Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and stead, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Matthew 6:19-21
We are all familiar with the phrase “money is the root of all evil.” And oftentimes, the discussion of money is seen as evil. When it comes up in church, or in politics, the first thing we often think of is “someone wants MY money.” Jesus actually talks about money a lot in the Gospels. This is not an act of greediness on His part, or setting up the future church to be able to talk about it and demand it. Rather, it is an act of compassion on His part, to help us understand the transience of money, and how it can lead to evil. Christ came to lead us to what is good, what is Godly, and ultimately what is eternal, the Kingdom of heaven.
The Sermon on the Mount was meant to be a guide for how life should be in God’s Kingdom, not just the faraway Kingdom, but for us to live in the Kingdom now, and what that life should look like. A big part of every life revolves around acquiring money. We prepare for how we are going to acquire it by going to school and studying. Then we work to acquire it. Then we start purchasing things with the money we’ve acquired. Then we want to purchase more things, better things, bigger things. Then as we get older, we want to make sure we’ve acquired enough so that we can stop acquiring and still be able to live well. We hope to leave some things we’ve acquired for our children, in the form of inheritance. Most children are thankful for receiving money from an inheritance. However, many people also leave a house full of things they’ve acquired for their children to go through and they probably discard most of it. The many things we acquired are given away, or hauled away to the landfill.
We’ve all seen photos of old stadiums or malls that are no longer in use. People paid lots of money to acquire them and use them. However, many acquisitions also require maintenance, and when they stopped pouring money for maintenance on top of the money they spent on acquisition, the rust that Jesus talks about in the Sermon on the Mount crept in and consumed what was once beautiful and turned it into something of no value. In fact, a decaying building has a negative value—it must be demolished, so it actually costs money to get rid of the acquisition.
This is why Jesus reminds us that the purpose of life isn’t just acquiring things that will one day not be ours, or not be at all, but instead to lay up treasure for ourselves in heaven, treasures that will last for eternity. When we die, we won’t take anything of the earth with us, not even our bodies. The beautiful body we spent money on, to trim our hair, to cover with nice clothes, to beautify with make-up and hair products, even our bodies will decay and become nothing. When we die, all we will take with us is what is in our souls. Were we filled with kindness, or shrewdness? Were we filled with generosity, or stinginess? Were we so busy acquiring that we forgot to serve others?
Financial security is an illusion. A thief can break in and steal. A hurricane, flood, earthquake or other disaster of nature can instantly destroy what we’ve spent a lifetime working to acquire. An accident or illness can take away our ability to enjoy life in an instant.
One can read today’s scripture as a passage of doom and gloom, or as a message of encouragement. Jesus is encouraging us to invest in what is eternal, because He is telling us there will be a payoff for eternity. Many of us (including me) use financial advisors to tell us how to get the most out of what we have earned. Hopefully many of us also use spiritual advisors (priests, spiritual father) to tell us how we should be investing for eternity.
It is interesting that Jesus tells us that where our treasure is, this is where our hearts will be also. Wherever the treasure leads, the heart follows. Most people probably think of this in the opposite way, that where our hearts go, our treasure follows. Jesus says that where we put our treasure, that is where our heart goes.
I once heard a sermon where the preacher challenged the listeners to look at their calendars and their checkbooks, and audit how they spent their time and their money, and this would indicate where their priorities were. If one looks at his checkbook and sees that he is the beneficiary of every purchase, that little is set aside for charitable giving outside of himself, he will see that his happiness is his top priority. If one looks at his calendar and it is filled with work, or family, that there is no time for faith, he will see work or family as his top priority. If there is no time for prayer, worship, Scripture reading or philanthropy, one could easily come to the conclusion that these are not important or valued at all. The most precious commodity we have is not money but time, because one can always hope for more money, but one cannot earn more time. It is very important for us to be diligent with both our time and our money, and even more important, it is important to be grateful and understand that whatever time we have is a gift, a blessing from God. And whatever money we acquire is the result of a talent we have that enables us to earn the money and the genesis of that talent is God. Indeed we have nothing to give, only to give back.
No one invests 100% of their money, because some money has to be used for daily expenses and everyone has those. No one can invest 100% of their time in spiritual pursuits, because there needs to be time for work, family, care of others and care of self. Thus, it is important for each of us to prayerfully consider how much of our time and money will be invested in the things of God, in preparation for eternal life. God will audit each of our lives when they are over, before His awesome judgment seat, and He will determine whether our investments in eternal life are sufficient to enter it.
Return on investment, or ROI, is the major motivator when it comes to investing money in something. The truth is that the ROI in all financial investments is eventually 0%, because we can’t take any of them with us. The ROI on spiritual investments is eternal life, or infinity as a percentage, the blessings so high that they cannot be calculated. Therefore, let us consider where we are investing our time and our money, and make sure a good portion is invested in spiritual things, so that our heart will be drawn there, and not only to the material acquisitions that will one day be consumed by death. Let us invest in spiritual things so that our heart follows and we then get to draw on our investment for eternity and never have to worry that it will run out.
Hear this, all peoples! Give ear, all inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor together! My mouth shall speak wisdom; the meditation of my heart understanding. I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre. Why should I fear in times of trouble, when the iniquity of my persecutors surrounds me, men who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches? Truly no man can ransom himself, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of his life is costly, and can never suffice, ha he should continue to live on forever, and never see the Pit. Yea, he shall see that even the wise die, the fool and the stupid alike must perish and leave their wealth to others. Their graves are their homes forever, their dwelling places to all generations, though they names lands their own. Man cannot abide in his pomp, he is like the beasts that perish. This is the fate of those who have foolish confidence, the end of those who are pleased with their portion. Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol; Death shall be their shepherd, straight to the grave they descend, and their form shall waste away; Sheol shall be their home. But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for He will receive me. Be not afraid when one becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases. For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him. Though, while he lives, he counts himself happy, and though a man gets praise when he does well for himself, he will go to the generation of his fathers, who will never more see the light. Man cannot abide in his pomp, he is like the beasts that perish. Psalm 49
Point to ponder: How much are you investing in your salvation? What percentage of your life is invested in God and in the eternal things?
