Daily Devotional

June 03

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Sourced from the OPC website

The world is but a broken toy,>br>Its pleasure hollow—false its joy,
Unreal its loveliest hue  (W. S. Gilbert)

Our Lord is saying (Matthew 6:19) that worldly treasures do not last; that they are transitory, passing, ephemeral. "Change and decay in all around I see." "... where moth and rust doth corrupt'.

How true it is. There is an element of decay in all these things, whether we like it or not.... These things never fully satisfy. There is always something wrong with them; they always lack something. There is no person on earth who is fully satisfied; and though in a sense some may appear to have everything that they desire, still they want something else....

There is another way of looking at the effect of moth and rust spiritually. Not only is there an element of decay in these things; it is also true that we always tend to tire of them.... That is why we are always talking about new things and seeking them. Fashions change; and though we are very enthusiastic about certain things for a while, soon they no longer interest us as they did....
The last fact, therefore, about these things is that they inevitably perish. Your most beautiful flower is beginning to die immediately you pluck it. You will soon have to throw it away. That is true of everything in this life and world. Things develop holes and become useless... the most  perfect physique will eventually give way and break down and die....

However wonderful and beautiful and glorious things may be, they all perish. That is why, perhaps, the saddest of all failures in life is the failure of the philosopher who believes in worshipping goodness, beauty and truth; because there is no such thing as perfect goodness, there is no such thing as unalloyed beauty; there is an element of wrong and of sin and a lie in the highest truths. "Moth and rust doth corrupt."

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, ii, pp. 88-9

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“Text reproduced from ‘A First Book of Daily Readings’ by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, published by Epworth Press 1970 & 1977 © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. Used with permission.”