It’s About Community

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Matthew 6:21 (KJV)

Your – The word in Greek is hymōn which finds its root in hymeis, the plural form of this possessive pronoun. It is the word most often used in the Epistles and Gospels when addressing people. English translations of the Bible do not pick this up because they lack the differentiation between your (plural) and your (singular).

Of course the King James version can help here. The King James marks this difference by using the word thou or thy to identify singular from the plural usage of your. I posted about this earlier.

Today, I want to write about why this is important. The writers of the New Testament continually address large groups of people. They are concerned about the community, not the individual. Yeshua’s words here are similar.

For where your (all of yours) treasure (single treasure) is, there will your (all of yours) heart (single heart) be also.

Do you see how this changes the underlying meaning? It is not about you, individually. It is about community. What is the community’s single treasure? That is important for the community to figure out, together. Is it spiritual? Is it stored in heaven? And what does that all mean?

Once the community agrees to the single treasure that they are storing up for themselves as a whole, then the community’s single heart (goal, purpose, desire, love?) will be directed accordingly. All of this requires a community’s understanding and buy-in for this to work. The community must come to realize it is a whole of many moving parts, and all these parts (members of the body) need to work together for the betterment of the body.

The point is to stop thinking about yourself. Stop worrying if you are theologically right about your personal savior Jesus, and how he died for you individually. Stop striving for your own soul, and instead become part of something greater than yourself. The body of Christ is not just you. It is a group of God’s people who were predestined from the beginning. God foreknew these people as Israel. They are still Israel today, and you are a part of it. Now go do something for Israel.