Eyes On Eternity
Scripture
“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.
“Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!
“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.”
Matthew 6:19–24 (NLT)
Jesus is not giving three unrelated teachings here. He is making one sustained argument. Where your treasure is, your heart will follow. What your eye is fixed on will fill or darken your whole body. And whatever you are most devoted to will become your master. The thread running through all three images is the same. You cannot live for two things at once. You cannot hold eternity and earthly accumulation with equal grip. Something will win. The only question is what.
He begins with treasure. Not with a prohibition on enjoying good things, but with a clear-eyed warning about what we are building our lives on. Moths destroy. Rust corrodes. Thieves break in and steal. Everything we accumulate here is temporary, and we know it, even when we act as if we don’t. Jesus is not forbidding wise stewardship. He is exposing the foolishness of staking our hearts on what can be taken from us. The alternative is not deprivation. It is investment in something that cannot be lost. Store your treasures in heaven, where nothing can touch them. Give generously. Live open-handed. Use what you have been given for purposes that outlast you.
“Giving is the only antidote to materialism. Giving is a joyful surrender to a greater person and a greater agenda. It dethrones me and exalts Him.”¹
— Randy Alcorn, The Treasure Principle
Alcorn understood what Jesus is describing. The problem with materialism is not just that it wastes money. It is that it misplaces the heart. And the only thing that loosens the grip of earthly treasure is not willpower but generosity. When we give, we are making a statement about where our real home is. We are acting on the belief that what we store up in heaven matters more than what we accumulate here. And that act of giving does something to us. It realigns our vision. It reminds us who the Master is.
Which is exactly where Jesus ends. No one can serve two masters. Not because it is difficult, but because it is impossible. Over time one master always wins. We will either love God and use money as a tool for His purposes, or we will love money and try to use God as a means to get more of it. The choice is not made once. It is made in a thousand small decisions, every day. May we be people whose eyes are fixed on eternity, whose hearts follow their treasure upward, and who hold everything in this life with open and generous hands.
Reflection:
- What kind of treasure are you most tempted to store up here on earth?
- How might your perspective on money shift if you truly believed everything you have is temporary?
- In what ways can you store up treasure in heaven this week, through generosity, service, or sacrifice?
Prayer:
Ask God to give you a healthy eye that sees through the lens of eternity. Surrender your heart again to His purposes and ask for the grace to serve Him wholeheartedly, using everything He has entrusted to you for His glory.
Footnote:
¹ Randy Alcorn, The Treasure Principle (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 2001), 58.