Sunday of Cheesefare; The Holy Apostle Onesimus.
Romans 13:11-14:4; Matthew 6:14-21.
Read Matthew 6:14-21
They say, choose your friends wisely. People often adopt the characteristics of their close companions – habits, speaking patterns, attitudes, values, and goals. That frames the question, who do we want to spend time with, as who do we want to be like?
God declares himself to be “merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” (Exodus 34:6-7) He also favors the humble. (Proverbs 3:34) Does that sound like the kind of person we would like to have rub off on us?
If we don’t gravitate to people like that, we may want to take another look at what we are doing in relationship with God. Jesus defines forgiveness and fasting as relational: “your Father will forgive your trespasses…your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
But, if we engage in these activities as transactional – forgiving others so that we will be forgiven, but not really imitating God because we love him and want to become a more forgiving person; fasting in secret so that we will be rewarded, but not really walking with God in humility in the awareness of his sovereign majesty – we won’t so much be spending time with God as with ourselves.
When Jesus speaks of laying up treasures in heaven instead of temporal things subject to loss and decay, he means that the only thing we will take with us is who we have become in loving imitation of God. The question is, do we want to be like God? Jesus says, if we make him our treasure, we will! “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”