“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Luke 12:32-34
After considering the passage in the previous Gem I have decided not to add any more comment. The concepts are not hard to work out and so I will leave any further study for you to do, as you pull apart the verses up to and including verse 31, and see how it all fits together. Remember, Jesus was simply returning to the topic of conversation before the man’s interruption. This time Jesus adds to the comments He had made before, in a way that challenges the disciples with their life focus, set in the context of the things He had said to the brother via the parable of the rich fool. Jesus sums it all up again and lays the challenge out for the disciples. Remember all of this has been for the disciples sake in the first place.
Now let’s look at the close to this whole segment. The verses before us today.
Verse 32 is interesting. It is a transitional verse between the segment before and the segment which follows it. Some printed Bibles place it with 22-31 yielding a segment 12:22-32; others place it with verses 33 and 34 resulting in a unit 12:32-34. It rightly belongs with the segment before it but it is all a matter of editorial judgement. What is clear is that it links both segments. Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things, which were discussed by the brother disputing with his sibling and depicted by Jesus in the parable, will be yours as well. Thus . . .
Don’t be afraid little flock. The disciples are in focus here but the sense could also be extended to Christians as a whole at any time. When compared with the nations of the world, the disciples and the followers of Jesus, the sheep, were small in number. But when the Lord of the flock and the harvest is on your side, there is nothing to worry about. Your Father in Heaven has chosen to give you the Kingdom. When you are sons and daughters of the King, all the riches of the Kingdom are yours by right of sonship [or daughtership]. Jesus is your shepherd, little flock; He will bring you all to safety. The task before them must have been daunting with opposition at every turn at the hands of the most powerful leaders in the land. But when God is on your side, all the opposition counts for nothing.
Jesus tells them to sell their possessions or give them away. You don’t need to hoard things to protect your future. God intends to give you everything as your inheritance. However, the thrust of this section is focused on the Kingdom to come. The way to turn your earthly resources into heavenly, everlasting wealth is as we saw before in Gem 998: give to the poor, share your wealth. For that reason fashion for yourselves money belts or storage places that will not wear out. Every means of making or storing wealth down here on earth is fraught with risk. Nothing, absolutely nothing is guaranteed. We only need to look around at what is happening to world monetary systems now to realise that. There is no sure deal. The money belts that don’t wear out, referred to here, are found in heaven. The qualification in the text makes that clear. The money belts that don’t wear out are “the unfailing treasures in heaven”. In this world there are thieves and there are moths. That is not the case in heaven. Heaven is free of all corruption and all things that atrophy, wear out or waste away.
Want to protect your resources? Sow them into things eternal, á la the advice of Jesus from Gem 998.
There is a corollary to this message from Jesus for the disciples. Guys your hearts [and minds] will be where your treasure is. That is clear. If, like the Rich Fool, your focus is your treasures on earth, then you will do all you can do to protect them from thieves and the forces that would harm them. But if your treasure is stored in heaven, then your heart will be there. Put your treasure in the place you want your priorities to be and your heart will follow. If you want your focus to be heavenly, then sow into heavenly things. If you want your focus to be earthly, then put your money into the temporal things of this earth. Remember, there are only two things that are eternal from a biblical point of view. People/souls and the Word of God. Sow into these.
Everybody surrenders to something. If not to God, we’ll surrender to the opinions and expectations of others, to money, to resentment, to fear or something else.
Bob Gass
Make God the one you surrender to and He becomes the antidote to all other things that will capture your heart.
Ian Vail
In The Scope Of Eternity, It Is More Profitable For One’s Heart To Be Filled With God’s Word Than To Have One’s Pocket flowing With $.
Robb Thompson
They say, “put your money where your mouth is”. Logic tells us to put our money where our heart is. God says give Him your money and your heart will flow to where your money is.
Anon
The essence of the money problem is always a matter of the heart.
Anon