O'Donoghue MTh_Thesis-FinalCopy.pdf - South African Theological ...

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That the teaching of Matthew 6:19-34 has been shown to not require the disciple toneglect the accumulation of wealth but to remain prepared to give up all to followJesus could carry the following applications for the Christian disciple: Firstly, asalready mentioned the disciple needs to be prepared to counter-act the world view ofhis or her colleagues. As in Jesus day, so in this day, an attitude of a looseattachment to the accumulation of wealth may be respected but in a Western Societyis not the standard modus operandi.Secondly, the disciple should not feel hard-done-by should she come to a placewhere she has to give up everything to follow Jesus. The examination of thetheological theme of God’s Kingdom showed that ultimately God’s Kingdom will beacknowledged by all, and Jesus the giver of the SOM will then be the judge of thosewho obeyed its commands. This is a comforting truth for those who have respondedin faith and obedience to Jesus.7.2.3 Stewardship of Money as Service to the CommunityThroughout this thesis discipleship and its demands have been inextricably linked tocommunity. The historical analyses showed one of the purposes of Matthew asproviding a definition for the Christian movement. The book was seen as addressedto a community of believers. Also, the literary analysis showed that generosity isfitting and required by the disciple. Generosity requires others. Further the motif ofGod’s Kingdom carried the implication of God the King ruling over His people.Within this context of community the disciples were encouraged to practice goodstewardship with money. As already mentioned, allegiance to God is to beexpressed through generosity to others. The church community was depicted as arelational community that was a spiritual family that cared deeply for the needs of theother. This spiritual family was shown to supersede the priority the disciple had toher or his own earthly family.Thus it follows that money was expected to be used as a means to meet theseneeds of the spiritual family. However it should be noted that there is nothing in theliterary context that suggested good stewardship resulting in generosity should only97
e for the benefit of the believing community. It is in this sense open-ended, in that adisciple could practice generosity to both the believer and non believer. Later in timePaul wrote in Galatians that the church should do good to all people, but especiallyto fellow believers (Gal 6:10). I.e. Christian generosity goes to believer and nonbeliever, even if priority might lie in goodness to a fellow brother or sister of God’shousehold.The church was shown in the theological analysis to be a community that was tomake God known. God was portrayed as caring for the needs of His people. Thusgenerous stewardship of money entrusted to the believer by God is a reflection ofGod’s character. Particularly as good stewardship of wealth was shown to create adisposition of purity, revelation, truth and blessing. These are attributes which reflectGod and can be seen as follows;a) Purity – Jesus is known to be absent of any sort of moral defilement.b) Truth – Jesus claimed to be truth incarnate (John 14:6).c) Revelation – It is a common NT theme to note Jesus as revelation of who Godis.The Historical context suggests that the kind of generosity expected in the churchcommunity must happen regardless of the nature of community a disciple findsherself or himself in. For example, the historical analyses showed that the audiencewas a largely Jewish Christian Audience. The Jewish community contained severalgroups that prospered financially, but at times many in the Jewish community wouldbe exploited by the rich land owners in the Jewish community.The application for the believer here is obvious. It would be to practice generosity.Perhaps one could conclude that as the historical analysis showed the believingcommunity of Matthew’s church to definitely include people in want, the modern day“well off” believer could be sensitive to the needs of the less fortunate around them.She or he could also take stock of her or his life and ask the question as to whether itis characterised by generosity.98
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A BIBLICAL-THEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF
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ACKOWLEDGEMENTSI am eternally grate
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TABLE OF CONTENTSCHAPTER 1: Introdu
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6.2.5 Discipleship and Community…
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sinfulness and pushes people toward
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discourses in Matthew, is meant to
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Christian disciple and money was an
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NT text actually did occur and did
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to have used it as a source (France
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almost no evidence outside of the N
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addressed.Jesus says things in the
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The Jewish community was taxed very
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finding the origin and purpose of M
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instruction for the believing commu
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Matthew will have continued pertine
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Chapter 3Literary Analysis - Struct
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etween 6:19-24 and 7:1-11 that is c
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would not have ever found such a li
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and 7:7-11 are worth noting:a) Both
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appealing. He seems to at times ack
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three parts.While the literary appr
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Chapter 4Literary Analysis - Matthe
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common to a teacher like Jesus woul
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treasures would be, but agrees that
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Blomberg (1992:123) shows that the
Page 53 and 54: Talbert (2006:122) argues this by r
Page 55 and 56: for God’s kingdom, it is in a bad
Page 57 and 58: The statement that one cannot serve
Page 59 and 60: Chapter FiveLiterary Analysis - Mat
Page 61 and 62: Moses. Even more significant is tha
Page 63 and 64: ightly notes that humans are more v
Page 65 and 66: Secondly, Henry’s argument that o
Page 67 and 68: Perhaps the point is not to cast So
Page 69 and 70: The second reason related to this p
Page 71 and 72: the scriptures that even the great
Page 73 and 74: more than what one eats and wears.
Page 75 and 76: CHAPTER SIXTHEOLOGICAL MOTIFS OF MA
Page 77 and 78: 6:19-34 and that this chapter would
Page 79 and 80: It has now been established that Th
Page 81 and 82: Kingdom requires its citizens to ha
Page 83 and 84: “our Father,” i.e. the Father o
Page 85 and 86: It must be noted that the Father-So
Page 87 and 88: Matthew 25:31-36 presents Jesus as
Page 89 and 90: unanimous among scholars. These rea
Page 91 and 92: Unger and White (1985:171) note tha
Page 93 and 94: interdependent interpersonal relati
Page 95 and 96: examples of how a disciple may prov
Page 97 and 98: Chapter SevenConclusion7.1 Introduc
Page 99 and 100: the accumulation of wealth over and
Page 101 and 102: them. The historical analyses highl
Page 103: preparedness to give up monetary pu
Page 107 and 108: captivity to sin. The SOM itself wa
Page 109 and 110: APPENDIX ONETALBERTS FORMAL DIVISIO
Page 111 and 112: BIBLIOGRAPHYAchtemeier PJ, Green JB
Page 113 and 114: Clowney EP 1988. Church. In SB Ferg
Page 115 and 116: Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishi
Page 117 and 118: Peter Laing Publishing.Lloyd-Jones
Page 119 and 120: 73-97.Smith KG 2008. Academic Writi
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