greater status and prestige. That is why Jesus warned about the dangers of fasting in a way that catches others’ attention.

By the time of the Protestant Reformation, the same temptation existed. Martin Luther said fasting had become “a device for having people look at them, talk about them, admire them, and say in astonishment: ‘Oh, what wonderful saints these people are! They do not live like the other, ordinary people. They go around in gray coats, with their heads hanging down and sour, pale expressions on their faces. If such people do not get to heaven, what will become of the rest of us?’”

Today, I don’t think most people seek approval through flaunting their fasting. In Christian communities, we have developed different ways of making ourselves appear more righteous than others, and we have new symbols to display our devotion to God. They vary in different churches and communities. In some, it’s about displaying Jesus-branded merchandise, bumper stickers, home decor, or even tattoos. In others, it may be a yard sign, wristband, or laptop sticker that reveals your concern for a particular issue or cause. The details will differ, but the underlying temptation is the same. We want others to think well of us, our values, and our commitment to the things of God.

But all of this focus on our external perception and acceptance can cause us to ignore the deeper truths that need our attention. In too many Christian communities, people are rewarded for taking off their spiritual formation hats and putting on their image management hats. Sadly, this is even the case among those who ought to know better—the church leaders and Bible teachers. When this happens, we will both miss the deeper life of communion with God that Jesus calls us to, and we will minimize the warning signs of a personal or corporate catastrophe.

Daily Scripture

Matthew 6:16–18

1 Thessalonians 2:3–8

Weekly Prayer

From Martin Luther (1483–1546)

O God, graciously comfort and tend all who are imprisoned, hungry, thirsty, naked and miserable;

also all widows, orphans, sick and sorrowing.

In brief, give us our daily bread, so that Christ may abide in us and we in him forever, and with him we may worthily bear the name of ‘Christian.’

Amen

But this desire for deliverance from sin and evil is only half of the story. The ultimate goal of this prayer, and indeed Jesus’ entire sermon, is not simply the removal of sin from our lives, but to live in communion with God as a participant in his kingdom of the heavens. Too often, we forget that our God doesn’t merely deliver us from something but also into something.

The writer of Hebrews gets both sides of this equation by telling us to “fix our eyes on Jesus” and to “put aside the sin that so easily entangles us.” Sin is like thorny brush that snares our feet and slows us from reaching and embracing our treasure. We must be delivered from sin and evil in order to reach our goal. These two facets are lost if we do not see the Lord’s Prayer as a single, developing thought. To be delivered from evil means being delivered into the unmediated presence of our heavenly Father. We want to overcome temptation because we are overjoyed with God. He is our treasure.

When we pray, “Lead us not into temptation,” we are also admitting to God that we do not have the strength to rescue ourselves. We are saying, “Lead me because I cannot lead myself.” Ray Pritchard has said this part of the Lord’s Prayer is intended for pathetic losers, but we shouldn’t be discouraged because that includes all of us. He writes, “Without God we don’t have a chance, we don’t have a thing to offer, and we don’t even know what to do next.”

In the Old Testament, there is another prayer that models this need for guidance. When a massive army came against King Jehoshaphat, he turned to God with this prayer:

“O, Lord, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you . . . O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.”

Begin your day by admitting your weakness to overcome whatever obstacle is ensnaring you today, and humbly asking for God’s guidance—not just to lead you away from sin, but into his presence.

Daily Scripture

Matthew 6:9–15

Hebrews 12:1–2

Weekly Prayer

From Martin Luther (1483–1546)

O God, graciously comfort and tend all who are imprisoned, hungry, thirsty, naked and miserable;

also all widows, orphans, sick and sorrowing.

In brief, give us our daily bread, so that Christ may abide in us and we in him forever, and with him we may worthily bear the name of ‘Christian.’

Amen

For example, the prayer begins with a proper, although paradoxical, vision of God. If we do not see him as both our heavenly Father and the one who is holy other (Matthew 6:9), then we will not surrender ourselves to his will (Matthew 6:10). Our un-surrendered life easily falls victim to the fears of the world, and we will strive to secure our own daily bread and much more (Matthew 6:11). However, as we see God clearly and trust him, we learn to walk in daily dependance upon his love and provision.

Likewise, a hurried, fearful, selfish life fueled by a false vision of God will inevitably lead to sin—and the need for forgiveness. As we experience this from our heavenly Father, the proper response should be to extend this same mercy to other frail people who have harmed us. “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).

Jesus knows that our souls need forgiveness as surely as our bodies need bread, but receiving forgiveness is not enough. A healthy soul must also give it. The prayer is not only a request for God’s mercy toward us, but a commitment to show the same mercy to others. Holding to our anger and resentment, clinging to our identity as a victim, and refusing to release others from their debts, will leave us incapable of receiving God’s love—or anyone else’s. Withholding forgiveness is as much a sin as whatever wrong was done to us in the first place.

The prayer’s emphasis on forgiving others inverts what much of contemporary Christian culture emphasizes. Pop religion will argue that a person who is unforgiven by God is not fit for life in his kingdom, and therefore speaks of the need for personal repentance. Jesus, however, repeatedly makes clear that the unforgiving person will also not enter his kingdom. This is why he puts so much emphasis on forgiving others in his sermons, signs, and parables.

In this way, the Lord’s Prayer makes clear that sin is not merely an external opponent to be overcome, nor is sin limited to infractions committed against us by others. Sin is an internal reality we must acknowledge about ourselves. Vaclav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic, said, “The line between good and evil does not run between ‘them’ and ‘us,’ but through each person.”

As we recite these words from the Lord’s Prayer, it is appropriate to pause for self-reflection and invite the Spirit of God to reveal how we have wronged God and others by what we have done, and by what we have left undone, and then ask God not only for mercy for our evil, but for the strength to extend that mercy to others.

Daily Scripture

Matthew 6:9–15

Colossians 3:12–14

Weekly Prayer

From Martin Luther (1483–1546)

O God, graciously comfort and tend all who are imprisoned, hungry, thirsty, naked and miserable;

also all widows, orphans, sick and sorrowing.

In brief, give us our daily bread, so that Christ may abide in us and we in him forever, and with him we may worthily bear the name of ‘Christian.’

Amen

We may take “bread” literally to mean food, or it may represent everything that is required to sustain our lives. Limiting the request to our daily bread means only seeking enough for today. Today, Jesus calls us to trust our heavenly Father for today, and we are invited to trust him again tomorrow for tomorrow’s needs. As John Ortberg says, “Daily bread is about learning to trust God one day at a time.” By doing this, we oppose the world’s frenzied, fearful drive to accumulate and hoard. Fear drives us to seek control. Love compels us to trust.

This is the daily, moment-by-moment dependence we see in Jesus’ life. Has it ever occurred to you that Jesus never hurried? There is no record in the Gospels of Jesus rushing or worrying. He trusted that his Father would provide for him, and he expected this kind of faith from his followers. Later in the sermon, we hear this from Jesus:

“You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself.”

When we live the Lord’s Prayer, we learn to let go of our rushing; we learn to release our fear of not having enough and our striving for control. Instead, we begin to slow down, trust our Father, and discover that true life is not found in what we eat, drink, wear, or drive.

What an incredible challenge for us. In the wealthiest, most fed culture that has ever existed, Jesus comes asking, Will you be content with enough bread for today? Will you slow down? Will you release the worries of this world and find your true life in communion with God?

Daily Scripture

Matthew 6:9–13

John 6:35–51

Weekly Prayer

From Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)

O Lord, let me no longer desire health or life except to spend them for you and with you. You alone know what is good for me; therefore do what seems best to you. Give to me or take from me; conform me to your will; and grant that, with humble and perfect submission, and in holy confidence, I may receive the orders of your eternal providence; and may equally adore all that comes to me from you, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

This dismissive posture toward the world does not align with how Jesus taught us to pray. After addressing God as both our intimate Father and as holy Other, we pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” This is the great desire and aspiration of all who belong to God. Rather than praying to escape the earth for heaven, Jesus tells us to pray for God’s kingdom to arrive on earth from heaven.

Like much of the Lord’s Prayer, this phrase carries both a longing and a responsibility. First, we long to see our world bloom with the order, beauty, and abundance that mark God’s kingdom, and we want every ounce of injustice, death, and scarcity purged away. This full hope will only be fulfilled when the power of Jesus’ resurrection is unleashed throughout the cosmos in the age to come.

However, our longing for the full healing of our world is not a passive desire. In these words, we find an implied responsibility upon all who speak this prayer. As Eugene Peterson says, “We participate in the invasion of heaven on earth every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer.” In longing for God’s will to be done on the earth, we are affirming our willingness to surrender our wills to God’s. We are making ourselves servants of God’s kingdom on earth, which means we are resisting the common temptation to use God’s name and power to serve our own kingdoms. I appreciate how Cyprian, an early church father, understood this part of the Lord’s Prayer. He said, “We ask not that God should do what he wills, but that we may be able to do what God wills.” After all, God has no problem accomplishing his will. We do.

Daily Scripture

Matthew 6:9–13

Luke 1:34–38

Weekly Prayer

From Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)

O Lord, let me no longer desire health or life except to spend them for you and with you. You alone know what is good for me; therefore do what seems best to you. Give to me or take from me; conform me to your will; and grant that, with humble and perfect submission, and in holy confidence, I may receive the orders of your eternal providence; and may equally adore all that comes to me from you, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

The writer of Hebrews captures God’s separateness by calling him a “consuming fire,” an image that is both beautiful and dangerous. It captures the tension we feel in God’s presence. We are attracted to him, yet find him utterly unapproachable. This prayer of Jesus sets up a similar paradox. He invites us to pray to our accessible Heavenly Father—who is an intimate caregiver—and also acknowledge that he is also the unapproachable Holy One in heaven—who is entirely unlike us, or anything else we might imagine.

How can our God be both our intimate Father and a holy Fire? How can he be both tender and terrifying? The temptation is to see only one side, to ignore what we don’t understand or find unappealing, and to choose only part of who God is. In doing this, we abandon the true God revealed through Jesus to create a new god. A false god of our own creation, in our own image.

Jesus invites us into true prayer with the true God. This kind of prayer must start with an accurate, if paradoxical, vision of who God is—as incomprehensible as that vision may be. Rather than fully grasp him, we are invited to cease our pondering and fall down in worship before the God who is a holy bonfire of love. Only such a God is worthy of my prayer because any god I can fully understand cannot be any greater than myself.

Daily Scripture

Matthew 6:9–13

Hebrews 12:28–29

Weekly Prayer

From Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)

O Lord, let me no longer desire health or life except to spend them for you and with you. You alone know what is good for me; therefore do what seems best to you. Give to me or take from me; conform me to your will; and grant that, with humble and perfect submission, and in holy confidence, I may receive the orders of your eternal providence; and may equally adore all that comes to me from you, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Interestingly, the Lord’s Prayer is found in the sermon immediately after the section where Jesus warns his followers not to pray openly in public for others to see. He calls them to pray alone, in private. However, the prayer he then teaches them to recite while alone is entirely corporate in structure and language. In other words, Jesus commands us to pray in private while understanding that our prayers themselves are never private.

For example, the Lord’s Prayer begins by addressing God as “Our Father.” John Chrysostom, the early church father, noted that Jesus “did not say ‘My Father’ but ‘Our Father,’” and that when we recite the Lord’s Prayer, we are “offering petitions for the common body, and not looking merely to each man’s own interests but everywhere to his neighbor’s.” Of course, he is correct. Nowhere in the prayer do the pronouns I, me, or my appear. Only our and us.

The prayer of Jesus assumes we are connected—that we are part of a community. I appreciate how Dietrich Bonhoeffer said it in his book, Life Together: “The prayer of the Christian is never a lonely prayer.” The individualism that marks so much of our culture does not contaminate Jesus’ teaching. He recognizes that even when we are alone in prayer, our prayers are never lonely because we are forever connected to one another. We are all part of the great family of God, which transcends every boundary: national, ethnic, cultural, even generational. When we bow our heads and pray these words, we are taking part in a family prayer. The Lord’s Prayer binds the people of God together across time and space.

This morning, as you commune with God alone in silence and in prayer, recite the Lord’s Prayer silently or aloud. As you do, allow the plural pronouns “our” and “us” to resonate and inspire your imagination. Pay attention to the faces that come into your mind. Remember your sisters and your brothers. Remember that we all share the same Father in heaven and that your communion with him cannot be separated from your communion with them.

Daily Scripture

Matthew 6:9–13

Romans 8:12–17

Weekly Prayer

From Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)

O Lord, let me no longer desire health or life except to spend them for you and with you. You alone know what is good for me; therefore do what seems best to you. Give to me or take from me; conform me to your will; and grant that, with humble and perfect submission, and in holy confidence, I may receive the orders of your eternal providence; and may equally adore all that comes to me from you, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

“We need a witness to our lives. There’s a billion people on the planet... I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you’re promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things... all of it, all of the time, every day. You’re saying ‘Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness’.”

We all want our lives to matter, and we believe they will only matter if they are noticed. I wonder if this deep psychological desire for a witness is what secretly fuels most of social media. We want someone, anyone, to take notice…to care about us…to watch us, and by clicking “Like” to tell us, “I see you. You matter. Your life counts.”

If this is the hidden motivation behind social media, and I think it is, we’re really talking about a spiritual hunger. And it isn’t unique to our generation or culture. Ancient Judea did not have YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok, but the same desire to be noticed and affirmed still existed. This led people to display their acts of religious piety. But Jesus understood that real intimacy—whether with another person or God—requires privacy and shuns publicity. This is why Jesus calls us to conduct our charity, fasting, and prayer without being noticed by others. God is to be our only witness because he has become our only desire. “And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Jesus wants us to understand that in God’s kingdom, not a single thought, feeling, or moment is lost. There is nothing that is unseen or unrecorded. As a writer, I’m tempted to record everything that I believe matters in a journal. I can easily fall into the trap of thinking that things will become real when they are externalized…on paper, published, or posted. It’s actually been a discipline for me not to journal, but to instead trust that my ideas are not lost, and my life really does matter—not because someone read it, heard it, saw it, or liked it, but because God is my witness.

Daily Scripture

Matthew 6:1–4

Psalm 139:1–12

Weekly Prayer

From Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)

O Lord, let me no longer desire health or life except to spend them for you and with you. You alone know what is good for me; therefore do what seems best to you. Give to me or take from me; conform me to your will; and grant that, with humble and perfect submission, and in holy confidence, I may receive the orders of your eternal providence; and may equally adore all that comes to me from you, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.