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Laying Up Treasure

Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

Where is Your Heart?

IN the Greek, the text reads something like, “Do not treasure up for yourselves treasure on earth.” There is nothing wrong in having treasure, not even in treasuring it up for ourselves. The problem is in where we choose to keep it. The discipleship of the present world-system teaches us that we must sock away our treasure on earth if we want to be secure. But that is trusting in our riches and soon leads to our enslavement, for we always become the servant of whatever we place our trust in.

Jesus tells us to stop doing it. Instead, He tells us to treasure up our treasure in heaven. Then He gets to the heart of the matter:

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

Your treasury can be a great blessing or a great disappointment. The key is the attitude of your heart. If you store up your treasure on earth and set your heart on the things of the world, it will soon let you down. It makes a poor master and is not worthy of your trust. Both your heart and your money were made for better things. God wants to do something powerful and world-changing through them:

And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers. (Deuteronomy 8:18)

The Hebrew word for “get” literally means to do, or to make. In other words, God gives us the power not only to get wealth, but to create wealth. And He does it for a specific reason: That He may establish His covenant. God has a covenant — all those who come to Him through faith in Jesus Christ are a part of it — and He is in the business of establishing that covenant on the earth. Our ability to create and get wealth has the potential to bless the earth because it has the covenant-establishing purpose of heaven.

Some people think that laying up treasure in heaven is for the sake of when we die — then we’ll go to heaven and get to enjoy all the treasure we laid up there while we were on earth. But that is not what our treasure is about. We will not need any of that treasure in heaven, for there is no need or lack there. We need the treasure here and now, but we need it to be blessed with the prosperity and purpose of heaven.

Though we live on the earth, if we know the Lord Jesus Christ, we are actually of heaven. We are part of God’s plan of bringing heaven and earth into perfect unity.

 

• We have been “born again,” which in the Greek text of John 3:3 literally means “born from above,” that is, from heaven.
• Our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20).
• Jesus authorized us to command the will of God to be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).
• Jesus said, “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18).
• Jesus said, “If two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:19).

See the pattern? God is in the business of transforming the earth with the substance of heaven. Jesus tells us to treasure up our treasure in heaven because that is how it will bring forth the substance of heaven to change the earth. Treasure laid up on earth will lead to poverty. Treasure laid up in heaven will lead to prosperity on earth as it is in heaven.

Set your mind on things above and lay up your treasure in heaven. It is only in this way that it will truly be able to bless the earth.

The Good Eye

The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6:22-23)

Jesus is not giving us an anatomy lesson here; He is still talking about laying up treasure. Just as we must choose where we will treasure up our treasure — on earth or in heaven, we must also choose whether our eye will be evil or good.

Speaking of the eye in this way, Jesus is using an ancient Hebrew idiom that describes whether a man is generous or greedy. We see an example of the “evil eye” in the book of Proverbs:

A man with an evil eye hastens after riches,
And does not consider that poverty will come upon him.

(Proverbs 28:22)

The man with an evil eye loves money. It has become his master and he trusts in it to see him through. But he does not realize that he is actually on the road to poverty and ruin. We discover the source of the evil eye in the book of Deuteronomy:

Beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart saying, “The seventh year, the year of release is at hand,” and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing, and he cry out to the Lord against you, and it become sin among you. (Deuteronomy 15:9)

The evil eye of stinginess starts as a wicked thought in the heart. Remember that Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” It is all about the heart.

The Hebrew word for “wicked” is belial and refers to that which is destructive, worthless, profitless. It does no one any good. It does not add one bit to the goodness of life but takes much away from it. The man with the evil eye has been deceived to think he will profit by his greed. The irony is that he will not even break even — he will lose all he has.

That is why Jesus said, “if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness … how great is that darkness.” He describes that darkness in another place:

For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these things come from within and defile a man. (Mark7:21-23)

Now that’s dark. But enough of the evil eye; let’s talk about the good eye — that’s where the blessing is. Jesus said, “If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be light.” The Greek word used here for “good” literally means “without folds” or unentwined. It is simple, clear, fully focused. The good, single eye is not complicated by the greed of the evil eye. A man with a good eye is generous. He sows generously and reaps abundantly (2 Corinthians 9:6). Psalm 112 describes the blessing of such a man:

Blessed is the man who fears the LORD,
Who delights greatly in His commandments.
His descendants will be mighty on earth;
The generation of the upright will be blessed.
Wealth and riches will be in his house,
And his righteousness endures forever.
Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness;
He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.
A good man deals graciously and lends;
He will guide his affairs with discretion.
…
He has dispersed abroad,
He has given to the poor;
His righteousness endures forever;
His horn will be exalted with honor.

(Psalm 112:1-5, 9)

This is a man who honors the LORD and follows His Word. The way of the LORD shines brightly in his heart and he becomes light to all those around because he is full of grace and compassion. His generosity does not lead to poverty — not for him or for anybody else — but to prosperity, for the promise is that wealth and riches will be in his house.

The greedy eye leads to lack, poverty, even destruction. The generous eye leads to prosperity and honor.

Only One Master

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. (Matthew 6:24)

There are three decisions we must make about the treasure of our heart.

 

• We must choose where we will lay up our treasure — on earth or in heaven.
• We must choose whether our eye will be evil or good, whether we will be greedy or generous.
• We must choose which master we will serve — God or mammon.

“Mammon” is an ancient word that refers, not just to money, but to the god of money. The Greeks had Plutus as their god of money. The Jews never formalized such a deity, but there were some who idolized money just the same. Many woes have been wrought by those who have worshipped the money-system of the world.

Jesus tells us that we cannot serve both God and money. For one thing, God will not share His glory with any other. The First Commandment declares, “I am the Lord your God … you shall have no other gods before me.”

For another thing, our hearts are not made to be divided. If we try to serve both God and money, we will end up loving one and hating the other. It is the source of great confusion in both the inner and outer realms of our lives. The history of the world teaches us that, when we attempt to serve to both, we invariably end up loving money and hating God.

The problem is not money itself, though, but our attitude toward money. Some people think the Bible teaches that money is the root of all evil, but what it actually says is that the love of many is the root of all evil (or all kinds of evil, 1 Timothy 6:10). Many people love, serve and trust in money for their welfare. They make it their god. But they learn, to their regret, that although money can be a wonderful servant, it is a tyrannical master.

A rich young man came to Jesus asking, “What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” (He did not realize that good works do not gain us eternal life, but flow out of it.) After establishing that the young man had kept the commandments — specifically, the six out of the Ten Commandments that deal with loving our neighbor as ourselves — Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” The Bible says, “But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” (This account is found in Matthew 19:16-22.)

This young man failed in the very First Commandment. He did not trust in God alone and love Him with all his heart. He had already made a prior commitment to the god of money. His heart was chained to his possessions. He affected a fine religious tone, but he loved and trusted in his wealth and was unwilling to truly put his faith in God.

He could have treasured up his treasure in heaven, trusting God with everything in his life and serving Him alone — and he would have been full of joy. Instead, he remained the slave of his money, laying up his treasure on earth, and went away full of sorrow.

Who or what will you love, serve and trust? It will determine where you lay up your treasure, and whether that treasure will endure.

Seeking the Kingdom

Therefore do not worry saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (Matthew 6:31-33)

Worry comes from laying up treasure on earth. When we invest ourselves in thinking the way the world thinks, acting the way the world acts, believing the way the world believes, we end up worrying the way the world worries. We look to the world to meet our needs because that is where we have treasured up our lives. In our hearts we realize how fickle the world is, and fear that it will let us down — and it always does.

But when we learn to treasure up our treasure in heaven, all the needs we have on earth will be met. We will have more than enough, so that we can bless others.

Laying up treasure in heaven is about much more than our money and finances. It is about our whole lives. It is seeking the kingdom of God, His rule and reign, on earth as it is in heaven. It is seeking the righteousness of God, His way of doing and being right. It is eating from the Tree of Life. Consequently, the life of God flows forth into every area of our existence. Seeking all from Him, we receive all from Him, for He is gracious in all things.

Call for the kingdom of God to come, as Jesus taught us to do. Lay up your treasure — your life, your being and all you possess — in heaven. Then call for the will of God to be done on earth as it is in heaven. You will flow with the abundance of heaven in all your earthly affairs. You will not only be blessed, you will be a blessing.

Your Account in Heaven

Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven. (Matthew 6:20)

And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul reveals that heaven is where our provision comes from. God supplies our needs according to His riches in glory — in heaven. Stop thinking of heaven as “up there,” as if it were in outer space. No, it is much closer to us than that and our relationship to it is very intimate.

 

• Heaven is where we were born (John 3:3).
• Heaven is where our citizenship is (Philippians 3:20).
• Heaven is where we are already seated in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6).

That is why Jesus tells us to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven. We lay up our treasures there, and all our needs are met from there. But notice that, although it is our treasure we lay up, it is His riches that come from there to supply our needs. It is a wonderful transmutation. Our treasure my not be anywhere near enough to take care of us — in fact, it isn’t — but God’s riches in glory in Christ Jesus certainly are.

Not many people catch this, but Paul is writing to his partners, those who have been supporting him in ministry. Go back a couple of verses and see:

Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only. For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account. Indeed I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:15-29).

What was the church at Philippi doing? Laying up treasure in heaven by contributing to Paul‘s ministry. Now, notice that Jesus did not simply say, “Lay up treasures in heaven,” but “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” We have accounts in heaven.

That’s what Paul was talking about. “Giving and receiving” is the language of transaction and accounting, and Paul specifically speaks of the fruit, or increase, abounding to the account of the Philippian believers who partnered with him in the ministry of the gospel. They did not actually go with him on his journeys, but they certainly enabled him to go by their financial support. They gave generously, and Paul expected them to reap a harvest that would fully meet their every need.

Whenever you partner with the ministry of the gospel, you are laying up treasures for your account in heaven. This account is not for you in the “sweet by and by,” but for the “here and now.” When you lay up treasure in your heavenly account, you can be very sure that God will meet all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Developing the Treasure of Your Heart

Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” There are many ways to lay up your treasure in heaven, and many do not have anything to do with money. But here are a few ideas to help you develop the treasure of your heart particularly in the area of finances:

 

• Sow your tithe into the work of God’s kingdom. The tithe is a tenth, not the last and the least, but the first and the best of all your increase. God will not only bless that first 10%, but the other 90% as well.
• Give generously to the poor and those in special need. God always honors that and will pay you back with interest.
• Treat every financial transaction with godly integrity.
• Pay your bills from your treasury in heaven. Invest some faith into the process and expect divine blessing to come upon everyone involved.
• Be a good tipper. Let the generosity and prosperity of heaven direct you in prospering others even in this small way.
• When prices increase at the pump, in the grocery store, in your utility bills or wherever else, don’t panic. Look to your Father in heaven and expect His prosperity to take care of all your needs.
• Call for the kingdom of God — His rule and reign — to come and take over in your finances. Command His will to be done on earth, in and through your finances, exactly as it is being done in heaven.
• Understand that your treasure is much more than your finances. It includes your time, your talents, and everything else in your life.
• In all you do, discover the purpose of heaven and let that be your purpose as well.

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

© 2005 by Jeff Doles.
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