That’s why “The Exclusivity of Treasure Pursuit” Principle is bad news for our inner Pharisee. Christ has raised the standard of righteousness to an unattainable extreme, and there’s no way we can please God without the grace of Jesus. But if we incorrectly convince ourselves that it’s possible to serve two masters, we’ll believe that we have a chance at pleasing God with our independent righteousness. We’ll take pride in thinking that we don’t need grace as much as the next person.

The Bible is an extreme book.

Let me rephrase that: for human beings with a selfish heart and a finite understanding, the Bible can be an extreme book. The Bible isn’t extreme for God; He wrote it! But because we interpret life through a corrupt and limited lens, the principles and commands in the Bible can come across as extreme.

“THE EXCLUSIVITY OF TREASURE PURSUIT” PRINCIPLE

One principle that really highlights this extreme nature of the Bible is found in Matthew 6:24 – “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (ESV)

It doesn’t need any summary, but let me condense what Jesus is saying: it’s spiritually impossible to pursue the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of self simultaneously.

You and I don’t want to agree. We want to believe that our spiritual reality isn’t as extreme, or exclusive, as Jesus declares. There has to be a way, we argue, by which we simultaneously serve God and money.

TWO ARGUMENTS AGAINST EXCLUSIVITY

I want to highlight two reasons why we argue against “The Exclusivity of Treasure Pursuit” Principle:

1. We Love Our Pleasure

Let’s be honest: there are moments when we simply don’t care about the Kingdom of God. We choose the pursuit of personal pleasure over the pursuit of personal holiness.

When we feel the convicting grace of the Holy Spirit, we really do want to love the Lord, but we don’t want to be exclusive. In other words, we want glorify God on our own terms, where we get to define what we give up and what we keep.

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