When Christ said these words, were there young people standing by? If so, they must have sounded very strangely in their ears. For youth does not realize that life on earth grows pale, nor in the midst of its treasures dreams that the day will come when they shall fail. But on the ears of older men and women His words fell with a profound meaning. They struck home to that which is bitterest in human life; more sharply felt, because more constant, than even the special sorrows which, breaking in from time to time on life, still leave us intervals of peace. It is the sense of the passing away of all things, the knowledge that day by day and hour by hour the moth and rust are at work; that time, as it slips by, steals with it our treasures, and with them our heart out of our bosom.
I. What are those true treasures which can never be exhausted? It is time we should seek and find these things, if they may be found. Do they exist? Oh, yes! There are things immortal, ever young. No moth corrupts the garment of a pure spirit; no rust consumes the armour of God the shield of faith, the sandals of the Gospel of peace, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, the breastplate of truth. No thief can rob us of the love of God, the knowledge of His will, the peace of Christ and His joy, which the world cannot give or take.
II. The first of these treasures is Truth, and its correlative, Constancy; for that which is true endures all shocks. Give half the intensity to it you give to money or fame or human love, and it is yours nay, give to its pursuit one week of the same consuming thought you give to anything you set your heart on, and it is yours for ever.
III. And righteousness, treasure of treasures, lord of all other treasures, protector and securer of all we care for upon earth, win it at all costs. For it is sin that is the rust and the moth that devour the joys and welfare of our lives.
IV. "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." The desire of earth will be towards heaven, because there will be full enjoyment there of these perfect things. We want fulfilment; we must have perfection, fulness of love and truth and purity, to be filled with all the fulness of God. Nothing less than that will satisfy the boundless thirst of the human soul. It is like the gulf in the Forum till the most precious treasure is cast into it, it will not close. Therefore we cannot rest; therefore all the whole earth cannot give peace to one of us. Where our treasure is, not only our heart's desire, but our very selves shall be at last.
S. A. Brooke, The Fight of Faith,p. 307.
The Law kept by Faith.
I. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth." This word of Christ's, and others of a similar character, which He spoke on other occasions, did not mean literally to forbid the natural accumulation of capital and property, which certainly would have placed the Gospel in opposition to some of the laws of social progress. And that it did not so mean is further proved by the fact that, in reality, the civilization of the modern world keeps pace with the advance of Christian faith; and those countries in which the Gospel is upheld in greatest purity, and manifests its greatest living power, are precisely those which are most signally known for their successful prosecution of all honest industry.
II. The special reason given here for inculcating this lesson is, that "moth and rust corrupt them, and thieves break through and steal." These treasures are precarious at the best, and perishable certainly in the long run. And it is altogether unworthy of a creature fitted to hold converse with God and truth and all that is most elevating and Divine, to degrade himself to mean pursuits whose highest fruits are a little meat and drink, and mouth-honour and vain display.
III. By the laying up of treasures in heaven, I understand the pursuit not of things carnal but spiritual. It is to set our hearts on obtaining the knowledge and wisdom, the virtues and graces, of God's true sons. It is to seek moral worth and truth and love above all possessions and honours of this world. It is to labour to do good, rather than to get profit of any kind; for such good works are kept in God's treasury carefully. Or, to sum up all in one word, it is to win Christ, and be found in Him, and He in us. These are the real treasures, and they are eternal treasures of knowledge and wisdom, all hid in Christ; riches of grace and peace, all found in Christ. Understand that these are the true wealth and glory of man; and then "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
W. C. Smith, The Sermon on the Mount,p. 208.
References: Matthew 6:19. H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. vi., p. 188. Matthew 6:19; Matthew 6:20. J. O. Davies, Ibid.,vol. xxvi., p. 264; C. Girdlestone, Twenty Parochial Sermons,3rd series, p. 49. Matthew 6:19-21. G. Macdonald, Unspoken Sermons,p. 118. Matthew 6:19-34. Parker, Inner Life of Christ,vol. i., p. 213.