Matthew 6:20

Matthew 6:20

I. This is one of those passages in which God takes hold of a strong master-passion of the human mind, and turns it to great spiritual account. The love of accumulation is such a principle in our nature that it will be doubted whether there is any man who is altogether free from the power of its fascination. Whatever it be there is being heaped up, two consequences always follow. (1) One is that, however indifferent the matter was at first, yet the very fact that you have a possession in it, and that that possession is increasing, makes you love it. Your own self becomes associated with the growing store; and, therefore, it becomes dear to you. And this seems to me the exact intention of our Saviour's words, when He says, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (2) If we have desired to gather much, we always desire to gather more. The larger the property grows, the faster swells the ambition to augment that heap. And this again lies in our Lord's deep sentence, when He meets this very feeling, and says, "For whosoever hath, to him shall be given."

II. Notice the manner in which a Christian may lay up treasure in heaven. (1) Is not each departed companion and friend an actual increase of the deep and holy treasure which is awaiting us in another state? To the man of Christian friendships death only sweeps the field to house the harvest. (2) The joy that surpasses all other joys which we carry with us from this world will be the meeting again with those to whom we have been useful in this life. They are our treasure laid up in heaven. (3) Every man has his time and his talents, and his influence and his money, as working materials. If in the use of these he is constantly considering their value for eternity, that man is putting by treasures gradually into God's bank; and he looks, and has a right to look, for favour in eternity. (4) By holy contemplation on the joys and scenes of heaven, we do actually, through the power of faith, grow into such a holy familiarity with the joys and scenes of heaven, that, in part, they are all ours. Like the breathing substance of some oft-repeated fancy, eternity will be to us the great realization of the laid-up treasures of our heart.

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,2nd series, p. 151.

References: Matthew 6:20. J. Keble, Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany,p. 431.Matthew 6:21. H. M. Butler, Harrow Sermons,2nd series, p. 211; R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons,vol. i., p. 182.