Where do you store your treasure? – Part 2
The selfish practice of laying up treasures or riches for ourselves only, without any regard to using our wealth for the good of our generation, the support of the Gospel, or the glory of God, is forbidden and condemned by Christ.
Everyone of us is only a steward, to spend or dispense God’s treasure entrusted to us for the glory of God, the gospel of Christ and the good of our fellow-men.
The Lord has given us a three-fold reason for the divine precept not to lay treasures for ourselves on earth.
Treasures laid up on earth are liable to destruction: they can be eaten up by moths.
There is also the inherent decay, which pertains to all earthly things – treasures laid up on earth losing value because of rust, destruction or inflation.
These earthly treasures laid up for many years can be stolen or the owners can be taken away from the earth, leaving the treasures behind.
“Then whose shall those things be, which” are “laid up for many years”? Heaven is the only safe place in which to deposit or keep our treasures, riches and wealth.
“But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.”
Heaven is real and we must prepare not only to reach there but to be rewarded there. To reach there and be received into heaven, we must be “poor in spirit”, “hunger and thirst after righteousness” until we are “filled,” be “pure in heart” and endure persecution for “righteousness’ sake” “unto the end” (Matthew 5:3-10; 24:13).
To get to heaven, we must be born again and receive God’s grace to live in holiness before God all the days of our life (John 3:3-7; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 12:14).
To have treasures in heaven and know in ourselves that we “have in heaven a better and an enduring substance”, we must lay our treasures in heaven while we are still living on earth.
How can we lay up treasures in heaven? “Give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven”. “Preach the gospel to the poor.”
Use your treasure, time and talent to bring life to those who are spiritually dead, and light to those who are living in darkness. Use your substance to bring hope to the hopeless and salvation to the lost. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
Further Reading (King James Version): Matthew 6:19; Ecclesiastes 5:10-15; 2:18-21; 1 Timothy 6:6-10; Luke 12:15-21; Jeremiah 51:13-18; Psalm 39:4-7; John 6:27; James 5:1-3; Job 31:24-28; Mark 10:17-27; 1 John 2:15-17; Matthew 6:20,21; Luke 12:31-37; 1 Timothy 6:17-19; Luke 16:9-12; Isaiah 33:6; Philippians 3:7-11,20,21; Hebrews 10:32-34; 2 Corinthians 4:18; 2 Timothy 4:6-8,18; Colossians 3:1-4.
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