Where is your Treasure?
One of the traits that characterise our worldview as believers is the reality of eternity. This is a reality we have the opportunity to invest towards, storing up our riches there (Matt 6:19-21).
Someone once said, “A Christian either leaves his wealth or goes to it.”
While the world spends years investing towards retirement, preparing for death, the believer is able to prepare towards eternity - storing up unseen wealth while devaluing the wealth that is seen and temporary (2 Cor 4:18).
To the secular world, life is slowly sinking ship. Though sinking, they strive to make the most of their time onboard, spending years accumulating and investing reserves. The Christian recognises and understands we don’t have to stay on this ship. That, in finding Christ, we abandon this sinking ship and find ourselves on solid ground (Matt 7:24).
As “he will reward each one according to what they have done” (Matt 16:27), we have a decision of where we are to place our riches, either here, a sinking ship, or in Heaven, a kingdom in which its riches are “an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Cor 4:17, Matt 6:19-21). This treasure is not to be confused with the gift of eternal life. There is a distinction. We know that salvation is freely given through faith (Eph 2:8), whereas a heavenly reward for service to Christ is communicated as something to be earned (1 Cor 9:24-25, 1 Cor 3:11-15, Matt 16:27, Matt 19:29-30, Rev 20:4-6).
This changes things.
While the world is tethered to the politics of the sinking ship, the believer has an awareness of something greater to come, an eternal affair that takes priority. This is not to say we should adopt a lackadaisical approach to life on Earth, unbothered with its issues. On the contrary, when someone is fixed on eternity, they can’t help but leave their mark on Earth.
Some have 5-year plans, others 10-year, but this type of believer adopts a plan for a kingdom yet to come. “Well done, my good and faithful servant” is the perfume he desires to wear. He is consumed by kingdom exploits and invests much of his wealth there. He recognises that time is his most precious commodity, so makes an effort to diligently ration it towards the body of Christ and the spread of The Gospel. In seeking the riches of Heaven, his mark is found on Earth.
Unfortunately, this type of Christian is scarce in our generation. Most are content with the foundation of eternal life but struggle to rationalise the need to build on this foundation. Once saved, “prosperity and easy life” became their motto, with little interest in kingdom affairs if it meant personal inconvenience or sacrifice.
Imagine what would be accomplished by a generation of believers who cared less about working for themselves and more for the kingdom. Where reaching the lost is more of a concern than reaching success. Perhaps we need to reevaluate how we measure success, looking not to prosperity and talent but to fruit and obedience. If 12 could “turn the world upside down” (Acts 17:6) with little resources, how much more can the world be shaken by many of us with the education, resources and connections to do so?
Let us strive for this “as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” - 2 Cor 4:18
