“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” - Matthew 6:21
Contentment and covetousness stand contrary to one another. One tethers you to this world, and the other liberates you from it. One invests you in the natural, and the other divests you from the natural. What you treasure most, is the thing you are unwilling to lose. This is where your heart truly is.
When something is readily available it can be easy to take it for granted. The average American probably does not appreciate running water like someone from a third world country who has never had it. The other day I was listening to a man argue with his HOA over the right to cut lines in his grass. I thought: “well, this is a first world problem, if I have ever heard of one.” The readily available becomes status quo, and eventually, we can be tempted to discontentment and lust to covet something better. The running water is not enough, it needs to be temperature controlled. It needs to be in every part of the house. It needs to be everywhere we go, etc. Maintaining our standard of living can quickly become the whole of our existence. On this point Jesus’s words pierce like a sword. The Pharisees loved the high seats, the show of sacrifice, the long prayers. They were quick to display their abundance of power, and slow to relinquish it. It was more just their false theology Christ was attacking, it was their standard of living, their way of life, their treasures on earth. When Jesus came, he stripped away all that. He told everyone to give in secret, pray in secret, and to humble themselves. He said to “lay not up for yourselves treasure on earth.” He brought salvation down to man and obliterated the need for a high priest. In doing so, he ripped everyone from the covetousness and drew them to contentment. He commanded them to refocus their investment of time, and to place it in eternal things. Why? Because where your “treasure is there will your heart be also.” The Pharisees did not take kindly to this radical, so they had Him killed. He preached a gospel that told them to abandon what they loved most, and embrace a gospel that would strip away their treasures. Then surrender to God who would grant them true peace, unquestionable contentment, and treasure in heave. Is it not the same today? We like our comforts, our pleasures, and our way of life. We love our family, our friends, and our future. Some of it is standard of living and creature comforts, and some of it is treasures on earth (what cannot abandon will tell you which is which). Jesus takes all that (food, raiment, family, friends, etc.) and rolls it up into one word “life.” He says: “lose your life.” Jesus calls us to abandon it, die to it, lay it down and follow Him. If you do, if you fall radically in love with Jesus Christ, then you will find life. When you treasure this world the heart clings to it and you are drawn away from Christ. When you break from the world and treasure heaven then your heart is in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ will wreck your life and give you life. He will strip away the covetousness but grant contentment. Contentment that is rooted in righteousness.
To the carnal heart, it is an enormous challenge to lay up treasures in heaven, because your greatest loves are present down here. Like the Pharisees, your heart will adamantly reject the very notion of it and even seek to destroy it. However, when you are genuinely converted, washed in the blood of Christ and sanctified by the Spirit. When you are brought into that born-again experience. It is a great delight to lay up treasure in heaven. You see this as wisdom as much as righteousness. You are given peace that brings contentment.”
