Jesus begins His third motive with an example. The
quality and proper functioning of your eye affect
the whole body. If your eyesight is clear, then the
whole body benefits. If your eye isn’t working, you
won’t be able to walk carefully or make decisions
that are good for the rest of the body because your
perception is off.
The Lord’s lesson in this example is that the location
of your treasure affects your perception. Our view
of money influences our entire lives. It is impossible
to have a life given to Christ in every area except the
area of material possessions. If your heart and your
treasures are in the world, your values will be worldly.
Your discernment will be worldly. Your decisions
will be turned toward the world. The location of
your treasures will affect your perception about
everything.
The opposite is also true. If you store up treasures
in heaven out of love for Christ and His cause, that
decision will affect the rest of your life. You will
evaluate things in light of the eternal kingdom. You
will have light to make decisions for the glory of God.
You will have enlightened perception for all of life.
Finally, Jesus motivates us with this reality in verse
24: The location of your treasure reveals your
loyalty. You cannot be fully loyal to both God and
wealth. When those two come into conflict, the
decisions you make will reveal where your true
loyalty lies.
It is easy to say that our loyalty is to Christ. But
when earthly concerns clash with eternal concerns,
what do we do? What or whom do we truly serve
with our material goods? Jesus tells us to orient
our lives toward heaven and store up treasure in
heaven because the location of our treasure reveals
our loyalty.
Money is simply a touchstone to reveal the orien-
tation of our hearts. Eventually, Jesus arrives at
Matthew 6:33: Seek first His kingdom. Orient your
whole life toward His kingdom. Why? “Therefore if
you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking
the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right
hand of God” (Colossians 3:1). Orient your life toward
heaven, and lay up treasure in heaven because your
Savior is there!
19 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves
break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust
destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;
21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will
be also. 22 The eye is the lamp of the body; so then
if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of
light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body
will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in
you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 No
one can serve two masters; for either he will hate
the one and love the other, or he will be devoted
to one and despise the other. You cannot serve
God and wealth.1
MATTHEW 6:19–24
BY JON CROCKER
1 Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the
NASB® New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1995 by The
Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Treasure
in Heaven?
Jesus spends a large portion of His Sermon on the
Mount addressing our attitudes toward material
possessions. In Matthew 6:19–24, He gives four
motivations to store up treasure in heaven.
First, the location of your treasure determines its
longevity. In verses 19–20, Jesus contrasts earthly
treasures with heavenly treasures in terms of how
long they last. Treasures on earth are vulnerable to
both destruction and theft, but treasures in heaven
are truly secure. A life oriented toward the here-and-
now must grapple with this truth: All earthly treasure
can wear out or be taken away. Banks fail, markets
crash, currencies fluctuate, properties deteriorate
and lose their value, and economies plummet. With
those changes go our earthly possessions. Even
what remains in our grasp will not stay with us after
death, because “we have brought nothing into the
world, so we cannot take anything out of it either”
(1 Timothy 6:7). We will leave it all behind.
But every cent joyfully given in the name of Christ
for the spread of the Gospel, the fellowship of the
saints, the edification of the Church, and the glory
of God will generate interest forever and never
lose its value. No destruction can touch it; no thief
can take it. If you invest in the cause of Christ, your
investment is secure. Let’s send our treasures ahead
of us to glory, because there they last forever.
The second motivation is found in verse 21: The
location of your treasure moves your heart. For
many years I assumed that the words “where your
treasure is, there your heart will be also” mean
that your treasure will invariably follow your heart,
i.e., what you love determines what you do with
your money. That principle is true. But later while
meditating on this passage I realized that the word
order is intentional. Your thoughts, desires, and
emotions will naturally be set on the place where
your treasures already lie.
Think of a man with two cars. One is
a rusty 1981 hatchback with 318,000
miles and hasn’t started for three
years. The other is a $90,000
sports car fresh from the showroom.
One night during a storm, the man
is awakened by a thunderclap, a falling
tree, and the sound of twisting metal and shat-
tering glass. Which car is causing
the pounding of his heart in his
chest? Which of the two is he
wondering about as he dreads
looking out the dining room
window? His heart is running
toward the treasure.
Christians long to have our affections freed from this
passing world and set on Christ and His kingdom.
Verse 21 reveals how this can happen by God’s grace.
Do you want a deeper thirst for God? Do you want
your heart to be liberated from infatuation with this
world? Do you want to grow in your love for Jesus
and His work around this world? Start giving to His
cause, and your heart will follow. You won’t be able
to stop thinking about God’s kingdom, praying for
His working, and giving yourself more and more
to Christ for His purposes because your treasure
is already there.
WHY LAY UP