WHERE IS YOUR TREASURE?
"...for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:21
Where is what you love the most? Is it in the bank? Within the four walls of your house? Floating on a lake or ocean? Stacked on your library shelves? Or is your Love in heaven? The quoted verse defines the location of what your heart cherishes most. Either it is in heaven or on earth.
Does that really matter, you ask? Oh, yes it does. The fate of any and every soul depends on what we love most while we live out our appointed years on earth.
Jesus said elsewhere that, in essence, we cannot take any of the treasures on earth to heaven with us. The saying goes that a shroud has no pockets. We come into the world naked and that's exactly how we leave it. Stripped of everything except our soul. So, what we love during our earth years really matters.
To emphasize this point, Jesus intentionally narrated the parable of the Pearl of Great Price to His disciples, and scholars have debated its meaning ever since. It seems that the most valid interpretation is that a person who seeks Jesus to be his savior and lord divests himself of everything else to purchase the one Pearl whose Person is all that he possesses.
So, then, it has to do with attachment. What are you willing to hold to loosely and what do you grip with a steel trap? The rich young ruler stood talking face to face with the Pearl, who told him to sell everything he owned and give the cash to the poor. Then he could come and follow Him...and the young man went away sorrowful because he had lots of riches on which he wouldn't release his grip. He was attached to this world. And, though only implied, he disdained the poor and lowly in his great pride. He wasn't willing to pay the price of the Pearl!
God longs for us to spend eternity with Him to enjoy what He has in store for us. But it's not a free ride. There is a price to pay and that's what Jesus was telling His followers. He wasn't the only One who would pay an expensive price to assure our salvation.
God loves to pour out goodness on each of us who walk this planet. Most of us take Him for granted. but it's those very blessings from Him that either ensnare and fix our heart on this earth and its contents or become the commodities we return to God in exchange for His Pearl.
By far, it is God who paid the most for our redemption. He purposely sent His only begotten Son to live on this earth as the Perfect Man. Jesus, in turn, gave up His life purposely on our behalf. He became our sin-bearer, so that we may inherit eternal life.
Just as God paid such an immeasurable price to gain our freedom from the penalty and ensnarement of sin, so, too, we have a price to pay by giving back to Him ownership of all we are and possess. The one thing He does not control is our free will gifted to us by God at creation. It is Jesus' death and resurrection that makes it possible for us to give back to God what He has given to us--everything! That includes our free will, our affections, our strength and our possessions.
Jesus said it this way:
"And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength," and "you shall love your neighbor as yourself."
So, we give back to God not grudgingly, but lovingly to Him. We become His love-slave. For that, our reward is Jesus Himself, the Pearl of Great Price!
The real question posited above is "Where is your love?" Is it enmeshed with things here on earth, or is it centered in Him who is seated in heaven at the right hand of God? The resurrected, risen Son of God? Is Jesus the treasure of your heart, the Pearl of Great Price?
Consider your answer carefully and do not let your heart deceive you! Sell everything you have and are to gain the Pearl. He alone is worthy! And you will be exceedingly rich forever.