Living in the Image of God M06S08
The series on “what the Lord has given us” takes us this month to a Christ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount on managing personal wealth. God blesses individuals with personal wealth to be applied towards providing for needs that he will show them. Christ addresses personal wealth in the Sermon on the Mount through the teaching of “Treasures on Earth or In Heaven.” The teaching describes two alternatives for managing personal wealth. One alternative is to divert your wealth to building treasures on earth and risk losing all to circumstances you cannot control. The other alternative is to apply the wealth to provide for needs that God will show you and earn blessing as you do. Your earned blessings accumulate for your benefit and cannot be lost. The teaching leads to understanding the relationship between wealth and treasure and understanding blessing as a permanent promise of God.
This bible study discusses Christ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount regarding the management of personal wealth. He presents two alternatives: In one alternative, you divert your personal wealth to building treasures on earth and risk losing all to circumstances you cannot control: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal” [Matthew 6:19]. In the other alternative, you use your personal wealth as God intended, to provide for needs that he will show you. You earn blessings as you do and the blessings you earn accumulate for your benefit and cannot be lost [Matthew 6:20]: “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.”
The teaching conveys an understanding of the relationships between wealth and treasure. We will learn that owner’s intent is the primary feature that distinguishes wealth from treasure. God gives wealth but the owner (an individual person) can decide to divert the wealth to treasure by changing his/her intent regarding the wealth. Second, the teaching conveys an understanding of blessing as a permanent promise of God. You earn blessing when you use your personal wealth as God intended. The blessing you earn accumulates for your benefit and cannot be taken away or destroyed. As we discuss in previous studies (e.g., M02S06, Accumulation of Blessing; M02S07, Blessing Does Not Seek Perfection): blessing and punishment are parallel promises of God, may coexist for a person, do not trade-off against each other, and will be fulfilled separately by God’s schedule as if for different people. One exception is that God can forgive a promise of punishment if the recipient repents and asks for forgiveness.
Additionally, we discuss Paul’s message in a letter to Timothy: his message of banking blessing by using what the Lord has given you to provide for needs that he will show you (1 Timothy 6:17–19).
Sermon on the Mount Regarding Personal Wealth
In the Sermon on the Mount teaching regarding personal wealth, Christ identifies two alternatives for managing personal wealth: using your wealth to build treasures on earth or to build treasures in heaven.
Treasures on Earth
Building treasures on earth means converting personal wealth to a form the owner intends to keep permanent and not-for-use for a long time. An online dictionary defines treasure as “wealth or riches stored or accumulated, especially in the form of precious metals, money, jewels, or plate” and wealth as “anything that has utility and is capable of being appropriated or exchanged.” That is, wealth and treasure (earthly treasure) are distinguished on the basis of owner’s intent. The owner’s intent for treasure is “keep but do not use.” In contrast, wealth is by owner’s intent generally available for use. Treasures you build on earth face a risk of being destroyed or stolen from you: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal” [Matthew 6:19].
Treasures in Heaven
Building treasures in heaven, means accumulation of blessing through behavior that pleases God. You use your personal wealth to build treasures in heaven by using the wealth to provide for needs that God will show you: needs of self and needs of others. You earn blessing each time you use your personal wealth as God intended. The blessings you earn accumulate for your benefit and can never be lost or destroyed: “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal” [Matthew 6:20].
This teaching also provides understanding that blessing is a permanent promise of God. Every blessing is a promise to be fulfilled at its time, for the person directly or through offspring generations (e.g., “but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments” [Exodus 20:6]). As we discuss previously under Parallel Promises—in David-Bathsheba Relationship, blessing and punishment can coexist as parallel promises of God. They do not trade-off against each other. Each will be fulfilled separately when God chooses. A person that previously earned blessing could incur punishment. Also, a person can earn blessing even with a promise of punishment hanging on him or her.
For example, the Moabites displeased God by presenting themselves as a source of temptation for alternative worship among descendants of Israel. Furthermore, they presented enmity when their prior relationships with Israel called on them to be friendly. God frowned on their behavior and prohibited descendants of Israel from intermingling with Moabites. Yet he chose Ruth, a Moabite daughter, as a parental link in the lineage of the Messiah.
Paul’s Message of Banking Blessing
In a letter to Timothy (1 Timothy 6:17–19), Paul describes the benefits of using what the Lord has given you to provide for needs that he will show you. He explained that God blesses those that share what they have to benefit others in need.
In the first part of the message, he explains that God gives wealth to people to empower them to solve problems by providing for the needs around them to benefit themselves and others [1 Timothy 6:17]: “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.”
In the second part of the message, he urges every person to use your wealth to solve problems to benefit yourself and others and enrich your environment with your good deeds, generosity, and goodwill: “Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share” [1 Timothy 6:18].
In the third part of the message, he describes the benefits of using your personal wealth as God intended: You lay up treasures in heaven for yourself, because your accumulated blessing endures for your benefit and could never be taken away: “In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life” [1 Timothy 6:19].
Summary of What We Learned
The series on “what the Lord has given us” takes us this month to a Christ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount on managing personal wealth. God blesses individuals with personal wealth to be applied towards providing for needs that he will show them. Christ addresses personal wealth in the Sermon on the Mount through the teaching of “Treasures on Earth or In Heaven.” The teaching describes two alternatives for managing personal wealth.
One alternative is to divert your wealth to building treasures on earth and risk losing all to circumstances you cannot control. The other alternative is to apply the wealth to provide for needs that God will show you and earn blessing as you do. Your earned blessings accumulate for your benefit and cannot be lost.
The teaching leads to understanding the relationship between wealth and treasure and understanding blessing as a permanent promise of God.