“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures 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. The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” –Matthew 6:19-24
What do you treasure? I mean what do you esteem worthy of much value in your life? Your spouse? Your children? Your wealth? Your popularity? Your success? What is it that drives you to do what you do day in and day out? What is it that, were you to lose it, you would lose your primary motivation to live? I would hope that you would say you value some of these things, but I would hope that were these things taken from you they would in no way take away your primary motivation for living. Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, has just gotten done describing how true followers of Him have a righteousness that is not motivated by anything other than God. As the first section of Matthew 6 teaches, true believers don’t give, pray, or fast with an inner motivation of looking good to others. True believers have a singular motivation: the glory of God. That is not to say believers will never at times put other things before God’s glory, but that is to say that the overarching and undergirding truth at work in their daily lives is that God alone is worthy of all the glory. Jesus gives us a negative and a positive statement about our most valuable possessions, explaining that our values hold our heart’s deepest affections, then he digs under the surface to see why we value what we value, and finally he leaves us with a bombshell of a statement that demands we treasure the right things.
Negatively –Don’t live to store up earthly treasures that will dissolve and disappear
No matter who you ask, practically nobody is content with the amount of money they currently have saved up, not even billionaires. But we’d be limiting Jesus’ statements here if we considered it only to be about financial wealth in terms of dollars and cents. Jesus is warning us of a lifestyle that collects, hoards, and stores up worldly things. As one famous preacher in the past, Martyn Llloyd-Jones, has said of this, “It applies to people who, though they may not be interested in wealth or money at all, are yet interested in other things which are entirely worldly in the last analysis.” That is what we’re concerned with…what God is going to consider to have been worldly in the last analysis. Paul describes Judgment Day for believers as a fire that will consume all things that are worldly on that day when he writes to the church at Corinth, “For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw –each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, though as through fire” (1 Cor. 3:11-15). There you have it. All worldly things that are stored up will be burned up. Not a single thing we value and treasure and store up that is worldly will survive. But Jesus tells us not only will it not survive that Final Day, these things won’t survive long after our day comes. Everything is falling apart and everything that is stored in this decaying world will either decay itself or be taken. Moth, rust, and thieves are all just illustrations used to say, “This world is one lousy place to collect valuables”.
Positively –Live storing up treasure somewhere where it will keep eternally, since you treasure what you store up
You may look at this positive statement and think, “This all sounds so wonderfully spiritual, but how can I practically put treasures in a bank account I don’t see? I can see my earthly wallet and drive to the bank and put money there. I can see the number of Facebook friends and the amount of “likes” I got on that post. I can kiss and enjoy my spouse, children, and grandchildren. But how do I save treasures I can’t see for a future date I can’t put on my calendar in a place that isn’t found in this universe?” Great question! And so glad you asked! Jesus said it this way, “Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys” (Luke 12:33). Okay, so give it all away and I’ll have treasures in heaven? Not necessarily. There are people who give up all their money to great causes only to discover that even those great causes did nothing for their soul before the infinitely valuable God they refused to worship when they died. The way you store up treasures in heaven is by valuing/treasuring/worshiping God here on earth and giving all your energy and focus and attention to Him. This is why Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”. You and I only “store up” those things which hold our heart’s deepest affections. So what is it that holds your heart’s deepest affections? Even positive things like family and charity will burn up like hay, wood, and stubble on that day. Listen to what Jesus said elsewhere: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37). Wow, that stings Jesus. Seem a little over the top? A little “holy roller”-ish? That’s the Son of God’s estimation, not mine. Notice He didn’t say to not love and value these things, but to value Him above these things. When you rightly value God above everything else, you can then value things properly, including family. If you treasure God as chief in your heart's affections, then it will mean you are loving your family a lot more than if you were to treasure them as chief in your heart's affections. To love God more than your family means you love your family a lot, but your reason for living isn't gone when they are. When you treasure the precious blood of Jesus shed for you on Calvary’s cross and the body broken for you there above everything else in the world, that alone will be a foundation that will never burn up before God. But still, what does it practically look like to store up treasures in heaven? Whatever you do in obedience to God because He holds your deepest heart’s affections: prayer, Bible study, worship, giving to church, giving to the needy, serving in your church, working at your job, talking to your neighbor about Christ, fasting and praying about an urgent need, going on a mission trip. All these things are increasing your heavenly rewards. And as Matthew 6 has taught us, “the God who sees in secret will reward you”. These rewards will be eternal, not earthly. Peter says of the rewards every believer will receive in heaven that they are, “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4).
Why We Value What We Value –How We View the World
Everybody looks at the world through one of two lenses. The non-believer sees the world through the lens of self, while the believer sees the world through the lens of God’s glory. Jesus’ illustration of a healthy eye and light vs. an evil eye and darkness teaches that when we value God above everything else, our lives will be full of light, but when we value anything above God, our whole lives will be self-centered and dark. The Christian wasn’t born with the set of lenses through which they now see the world. We’re all born with a self-centered set of lenses and we all value a multitude of other things above God, which are really all above self. But upon conversion, God gives us a new set of lenses and we are able to see the entire world God has created and all its goodness, while still valuing Him above it all. What set of lenses are you wearing? Jesus warns you that your spiritual life is one of total thick black darkness and you’re really devoid of true life if you don’t see God as infinitely valuable, yet see other things as valuable.
A Choice –Worship God or Worship Self
The Son of God says it is absolutely impossible to serve two masters. You may have two part-time jobs, but it is impossible to have two full-time jobs with the same hours. You would always be making one employer mad because you’d be serving your other employer and not them. Many people think its possible to value other things above God and somehow still be valuing God, but Jesus denies that as a possibility. To value anything above God is to totally disregard God. You may say, “Well I love my wife and children, but God is really number one in my life”. I’m glad you say it that way and that sounds so excellent, but we’re not talking about just sounding good, but actually living it out. On a day to day basis does your life testify that Jesus Christ is the fountain of all your joy? Would those who know you most and see you on a daily basis say that you love Jesus more than anything else? If not, then He isn’t your main value and He needs to be. God in glory gave His only Son for you. This is no fairy tale story we can all sit around and smile about. This is real. The only and infinite Sovereign Creator and Sustainer of all things sent His only Son to bear your multitude of despicable sins on an agonizing cross and all the wrath of God you deserved. God willingly shed His life’s blood for a world of sinners. To not value Him infinitely higher than everything in all your life and live that way is the utmost of de-valuing something in all history. If I jumped in front of traffic that was about to hit you and died in your place, anything but extreme gratitude and a life that honors my sacrifice is the epitome of de-valuing me. And we’re talking about God’s Son. So, in closing, to value/hallow God and live like it is to store up our treasures in heaven. So once again may I ask, “What is it that you value most?”
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