Biblical Generosity, Part 4: Where Is Your Treasure?
“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.”
Treasuring is risky business. To treasure something is to unite your affections, hopes, longings, ambitions, indeed your very identity to something. Or as Jesus put it, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
This is why Jesus is pleading with us not to treasure things on the earth. Nothing on this earth will last, all metaphorically destined for the destruction of moths and rust. So if you place your heart upon that which is sure to be destroyed, then you are placing your heart in harms way. Our hearts are promised the same destiny as our treasure, so when, not if but when, our earthly treasures are destroyed, we will be in ruin as well.
This is why the world’s most affluent culture is also the world’s most depressed and anxious culture. We instinctively know that we have placed our hearts upon something that cannot last. The day will come, even if it is the day of our own death, when our treasure will be no more.
Unless we treasure what can never be destroyed or taken. To find that, you are going to have to go beyond what this world offers you and treasure the offerings of heaven. If we place our heart upon God and His rewards, then our hearts are eternally secure.
This is our only hope for generosity. If our hearts are with the things of this world, then generosity will be viewed as a threat to what we treasure. But if our hearts are upon the things of heaven, then generosity does not threaten our treasure in the least. In fact, it only increases our treasure because Christ has promised us that all we give here will be returned to us a hundredfold in the age to come.
If you are storing up treasures on earth, you better enjoy them while they last. Soon it will all be taken from you. If you are storing up treasures in heaven, you can relax. Your treasure is secure, which means your heart is secure.
You can give generously without loosing your treasure or breaking your heart.
- Rev. Robert Cunningham