Simplicity of the Carefree Life Dietrich Bonhoeffer-The Cost of Discipleship

      ¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Matt. 6:19-24

²² “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy,^[c] your whole body will be full of light. ²³ But if your eyes are unhealthy,^[d] your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

²⁴ “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

For the disciple of Christ there can only be Christ, nothing between Christ and yourself. There are no “ands”: Christ and the law, Christ and religion, Christ and the world. Commitment must be to Christ alone. That is the answer to the question: What am I really devoted to? Where is my heart?

Your relationship with Christ never enters retirement. Like manna in the wilderness, we gather, are strengthened each day by Christ in an ongoing process. Attempts to store up for the future are wasted efforts. A relationship with Christ is meant to be fresh each day. No one can pull down years of storage, sit back and say, I have enough, I need no more.

Nothing else but Christ should be allowed to bake a bid for your heart.

Bonhoeffer writes; “And if we ask how we are to know where our hearts are, the answer is just as simple—everything which hinders us from loving God above all things and acts as a barrier between ourselves and our obedience to Jesus is our treasure, and the place where our heart is.” The fact remains that there are no alternatives, we love God or hate him. It has been and always be Christ alone, not Christ and/or______. This is a great dilemma for declared non-Christians and many pew sitters who are hoping for a gray area, even to the point of imagining there is no hard line between loving and hating God. They seek a middle ground where there is room for some of God and some of something else. One might even say, I don’t hate God but surely a loving and forgiving God allows some room for _____ behavior, or _____material goods.

When that position is confronted with truth the result can lead to great anxiety. Not being willing to commit to one side or the other results in a fruitless search for a non-existent neutral zone. Trying to hang on to the world and all it contains only yields to frustration and anxiety. Worse yet is thinking one can store up enough to cover for tomorrow. It is imperative for us to learn to receive God’s gifts for today and let him take of tomorrow.

When reading Matthew 6:33—"Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” it must be taken in context with the preceding verses in chapter six and all of chapter five. Those verses speak to the committed relationship of the believer rather than the temporary things of this world.