What are the Heavenly Treasures?

2742 words long.

Published on 2024-04-16

After I memorized the Sermon on the Mount over thirty years ago, something jumped out at me.

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,

where moth and rust destroy and

where thieves break in and steal,

but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,

where neither moth nor rust destroys and

where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is,

there your heart will be also.

- Matthew 6:19-21

Jesus doesn't tell us what the heavenly treasures are! I spent over a decade searching and came up with a list. My list is likely incomplete, but at least I have something to go on. This list is fully explored in my first nonfiction book of theology, The Endless Hunt: Or if I've Found God, Why am I still Looking?

In the article What are life's Most Important Questions?, there are three questions that touch on heavenly treasures:

• Where do I begin?
• What’s my Goal?
• What’s Valuable to acquire along the way?

The answer to the first is that we must begin with the "fear of the Lord".

Helpfully, the Bible makes this plain as the nose on your face.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,

and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

- Proverbs 9:10

The answer to the second is that our goal is the "glory of God".

In support of this is the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which begins with this question:

Q: What is the chief end of man?

A: Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

The answer to the third is the subject of this article.

In The Endless Hunt, I included the "fear of the Lord" and the "glory of God" in the list of treasures. They do triple duty as guidance, goal, and glorious treasure. Here is the complete list:

• the Fear of the Lord
• Eternal Life
• Family
• Work & Rest
• Authority & Purpose
• Love
• Wisdom, Justice & Truth
• Courage & Protection
• Freedom
• Happiness & Generosity
• Joy
• the Glory of God

The middle ten may be categorized to reveal the inner logic of such treasures:

• Being (Eternal Life)
• Establishing (relationships to Family, Career and Society)
• Nurturing (love, wisdom, justice & truth, courage & protection)
• Flourishing (freedom, happiness & generosity, joy)

The categories themselves have scriptural support.

Being

What is life but existence instead of nonexistence? The two greatest gifts that God gives to us are our existence and His. All are given life once. We who believe are given life twice. The indwelling Holy Spirit and communion with Father and Son are the ultimate treasure. To certify that our very being is a treasure, we have this exchange between God and Moses:

Then Moses said to God,

“If I come to the people of Israel and say to them,

‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’

and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’

what shall I say to them?”

God said to Moses,

“I AM WHO I AM.” And he said,

“Say this to the people of Israel:

‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

- Exodus 3:13-14

God calls Himself "I AM". He is existence itself.

Establishing

What roots us in the world are the relationships we have with other people. How important is this? The first Psalm, written by a man after God's own heart, captures this truth best:

He is like a tree

planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

- Psalm 1:3

Humans are not trees. We are not planted in dirt. We are planted in families, towns, churches, schools, nations and a multitude of other relationships. These relationships may be a source of trial or treasure. The value of these relationships is a paradox.

If possible, so far as it depends on you,

live peaceably with all.

- Romans 12:18

When the believer, living out Jesus' call to be a peacemaker, spreads peace around them, what are they doing? They are treasuring the people around them. Such a person becomes the treasured friend to their roommate, the treasured spouse to husband or wife, or the treasured colleague at work. When we all treasure our relationships, then we make it possible for the world in our neighborhood to flourish.

Nourishing

The principle spiritual treasure in this category is love. It governs all the rest. We know that love is a treasure because of what John said:

Anyone who does not love does not know God,

because God is love.

- 1 John 4:8

That is a pretty strong endorsement. An even better endorsement is found in 1 Corinthians. Jesus told us that the thing we are searching for in a heavenly treasure is that it is eternal, not perishable. Paul identified three:

Love never ends.

As for prophecies, they will pass away;

as for tongues, they will cease;

as for knowledge, it will pass away...

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three;

but the greatest of these is love.

- 1 Corinthians 13:8,13

A point can be made that my list of treasures should also include faith and hope. They are indispensable supports for courage, which is on my list. If we add them, they also belong to the nourishing category. Of course, hope acts in service to love:

it does not rejoice at wrongdoing,

but rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things,

believes all things,

hopes all things,

endures all things.

- 1 Corinthians 13:6-7 (ESV)

Here we see that love includes faith (believes or trusts), truth and hope. Of course, I prefer the NIV for verse 7, because it also brings in protection:

It always protects, always trusts,

always hopes, always perseveres.

- 1 Corinthians 13:7 (NIV)

So many treasures are entangled with love that it is hard to sort them out!

Flourishing

The transcendant treasures are what we all crave. From joy, a fruit of the Spirit, to freedom, sought in desperation by generations of slaves, to the basic happiness of a bountiful life. The trouble is not in the identification, but the pursuit.

I find it telling that the American Declaration of Independence endorses several of the treasures on my list:

We hold these truths to be self-evident,

that all men are created equal,

that they are endowed by their Creator

with certain unalienable Rights,

that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

What I called treasures Jefferson called unalienable rights. His selection comes from the first category (being, by reference to life) and the fourth (flourishing). Jefferson appeals to eternal truth from the third category (nurturing) to prove his assertions and "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" to authorize them, which touches on the final treasure, the glory of God. To secure these rights, America's founders focused on reforming part of the second category (establishing), our relationship to society, or more specifically government. These people knew that "the pursuit of happiness" can easily be thwarted by an ill-structured, tyrannical society. They knew that it is not easy to create the conditions for general prosperity. To secure the most desired treasures you must first build out their supports, a just and equal society.

There is one philosophical difficulty with the declaration. It is a misunderstanding that we all share when young and many never overcome. Are we really to pursue happiness? Are we to pursue joy? Rather, we should practice love for God, love for neighbor and enjoy fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Pursue those and happiness results. Pursue those and joy abounds. The alternative is to pursue alcohol, drugs, and all sorts of immoral activities to capture the feelings that simulate happiness and joy.

The counterfeits are all about grasping for, taking, consuming and discarding. The real treasures are about giving. You can work out a very detailed and lengthy list of spiritual treasures and fall short on the ways and means of acquiring them. The paradox is that every spiritual treasure arises from a transaction involving a perishable treasure. This is God's currency exchange. He gives us the eternal in exchange for worthless, perishable things, but we have to surrender them first. In my search for spiritual treasures, this Bible verse was immensely helpful:

Jesus said to him,

“If you would be perfect,

go, sell what you possess

and give to the poor,

and you will have treasure in heaven;

and come, follow me.”

- Matthew 19:21

The verse comes from the story of the rich young ruler, who in the end could not part with his wealth. Jesus tells us plainly that giving to the poor is one way to store up treasure in Heaven. However, what heavenly treasure results from such a transaction? What do you get when you give to the poor?

The Lord explained this to me years ago. After I made a contribution to a ministry that helped the poor, I felt regret over being so generous. O, how greed and insecurity foment objections when we try to follow Christ's teachings! It is not easy to part with something that we would rather keep. That experience showed me that I was not as generous as I thought. What did I do? I prayed, "Lord, grant me a generous heart." You see, in the end it was not my great generosity that caused me to give to the poor. It was my giving to the poor that started me down the path to generosity.

Generosity does not make you give. Giving makes you generous.

So when you give to the poor, God adds generosity to your heavenly bank account.

Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD,

and he will repay him for his deed.

- Proverbs 19:17

In like fashion, freedom comes from revering and following the Law while joy comes from entering into the suffering of others to comfort them:

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,

who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,

despising the shame, and is seated at

the right hand of the throne of God.

- Hebrews 12:2

Of all the truths I have struggled to understand in my life, this was perhaps the most difficult. The recognition of joy as a desirable, transcendent experience is universal. Throughout my late teens and most of my twenties, I was depressed. I craved nothing more than to experience joy, but it was far off and I didn't know how to get to it. In February 1986, I went on a Christian retreat up to New Hampshire. The subject of the retreat was the Book of Philippians. The meaning of these words tantalized me:

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ,

if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit,

if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete

by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit

and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.

Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,

not looking to your own interests but each of you

to the interests of the others.

- Philippians 2:1-4 (NIV)

There was a veil over my eyes. I couldn't understand what they were saying. Halfway through the retreat, I asked to leave. Someone drove me back to Boston. In Philippians, Paul uses words like joy, joyful, and rejoice fourteen times. The very message that my soul needed to hear to be rescued from depression bounced off my hard heart. The words were in English. They weren't complicated. When I bolted from the retreat I didn't even know what the difficulty was. My mind did not know the nature of my objections to this teaching but my heart did. It refused to believe that the path to joy required sacrificial service to others. It could not fathom that by emptying himself for humanity, Jesus acquired a greater joy.

How can visiting suffering people bring you joy? How can adding more problems to your life lessen them? What was being asked of me was impossible. The miraculous thing is that those words of Philippians that I did not understand burrowed into my heart and began to grow. Over the course of the next several years I slowly opened up to taking risks to help others. This culminated on the day I visited a dying woman near my apartment in Somerville. After visiting with Janet and praying for her, I was cut to the heart. I had never seen anyone in such pain. I left her place bawling. I never cried so hard for someone besides myself as I did that day. And then the power of God proved my wretched fears wrong. My tears stopped, peace settled in my heart, and then my soul was flooded with joy. That joy remained with me for a solid week. Neither before nor since have I ever felt its equal.

It was a Sunday. After church ended, I raced back to my apartment, grabbed my Bible and opened to Philippians. Its meaning was finally unlocked. I wrote a long article about Philippians for the church newsletter to share this revelation.

For his anger is but for a moment,

and his favor is for a lifetime.

Weeping may tarry for the night,

but joy comes with the morning.

- Psalm 30:5

Solomon said that there is a time to weep and a time to laugh. It is our folly to think that we can reach the second without passing through the first.

Every one of God's heavenly treasures poses some obstacle to understanding. None are easy to acquire, not because God's rules are needlessly difficult, but because our hearts are so dark. God does not invite us into his treasury by making the journey easier. He does it by making our desires stronger. Pray for a generous heart. Pray for a compassionate heart. Eagerly desire the heavenly treasures and your passion will drive you forward and enable you to overcome every obstacle. When your desire for joy exceeds your fear of sorrow, joy will come to you.

The Spiritual Harvest

This article spoke in terms of treasures. Job used this metaphor in Job 28 and Solomon throughout Proverbs. It is not the only metaphor. While Jesus spoke of pearls and the treasure in the field, more often he spoke about growing things.

The gardener goes to the seed store and selects the vegetables and flowers they want to grow. Then the work begins. These treasures start as seeds. Now that you know some of their varieties, the next step is to learn how to make them grow and how to bring in an abundant harvest. For that, we have the subject of the next article, the Harvest Pattern. When I was younger, I thought it was hit or miss. I saw no rhyme or reason in how my spiritual growth was proceeding. No more...

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Links to the other articles in this section:

Spiritual Growth Introduction to the articles about spiritual growth.

What are Life's Twelve Most Important Questions? If you can answer these questions, you know the way better than the Mandelorian.

What are the Heavenly Treasures? It is one thing to list these treasures, quite another to acquire them!

The Harvest Pattern of Jesus A tactical pattern for overcoming an individual obstacle and reaping a single spiritual harvest.

The Growth Pattern of Solomon Overview of a strategic pattern to help you plan your whole life.

• There is a Season The chapter from Peace, like Solomon Never Knew where I first introduced the Growth Pattern.

• The Apostle Paul's Discipleship Program Shows how the first seven letters of Paul to the churches are arranged according to the Growth Pattern.

• Seven Facets of Spirit-led Discipleship The Sermon on the Mount conforms to the Growth Pattern.

The Motherhood Pattern A strategic pattern for women.

The Law Pattern of Moses The law does more than restrict; it also guides.

The Journey Pattern It is a long journey back to Eden.

Emotional Prophecies of the Psalms

Job and the Ways to Talk to God

Job Description for a Savior Job knew what he needed in a savior. Do you?

Dreams Dreams can guide you, paralyze you, or lead you astray. In my case, it was all three.

Spiritual Warfare Somebody IS out to get you.