Many things about our natural lives conflict with our spiritual lives. Living by the spirit in a natural and often enticing world isn't easy. Even the apostle Paul confessed, "I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate." (Romans 7:15 NLT) One of the challenges we have to contend with is wealth and how we, as Christians, should relate to it.

In Matthew 6:19-24, Jesus begins by talking about wealth and where we should and should not store it. He then says something strange about the eye being the lamp of the body and its connection to light and darkness, which seems to be a shift away from the original topic of wealth. He then returns to the subject and says that you cannot serve God and mammon. Did Jesus veer off-topic, or is there an important connection we need to understand in this text?