Mark 10:21 - Is Your Treasure In Heaven?
Mark 10:21 - Is Your Treasure In Heaven?
Mark 10:21 (NIV) Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing
you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the
poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
The young man who came running after Jesus wanted what most
people want - eternal life in heaven. Such was his commitment to his
goal that he had worked to keep all of the commandments since
childhood!
Jesus told the man to "go and sell" all he had and give the
money to the poor. Jesus' response exposed a barrier that could keep
the young man out of the Kingdom of Heaven - his love of money.
Ironically, this attitude toward money and possessions made the young man
unable to keep the first commandment, to let nothing be more important
than God.
That is precisely why Jesus pointed out that it is difficult
for the rich to enter heaven. Wealth tends to make people
self-reliant. Money represents effort, accomplishment, and self-sufficiency.
Does this mean that all believers should sell all their possessions?
No. What this story shows is that we must not let anything we have
(or desire) keep us from serving Jesus. We must be willing to remove
all barriers so that we may serve him fully. [The One Year Bible for
New Believers re Mark 10:21, 22]
"Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
Treasure laid up on the earth will engross the mind to the exclusion of
heavenly things.... Avaricious greed for wealth exerts such a fascinating,
bewitching influence over the life that it results in perverting the
nobility and corrupting the humanity of men until they are drowned in
perdition. The service of Satan is full of care, perplexity, and wearing
labor, and the treasure men toil to accumulate on earth is only for a
season.... The instruction is to "lay up for yourselves treasures in
heaven." It is for your own interest to secure heavenly riches. These
alone, of all that you possess, are really yours. The treasure laid up
in heaven is imperishable. No fire or flood can destroy it, no
thief despoil it, no moth or rust corrupt it; for it is in the keeping
of God. This treasure, which Christ esteems as precious above all
estimate, is "the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints."
Ephesians 1:18. The disciples of Christ are called His jewels, His
precious and peculiar treasure. He says, "They shall be as the stones of
a crown." "I will make a man more precious than fine gold;... Christ
looks upon His people in their purity and perfection as the reward of
all His sufferings, His humiliation, and His love, and the
supplement of His glory--... We are permitted to unite with Him in the great
work of redemption and to be sharers with Him in the riches which His
death and suffering have won.... This is the treasure for which Christ
bids us labor. Character is the great harvest of life. And every word
or deed that through the grace of Christ shall kindle in one soul
an impulse that reaches heavenward, every effort that tends to the
formation of a Christlike character, is laying up treasure in heaven.... {MB
88-90}
So few things in our lives last forever. In fact, Jesus tells
us in Matthew 24:35 that "heaven and earth will pass away, but my
words will never pass away." It makes you wonder, doesn't it, why we
spend so much time, energy, and resources on the things of this world
- making money, creating a name, impressing our neighbors,
collecting treasures, seeking pleasure - when we know that they will all be
gone one day. Like God Himself, His Word is eternal. What results
from His Word is also eternal: fruits of the Spirit such as love,
joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self-control;
fruits of our labor such as soul winning, seed planting, soil watering;
the fruit of righteousness such as a pure life. What will you say on
that day when you stand before the Lord to give an account of your
time? Today is a good day to start over: read His Word, apply it to
your life, and live it out! [In His Time; Walk With Wisdom]
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