How to Store Up Heavenly Treasure (Matthew 6:19–20)

I remember trying to teach my five-year-old daughter about the value of money. In one hand, I held a few coins. In the other hand, I held a crisp $100 note.

“Which would you rather have?” I asked.

Her eyes were drawn to the coins. They were shiny. They jingled. They looked pretty. In contrast, that $100 note looked like a scribbly piece of paper. She reached for the coins. 💰

“I have much to teach you,” I sighed.

Sometimes I wonder if Jesus feels the same way when he sees us chasing earthly treasure. We reach for the shiny stuff because we don’t understand the eternal value of what he offers. We don’t know the value of heavenly treasure.

What counts as treasure?

All believers have a glorious inheritance in Christ, but Scripture also speaks of storing up heavenly treasure. There is a difference.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 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. (Matthew 6:19–21)

Many of us ignore Christ’s instruction because we don’t know what heavenly treasure is or how to store it up.

If only Jesus had given us some notes. If he had said something like, “You store up heavenly treasure by jogging,” Christians would be the fittest people on earth. 🏃

Heavenly treasure is not heavenly dollars, mansions in the sky, or special crowns for elite performers. 👑 It is far better than that. Heavenly treasure is people.

Why did Jesus give up everything he had? To win you. You are his treasure.

In the Old Testament, God’s people are called his treasure (Exo. 19:5, Deut. 7:6). People are the treasure that moth and rust can’t touch and thieves can’t steal. When the Bible speaks of raising spiritual offspring or making eternal friends, it is referring to the only treasure you can take with you.

The treasury of eternal life

I touched on the subject of heavenly treasure in my book The Gospel in Twenty Questions. Since writing that book, I have learned more about the Jewish background to Jesus’ words.

In Jewish thought, heaven is a treasury containing “the treasuries of life, the treasuries of blessing, and the souls of the righteous” (Talmud, Chagigah 12b).

The righteous who die are regarded as treasures. In the ancient Jewish Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, God tells Moses that his soul will be “treasured in the treasury of eternal life” with his fathers.

So when Jesus spoke of storing up treasure in heaven, his Jewish listeners would have understood that he was speaking about people and eternal life.

But how do we store up people?

Rich in good works

Paul provides a clue:

Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future. (1 Timothy 6:17–19)

This is a remarkable passage because it contains both grace—“God richly supplies us with all things”—and works—“be rich in good works.”

There is no contradiction. We don’t work to supply our own needs; God has taken care of that. Instead, we work—we talk, write, travel, compose, build, serve, and give—so that others may experience the blessings of God.

Religion says, “Give and God will bless you.” Grace says, “Give because God has blessed you.”

See the difference? God makes his grace abound to us, so that we “may have an abundance for every good deed” (2 Cor. 9:8).

He gives; we give. He blesses; we become a blessing to others. And that’s how we store up heavenly treasure.

The only treasure that lasts

Philanthropy means “the love of mankind.” It is caring for people: feeding the needy, aiding the sick, speaking up for the oppressed, defending the vulnerable, and saying, “You matter.”

Why do we care for others? Because Jesus cared for us.

We were once paupers scrounging for scraps; now we are seated with Christ in heavenly places.

So why in the world would we spend our lives accumulating things destined for the landfill? 🗑️ Stuff doesn’t last. People do.

We are the treasure Jesus died for. When we tell others the good news, we’re collecting on what Jesus already paid for.

If you want to store up treasure in heaven, invest in what heaven treasures. 👪

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