Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21
I’ve creatively distances myself from this, namely, a strategic focus on the “treasures in heaven” with a blind eye to the contrary “treasures on earth,” addressing the spiritual list, ignoring the tangible list. But Jesus set these two in opposition, much like:
You can’t serve God and money.
You’re either a sheep or a goat.
There is only a wide road and a narrow road.
You either love your brother in Christ, or you’re a liar.
We’ve invented a thousand shades of gray, devising a comfortable Christian experience we can all live with—super awesome, except the Bible doesn’t support it. According to Scripture, no real disciple serves God while addicted to the dollar. There is no sheep/goat hybrid. There is no middle road. There is no true believer who hates his brother.
Grayed-down discipleship is an easier sell, but it created pretend Christians, obsessing over Scriptures we like while conspicuously ignoring the rest. Until God asks for everything and we answer, “It’s yours,” we don’t yet have ears to hear or eyes to see. We’re still deaf to the truth, blind to freedom, deceived by the treasures of the world, imagining them to be the key when they are actually the lock.
Jen Hatmaker, Seven: Clothes, Spending, Waste, Stress, Media, Possessions, Food – An Experimental Mutiny against Excess (Nashville: B&H Publishing, 2012) 92-93.