Chapter 6 Summary: The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard
Chapter 6 Summary: The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard
Investing in the Heavens: Escaping the Deceptions of Reputation and Wealth
So far, in the Sermon on the Mount (chapter 5), Jesus has answered two of the all important world-view questions:
Who is really well off?
Who is a truly good person?
Willard helps us understand that the well off are those who are alive in the kingdom of Heaven. Their life is “based upon acceptance and intimate interactions with what God is doing in human history.”
The truly good person is one who has “gone beyond rightness understood as merely ‘not doing anything wrong’—beyond the goodness of the scribes and Pharisees—and are acting from their inward union of mind and heart with ‘the heavens.’” They have, rather than simply doing right things, become the kind of people from whom right deeds flow naturally. They have become the "good tree" that Jesus speaks of (Matt. 12:33-35).
Riding the flow of Jesus' teaching, and trusting him will allow all of his students to realize such a transformation. It will not be without temptation, though. Like Peter, we will be tempted to take our eyes off of Christ and regard the waves that are rising up around us. These waves, in this chapter of The Divine Conspiracy* (and Matt. 6), resemble the ways the world answers those two above questions: The well off are the rich, the powerful, the beautiful, etc… The good person's goodness must be seen in order to be real; it must make the news, as it were.
If the student of Jesus will walk, with Jesus, above such stormy seas they will need to steadfastly regard his words and ways above that of the world. This is what Jesus aims to teach in Matthew 6, as he continues his Discourse on the Hill.
There are two things that will block the apprentices growth in the kingdom of God.
The desire to have the approval of others.
The desire to secure ourselves by means of material wealth.
“If we allow them to, these two desires will pull us out of the sway of the kingdom… and back into the barren ‘righteousness’ of the scribe and Pharisee. But as we keep these in their proper place, through a constant, disciplined, and clear-eyed reliance on God, we will grow rapidly in kingdom substance.”
Desire for Approval
How can desiring to have another persons approval drag us back into the “barren righteousness of the scribe and Pharisee?”
Answer: Because that desire focuses exclusively on external action, “not on the source of action in the heart.”
As Jesus said, the scribes and Pharisees, “do everything they do with the aim of being noticed by others” (Matt. 23:5). They find their validation in what another person thinks. This extends beyond the religious realm, as we all know. We have all been "people pleasers" at some point; have we not?
On the contrary, the person alive in the kingdom is not to seek approval from anyone, except God. They are, as the Puritans of old, to live “as if the only one whose opinion mattered were God.” And, as the apostle Paul said, they do all, “on behalf of the Lord Jesus, in that way giving thanks through him to God the Father” (Col. 3:17-24).
But how does one seek the approval of God alone?
The answer is through a discipline of secrecy, or not letting “your left hand know what your right hand is doing” (Matt. 6:3).
Remember, Jesus is not giving laws, here. He is not mandating that nobody ever “see” your good deeds. He is talking about the location and direction of the apprentices heart. Is the intent of your action to be seen by people? If so, your reward will be the acknowledgment you sought—people will see you; meanwhile God will stand aside as you enjoy your reward But, if you “do your deeds in secret,” the place where God is (Matt. 6:6), then God will see and reward you.
Securing our Selves With our Treasures
Like seeking the approval of others, the desire to secure ourselves by means of material wealth halts our advancement in the kingdom. So Jesus simply says, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matt. 6:19-20). Notice, he does not tell us what to treasure, but simply warns us about where we store those things we treasure. Consequently, if the thing you treasure cannot be invested in the heavens it is probably not worth treasuring.
Instead of using those things we treasure (wealth, material goods, reputation, relationship, whatever) to secure our own lives, the advice of Jesus is to invest them in the safe of heaven, as it were; where things deposited are truly secure. How does one invest in the heavens?
Answer: By investing our lives in what God is doing.
This investment strategy plants us firmly in the kingdom because it not only relinquishes control of our lives to God, but it also positively places us in the flow of the kingdom. Where all people are suitably cared for by their heavenly father. In this life one can live absolutely free from anxiety because of a steadfast, Psalm 23-esque, confidence in God.
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