Scripture Daily

Context No. 1851 of 4322 · Matthew

Context · Reflection

Matthew 6:19-23: in context

19“Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal; 20but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves don’t break through and steal; 21for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

Jesus teaches about treasure and the heart. Do not lay up treasures for yourselves on earth, he says, where moth and rust consume and thieves break in and steal, but lay up treasures in heaven, where they are safe from all decay and theft. And then the reason that makes it matter: for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. He adds a word about the eye as the lamp of the body: a sound eye fills the body with light, an unsound eye with darkness.

The key that unlocks this teaching is the line about treasure and heart: where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Jesus is telling us that our hearts follow our treasure. What we invest in, value, store up, and give ourselves to, that is where our heart goes; the heart tracks the treasure. And this cuts both ways. If we lay up our treasure on earth, pouring our resources and energy and hope into what decays and can be lost, our hearts will be bound to earth, anxious over what moths and rust and thieves can take. But if we lay up treasure in heaven, investing in what lasts, in God and his kingdom and the things that outlive us, our hearts will be drawn toward heaven and what endures. The direction of the heart follows the placing of the treasure. This is intensely practical, because it means we can, in a sense, direct our own hearts by choosing where we invest. We often wish our hearts were more set on God and less on earthly things, and treat the heart as beyond our control; but Jesus suggests a lever: change where you store your treasure, and your heart will follow. Invest in what lasts, give to God's purposes, pour yourself into what outlives you, and your heart will be drawn there. Conversely, the surest way to have an earthbound, anxious heart is to lay up all our treasure on earth. So the question worth asking honestly is where we are storing our treasure, our money, yes, but also our time, our energy, our hope, our devotion, because that is where our heart is going. If we want our hearts set on God, Jesus points to the way: lay up treasure in heaven, and the heart will follow the treasure home.

Where am I laying up my treasure, my money, time, energy, and hope, on earth where it decays and can be lost, or in heaven where it lasts, and do I see that my heart follows my treasure, so that to have a heart set on God I must invest in what endures rather than in what moth and rust consume?

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