When Jesus
spoke to his disciples in what we now have recorded as the Sermon on the Mount,
he addressed the role of material objects. Most important was our attitude
toward those material objects. In one brief but critical passage, he said:
Mat 6:19 "Do not store up
riches for yourselves here on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and robbers
break in and steal.
Mat 6:20 Instead, store up
riches for yourselves in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and
robbers cannot break in and steal.
Mat 6:21 For your heart will always be where your
riches are.
We brought nothing into the world. We will take nothing with us –
except our attitude toward God in Christ. Our attitude toward the world around
us will determine the priority of Christ in our lives. It all boils down to how
we define the riches in our lives.
If objects and material goods represent the riches in our lives, then
we will develop the attitude these material objects have the priority in our
decisions. It will affect how hard we work to make money and how we will spend
that money. Our attitudes will dictate what role these material objects will
play in our lives and how they will affect other aspects of our lives.
When relationships dominate our priorities, here as well our attitudes
will shape our responses. What are we willing to sacrifice? What will we
demand? How much will we reach out and to what extent we will retreat into a
shell of our own making? All of this is dictated by our attitudes.
The Apostle Paul told the church at Philippi they had one standard by
which to evaluate and judge their attitudes toward life in general and people
in particular. That standard was the example of Jesus Christ both in his coming
into our world and how he was willing to leave.
Php 2:5 The attitude you should have is the one that
Christ Jesus had:
Php 2:6 He always had the nature of God, but he did
not think that by force he should try to remain equal with God.
Php 2:7 Instead of this, of his own free will he gave
up all he had, and took the nature of a servant. He became like a human being
and appeared in human likeness.
Php
2:8 He was humble and walked the path of
obedience all the way to death--- his death on the cross.
Life on this planet is
transient. We are not promised tomorrow in our mortal existence, much less the
expectation to live on forever in the flesh. This knowledge of our limited
number of years should have a transformational effect on our priorities and our
attitudes.
What is important to us will
determine how we live today and the legacy we will leave for those who follow
us. We will be remembered for how our attitudes shaped our decisions and the
outcomes of those decisions. Do we care how we are remembered after we are
dead? That itself is a decision-shaping attitude.
Two funerals for close family
members in the last six months have heightened for me the importance of our
attitudes and their impact on our lives. This includes not only how we remember
those who have died, but also our own response to their deaths. How we viewed
these individuals while they lived and the relationships we had with them
greatly influences our present attitude towards them and our own futures.
These attitudes also impact
the relationships we have with the people who remain with us. How will we allow
time and circumstances to affect those relationships? Our attitudes will affect
dynamics, decisions, and intensity of these relationships. How we allow our
attitudes to develop is critical to the health of any relationship.
For Jesus the servant
attitude was all important. That was the only option. When we adopt the example
of Christ and assume the servant attitude he lived out, then we will find
ourselves in the position of pleasing God and living lives of greater peace and
fulfillment. That is the goal of most people and should be the goal of all.
