Matthew 6:19-21 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Lay not up, &c.— By taking a general review of what we have been hitherto taught in this divine sermon, we shall be led more distinctly to the meaning of the words now before us. After the beatitudes, our Saviour goes on to treat of justice, that is, duty in general. And first he shews the extent of it; I mean, how far its obligations reach. He begins with a general proposition, ch. Matthew 5:20 and this he illustrates and exemplifies in many instances, which fill up the remainder of that chapter. After thus shewing the extent of justice, he comes in the next place to rectify the motive to it; as in the first verse of this chapter: Take heed that you do not your justice, that is, acts of justice, to be seen of men, &c. And here again he gives particular instances in the three principal acts of that justice, namely, beneficence to mankind, devotion to God, and mortification which concerns ourselves; with a strict caution to shun all vain-glory in all its forms and shapes. And as vanity is not the only wrong motive, and as the deeds of justice last mentioned are not our only occupation, but besides these we have each of us his secular employment, or worldly business to discharge; our Lord therefore goes on to regulate our whole course of action, by setting the heart right, and in a proper disposition for the performance of it. Lay not up for yourselves, &c. I should rather read, Make not for yourselves, &c. which the original imports, and the sense requires; because, whatever we place our happiness in, that we make our treasure; the treasure of the covetous is literal treasure; and that of the rest of the world consists of those things which they desire and count upon as a fund for enjoyment; for as where our treasure is, there will our heart be also; so where our heart is, there also is our treasure. As almost every animal has had its idolaters, so almost every kind of object has become a treasure to some or other of the sons of men. But as true religion is but one, so there is but one real treasure; one only that is worthy of our option, and will answer our expectation;—that which we provide for ourselves in heaven, when, pardoned through the blood of the covenant, and regenerated by the Spirit of God, in constant dependence upon divine grace, we secure in the experience and practice of all holiness and virtue, our everlasting interests there, as our Lord advises. In order the more fully to understand the words, where moth and rust doth corrupt, &c. we should remember that, in the Eastern countries, where the fashion of clothes did not alter as with us, the treasures of the rich consisted not only of gold and silver, but of costly habits and fine-wrought vessels of brass, and tin, and copper, liable to be destroyed in the manner here mentioned. See Job 27:16. James 5:2-3. Doddridge renders and paraphrases the 19th verse (understanding it singly as a caution against covetousness), "Do not make it your great care to lay up for yourselves treasures here on earth, where so many accidents may deprive you of them; where the moth, for instance, may spoil your finest garments, and the devouring canker may consume your corn, or may corrupt the very metals you have hoarded; and where thieves may dig through the strongest walls which you have raised about them; and may steal them away; but," &c. Nothing certainly can be conceived more powerful to damp that keenness with which men pursue the things of this life, than the considerationof their emptiness, fragility, and uncertainty; or to kindle in them an ambition of obtaining the treasures in heaven, than the consideration of their beingsubstantial, satisfying, durable, and subject to no accident whatever. See Heylin, Macknight, and Calmet.