If you were to think of a main theme for this chapter, what would it be? What ties all these things together? Take a minute to look through the chapter before you keep reading this to think about those questions. When you look at the sections of this chapter what you will notice is that each section is dealing with an issue of the heart. That is because our hearts have sin deeply embedded in it. And as sinful humans there is always a tendency to go against God’s design in creation. You can divide these sections into two categories of issues of the heart.

1. Self-righteousness - Jesus here gives three ways that people might practice self-righteousness. One, giving to the needy so that they can be seen by people. Two, praying and drawing attention to yourself as you pray to be viewed as a “religious person.” Three, fasting and making yourself look ugly so people can see that you are fasting. All of these things that Jesus is describing root down to a person wanting to have the appearance of righteousness and making others believe that they are more holy than they really are. The mere fact that they are trying to outwardly prove this to others shows a heart that is filled with love of self. These people are only concerned with making themselves be known but not making God known. And at the end of the day self-righteousness is self-condemnation because we are not trusting in Christ for his righteousness.

2. Self-dependence - Jesus here gives two ways that people become self-dependent. One, they lay up treasures for themselves and waste their lives doing so. Two, being anxious about life and having what you will need. The person who is concerned with storing up treasures is because they love what they are storing up. Verse 21 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” That means this person will continuously use all their effort to strive to gain for themselves as much as they can, instead of using their efforts to serve the Lord and His kingdom. The person who becomes anxious is no better than the person who stores up for themselves because the main focus of their heart is still themselves. Their anxiousness is rooted in their inability to provide for themselves (another avenue of self-dependence). The focus is always themselves and being worried about not having enough for themselves instead of saying “give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal.” (Proverbs 30:9).

What are these issues rooted in? They are rooted in a heart that is filled with pride because it is all about oneself. What does God say about pride? 1 Peter 5:5 “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” So, what is the remedy for this? Verse 33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” If we truly have our hearts set on seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness, he will give us the grace to depend on him for true righteousness and not self-righteousness and true dependence on God and not self-dependence.