Treasure
Treasure (by David Peterson)
Jesus continues with His Sermon on the Mount when He states:
Matthew 6:19-21
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Luke 12:33-34 records the same and it makes the appeal to build an “unfailing treasure in heaven”. Pertaining to this truth by Jesus, theologian Sinclair Ferguson once wrote: “If the world is not rooted out from our hearts, it will devour them. There must be weeding, if the good seed of grace is to grow.”
But what weed-killer can we use against the spirit of the world? Here is a potent, three-fold formula from the Bible:
1. Recognize that love of the world is the enemy of the love of the Father (1 John 2:15). You cannot have both. You must choose one only. Make the right choice.
2. Remember that it was the world that crucified Christ and that it took the sacrifice of the Cross to deliver you from it (Galatians 6:14). How can you negotiate with the spirit which plotted the assassination of your Savior?
3. Reflect on the fact that the world, in this sense, is transient and ephemeral (1 John 2:17); it is not a solid investment. Devote yourself instead to having “treasure in heaven” (Matthew 6:19-21).
Ferguson makes a strong point with the need for prudent weeding of carnal thinking and desires along with the focus on heavenly things that do not rust or rot.
Hymn writer and church organ salesman, Tullius Clinton O’Kane, wrote “The Treasures of Heaven” in 1870. This hymn’s first stanza reads: “There’s a crown in Heav’n for the striving soul, which the blessèd Jesus Himself will place; on the head of each who shall faithful prove, even unto death, in the heav’nly race.”
O’Kane rightfully informs believers that our true, lasting treasures will be found in heaven.
Let us pray: Heavenly Father, teach us to spurn the earthly temptations and possessions and turn to the eternal things that last as divine treasures within our hearts.