Earthly-Mindedness and the Ethic of the Kingdom: Laying Up Treasure

After considering His kingdom's ethic in relation to Israel's practical piety, Jesus turned His attention to the universal human problem of earthly-mindedness (6:19-34). Earthly-mindedness isn't preoccupation with material things versus spiritual things; it is life lived out of a self-referential state of being and perspective; it is the life of the "natural man," and so characterizes all people in their fallen condition. To be earthly-minded is to have a frame of reference and mindset constrained by and limited to the personal and the natural; Paul referred to this condition as a "mind set on earthly things," by which he meant a mind that conceives of, evaluates and relates to all things - including spiritual things - as it operates autonomously in its estrangement from God. In this context Jesus showed His Jewish audience that earthly-mindedness is antithetical to His kingdom, precisely because His kingdom - the kingdom of heaven - is the realm and administration of the new creation. The Jews were confident of their standing before God and their inheritance of the promised kingdom; Jesus would have them (and all men) understand that regardless of how pious, spiritual, moral, devout or doctrinaire a person may be, until he is delivered from his self-enslavement and estranged mind (his "earthly-mindedness"), he cannot even rightly perceive the kingdom of heaven, let alone hope to enter it; that which is born of flesh in flesh (ref. John 3:1-6).