Chapter 13
INCORRUPT TREASURE Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matt. 6:19-21).
The theocentric principle here is God as the rewarder of those who diligently serve Him. "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Heb. 11:6). This passage proclaims the superiority of eternity over time. That which we lay up for ourselves on earth is subject to risk. That which we do for the cause of God will surely last. Time is not a reliable vault for treasure. Things can change overnight that destroy the best-laid plans of men. Where should men put their faith? Not in things temporal.
The Goals of Treasure-Builders The passage forbids laying up treasures on earth for ourselves. Two things are involved here: self-aggrandizement and time. The person who amasses wealth on earth is too short-sighted. He is also too risk-oriented. He is building up capital that may be lost and will surely be useless to the capitalist after his death. The post-funeral question, "How must did he leave behind?" has a universal answer: "All of it."
The passage does not condemn treasure left behind for one's heirs or one's favorite causes. Inheritance is too prominent a theme in the Bible for any such conclusion. "A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just" (Prov. 13:22). The inter-generational transfer of wealth is basic to fulfilling the dominion covenant. The long-term growth of capital in the hands of covenant-keepers is one aspect of the extension of the kingdom of God in history.
What is condemned is the amassing of wealth for oneself. It reveals a false religion: faith in man and faith in time. "The rich man's wealth is his strong city, and as an high wall in his own conceit" (Prov. 18:11). The wealth that men accumulate on earth is a temptation to other men. Thieves break in. Rust corrupts. The erosion of value, like the erosion of life, threatens all forms of wealth except perhaps gold, which does not rust. But it is a favorite target of thieves. And it can be lost.
Why do men build treasures? No single answer exists. The quest for safety from the unknown, the desire for recognition -- a name -- the delight in the challenge of wealth accumulation as a game: all of these have motivated men. But death comes to every man. If all that matters is what other men impute to you and your works -- recognition, fame, respect, net asset value -- then your work is dependent on the wisdom of other men. Those who impute value to your works are mortal. Death is the great leveller.
Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it. For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them. All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath. This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead. For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun (Eccl. 8:17-9:6).
If death makes all things the same, then mortality threatens all meaning, all differentiation. The good and the bad in history end the same way. If there is no immortal agent who imputes meaning to that which is temporal and therefore mortal, then there is no permanent meaning. Everything is vanity.
What truly matters, Jesus warned, is not exclusively material. He who rests his faith on that which can be accumulated on earth has placed his trust in a weak god.
Treasures of the Heart "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." This is a profound insight. What a man values most captures his heart. He dreams of it, plans his life in terms of it, and sacrifices for it. Treasure captures men. Men dream of buried treasure, yet buried treasures bury men. Men whose dreams are in things have been captured by these things, metaphorically speaking. Their desires restructure their lives. The focus of their desires is temporal. This cuts them off from treasures in eternity.
To dream, plan your life, and sacrifice for the sake of treasures in heaven are marks of one's subordination to God and one's future-orientation. Those who accumulate treasures in heaven by forfeiting consumption in history are radically future-oriented and therefore radically upper class.(1) It takes faith to do this. It requires trust in Jesus' doctrine of the world of heaven and the post-resurrection new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21). Jesus made it clear that a man's heart is captured by his treasure. It is as if treasures had cords attached to them that stretch out and ensnare a man's heart. Men are either pinned to the earth or pulled into heaven by these cords. Their treasures define where their dreams are. The implication is that as we build ever-larger treasures, these cords become more binding. "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God" (Matt. 19:23-24).
Nothing in this passage implies that it is wrong for men to store up treasures for themselves. What Jesus warned against was earthly treasures. To pursue righteousness for the sake of an eternal reward is wise. Paul wrote: "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:13-14). Sacrifice in the present for the sake of a future reward reveals where our hearts are.
Jesus also said: "A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things" (Matt. 12:35). Here we see another variation of the same theme. There are distinctions between treasures. There are incorrupt treasures as well as corrupt treasures. A good treasure of the heart brings forth good things. It leads men toward greater righteousness.
Where is your heart? Where your treasure is. Jesus made it clear that treasures on earth are a snare and delusion. "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mark 8:36).
Capital Accumulation Then what of tools? Are not tools a means of extending man's dominion over the earth? Tools are capital: the product of labor and land over time. Tools require reduced consumption in the present in order to construct them. There is nothing in Jesus' words to suggest that men should not strive to gain greater mastery over the creation by means of thrift, which is required to build tools. Then how can we ethically sort out treasure from tools?
Treasure implies a final reward. It is the end of one's production -- "end" in terms of one's goal and also in terms of one's chronology. It is a final consumer good: the cessation of production. The vision of the miser, surrounded by boxes of gold coins, is accurate. Even better would be the miser buried with his gold -- an unlikely event, as all the pharaohs' graves save one indicate.(2) It is the story of King Midas, whose touch transformed his daughter into gold: the touch of death. Treasure in heaven implies an end to one's earthly striving, an end to one's earthly production. It implies the individual's completion of his term of service in history. To sacrifice in history for the sake of consumption in eternity is not the touch of death. It is the opposite. Men are to strive to build up capital, not treasure. They are to build up an inventory of tools for dominion.
The great threat of capital accumulation is that it can become earthly treasure in men's hearts. The misery of Scrooge, in Dickens' story, "The Christmas Carol," is the outcome of capital transformed into treasure. Scrooge and Marley were good businessmen, but their accumulation of capital ensnared them. The chains on Marley's ghost were the product of the cords that had bound him to earthly treasure. Dickens' story is a secularized account of a man's regeneration. Scrooge is given two supernatural visions: what he had been and what he is. He has become bound ever-more tightly by the cords of the great god More. Then, in the third vision, he sees the result: a sparsely attended funeral and a home stripped of its few valuable treasures by thieves. But what if his funeral had been attended by kings and his home transformed into a world-famous museum? He would have been just as dead. What corrupt man imputes in his autonomy is death: the dead burying the dead (Matt. 8:22).
The movie Citizen Kane is sometimes heralded as the greatest movie ever made. This is not my assessment, but its considerable power is derived from this same theme: the vanity of treasure. The real-life model of Kane, William Randolph Hearst, did accumulate a vast art collection -- so much that he lost track of what he had. His collection was piled up in boxes. He had his agents search for one piece of art for years, and they discovered that it resided in his boxed collection. The movie's power was in its brilliant ending. His verbalized treasure in the last moments of his life, seen at the beginning of the movie, was something or someone called Rosebud. No one ever learned what it was. The next to last scene shows workers tossing piles of junk into a furnace, and one item was a child's winter sled: "Rosebud." The final scene is a column of smoke ascending from the chimney. "Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is" (I Cor. 3:21-13).
How Literal Is This Warning? Was Jesus using hyperbole, or was He establishing guidelines? Was He really against the amassing of valuables that serve as consumption items rather than tools? Was He calling on those, like Hearst, who build their own personal treasure hoards to open them to the public? I think He was. The best Christian example of this in the United States is the art collection assembled by Bob Jones, Sr., for Bob Jones University: the finest collection of late medieval and early modern religious paintings anywhere in the United States and possibly on earth. He assembled this collection immediately after World War II, when prices were low because of the poverty of the victims. The collection is now worth more than the physical grounds of the university. Yet it can be toured for free. But very few people know of its existence. Visitors are few.
What of the woman who buys a few lovely items to enjoy and to leave to her daughters? What of the lover of antiques? The answer depends on the heart of the collector -- the extent of his love. Is the collection his passion? Is it his consuming fire? Then it is his treasure. He should sell it or give it to some institution open to the public. Its cords are too binding. "Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 19:21-23).(3)
Conclusion In the final analysis, treasure is whatever one's god bestows on his servant for a lifetime of faithful service. He who strives for earthly treasure serves a finite god. This god may be other men, or a cause, or a demon, or oneself. But a god that can bestow only earthly treasure is not the God of the Bible.
The top priority here is the accumulation of treasure in heaven: the reward bestowed by God on His faithful servants when their work is finished. "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire" (I Cor. 3:11-15).
There is an allocation problem here. Wealth spent to build an earthly treasure cannot simultaneously be used in kingdom service that builds a heavenly treasure. This is why the Christian walk involves the exercise of judgment. Capital can become treasure. Tools can become an end. Anything that ends in history can become a treasure that binds its accumulator with heavy cords.
Footnotes:
1. Edward Banfield, The Unheavenly City (Boston: Little, Brown, 1970), pp. 48-50. On the middle class, see pp. 50-53. On the lower class, see pp. 53-59.
2. King Tut was a minor pharaoh whose tomb was so insignificant that the grave robbers lost track of it.
3. Chapter 38, below.
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