The Seventh Law

"Lay Up Treasures in Heaven"


"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."

"The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light."

"But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"

"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."

"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?"

"Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"

"Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?"

"So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin;"

"And yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

"Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"

"Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat? Or ‘ What shall we drink? Or ‘What shall we wear?’"

"For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows what you need all these things."

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." [Matthew 6:19-34]

In the Old Testament, God gave His people Ten Commandments. Lord Jesus too gave Ten Commandments at the Mount sermon.

The previous six studies were about:

The Seventh Law is about the earthy treasure.

Lord Jesus condemned hypocrisy and exaggeration in worship. He also said that being miser or greedy is shameful. He directed us to a better behavior, stating that making money is not a sin, but rather loving money is. It is very difficult for a rich man to enter to kingdom of heaven, if he depends on his wealth. God loves the rich who trade according to His will, who give the poor – God’s guests - some of their money. Job was a rich man who gave the needy. Accordingly, he won at the end. Save your soul, the same way you are seeking to gain money. No one can serve two masters, either you serve God or money.

Make an effort to build a heavenly treasure, by doing goodness to the others, for the sake of the Lord. Love the others, not by talking, but rather by action. The Lord talked about making money, and asked us to purify our hearts. Our hearts will be where our treasures. During Liturgy, the priest asks us to raise our hearts and the people reply that they are with God. Let us always repeat this from the depth of our hearts, as worshipping should be.

Each human has one heart, but occasionally we hear someone saying, "an hour for your heart and another hour for your God"! It means dividing your heart between money etc. and God. We only have one heart that should be always with God. The Lord should be the Master of our hearts, not the Money.

There are three types of people:

These people just live for their money and whatever related to it. They: An earthy treasure is not guaranteed. It can be destroyed by moth and rust or stolen. Thousands and thousands nowadays worship money. To many it their god! They do anything for it. Nothing would stop them for that. They sacrifice their talent, health, strength, friends even their honor, to get it. They worship at an altar of deception that covers their life. In their dreams and deception, they are worshiping money and not God. They believe that as long as they reach their goal, they can do whatever needed to achieve it. Most of that kind of people lives outside the circle of our church, but unfortunately, there are some in our congregation do drift towards that path. Their ultimate master is substance and money.

Those who aim to be rich may achieve that, however it is like a person who is thirst and drinks salty water that will never satisfy his thirst. Money doesn’t provide the peace of mind, regardless of the false belief that money brings pleasure. Lord Christ mentioned about a fool rich who expanded his storage and thought that this will guarantee his future, till he heard, "You fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?" [Luke 12:20]
 
 

 For this group:

Money can be the master of the heart like God, but who surrenders to the money and ignores God will be troubled in this world. A dwelling without God is subject to trouble during his life. No one would listen to his conscience.

A Christian, who acknowledges the grace of God on him, can benefit from his work and be able to pay to serve God. This was what Apostle Paul the Apostle was doing. He made tents, so he would not bother any person during his ministry. His goal was serving the Lord and not the money. These in no way that we have to abundant everything. We should have some means to live, but having God to be with us all the time, in every step of our life. This will ensure that we have enough for our needs. St. Paul wrote, "And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content." [1Timothy 6:8]

These who indeed are serving God and seeking from the beginning the Kingdom of God and His grace. Their primary concern is obeying Him. They believe that their kingdom is not for this world and their wealth is their love to the Lord Who they follow, as they can’t live without Him. " For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s". [Romans 15:14]

That is the principle that was designed for us in the Holy Bible. What ever we have is not our own. God asked us to sell all what we have. I have God in my heart. Whatever He gave me is not only for my need, but also for the need of the others. This is not limited to the tithes that what the scripts and the Pharisees followed, but we should rather follow the call of love. "For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven" [Matthew 5:20].

We have to give the needy, as they are our brethren whom we love. If we don’t, then we are against the law for love, " My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth," [1 John 3:18]

St James talked about it. He said, "If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?" [James 2:15, 16]

God gave us all what our hands have. He gave us these blessings not to store them, but to share them with the needy that hardly are surviving. We are trustees over what we have. "And the Lord said, ‘Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over the household, to give them their portion of food in due season?’"[Luke 12:42]

Give the needy according to their needs. Fill the hungry and clothe the naked and comfort the thirsty. Our God Lord Christ said, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: "For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in. I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me" [Matthew 25:34-36]

Some may say to God, "Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?" [Matthew 25:39] He would reply, "Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me." [Matthew 25:45]

Those who are serving God, they are seeking the Kingdom of God first, following His will.

Thank God that there are many people who are following Him and became as a mirror resembling Jesus Christ. With God’s help we may become among those who worship the Pantocrator

I read about one of the first to serve in India. He used to work before as a shoe cobbler. With a large map of the world, he worked hard and got money out of his work to serve the Lord. I wish our goal would be similar to this shoemaker.

This in no way means that we have to leave our jobs, but rather to work and serve God at the same time, all the time. Yes we can serve Him all day long.

If we desire to follow our teacher and Lord Jesus Christ, and love to follow His steps, we have to follow the wish of our father Who is in heaven and not our wish.

If we adopt this way, living not for ourselves, but to serve others – like the scouts – then we have followed the Lord’s order, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth … but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven …" [Matthew 6:10, 20]

We have noticed that this doesn’t negate to have treasures on earth, but rather it meant that:

 Doing this assures us that we are building for ourselves heavenly treasures. Sometimes unfortunately we forget or intend to forget that our rewards in heaven depend on our deeds on earth.

A Story: A wealthy lady saw in a dream that she went to heavens. An angel took her to see the streets of New Jerusalem. To her surprise she noticed a notable difference in the size of the different houses. She asked the angel about the reason of such differences. The angel told her those who had bigger houses are those who sent already the "building materials" used in building their homes. When he show her, her house she found it to be a humble hut. She understood that she didn’t send the materials needed for a better house. When she got up from her sleep, she was determined to change her life pattern and to send more for her heavenly treasure. She was consecrated to serve solely the Lord.

If we serve God, we get a heavenly treasure and our life will be enlightened and the glory and greatness of God will be obvious to the people.

Serving God ensures a life for us, free from sadness. God takes care of us when we take care of others. That is when our hearts will be filled with faith in God.

God’s asked us not to worry three times.

A- "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? [Matthew 6:25]

B- "Therefore do not worry, saying ‘What shall we eat? Or What shall we drink? Or What shall we wear? … For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things." [Matthew 6:31 & 33]

C- "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." [Matthew 6-24]

Meaning we don’t need to worry about tomorrow. "Be anxious for nothing.." [Phlipp1ans 4:6]

I have heard that some people understand this verse differently, and that they should worry a little! Of course not as the verse is very clear in saying "worry about nothing, whether big or small.

Many people at this time live with many troubles. Some even say why God is not helping them and where is He? As if for them there is no God to help. The fact is, they are not leaving their problems to Who can take care of them. An orphan may say that if his father were still living he would have taken care of him. The difference is that our God Who is our Father is living thus He takes care of us. If we follow His will, as a Father He will. He is our Father who cares about us in hard times and sickness even when we are facing bad people. David said, "If it had not been the Lord Who was on our side, When men rose up against us, Then they would have swallowed us alive, When their wrath was kindled against us." [Psalm 124:2, 3]

Those who live under the mercy of God, God will enlighten the way for them and fills their hearts with faith. Clearly the spirit is essential to the body.

Problems can be overcome with the Lord’s guide day by day. Imagine as if God is giving us a thin stick everyday to break it down. That would be easy, but if we have the sticks for a whole month, then it is obvious these can’t be broken easily together. We thus can overcome day’s problem, one day at a time, by God’s help.

The Lord told Martha that she didn’t need to worry for so many things. Let us remember that worrying is a sin. I don’t know if we take this as a sin or not. We have to train ourselves when we pray, to confess to God about our worries of the present and the future. You can get rid of your worries if you believe that worrying is sin. You should confess for it, after all it means you have no faith and that is a sin.

If you believe in God, His unsurpassed love, His absolute power, His supreme wisdom and His true promise, then there should be no place for our worries or fear.

No faith is the precursor of worries. If we have to rate sins, then having no faith would be at the top of all sins. In fact that is an insult to God.

If a friend tells you that he doesn’t believe you, can you take this insult? With no faith in what the Lord have said, is like not believing Him, His promises, and His love towards us. That is a big sin.

I heard about a Christian who for many weeks became depressed. He was advised to go away to a resort for relaxation. He was known from time to time to suffer from weakness in his faith. When he returned home, weeks later without any improvement, he found his wife wearing a black dress as a sign of grief. He thought that a dear person died while he was away and asked his wife if anyone died. She simply replied that it was God! And that she gathered from his behavior that he had no faith in God. He understood immediately what it meant and instantly cheered up as he remembered that his God is truthful in His promises and living.

Unfortunately many of us live in sadness as if God is dead! Not our God Who is truly a Living God.
 
 

 They are many! Thousands of them attend Sunday Services at our churches. They read the Holy Bible from time to time. They do pray and then once this service is over, they leave to worship "money". Have you heard about "Sunday headache"? If you haven’t heard about it, that is the disease that prevents people from going to church on Sundays but not to their work on the other weekdays. A preacher in Europe, where there is rainy seasons, once said, "I hope they would invent a raincoat that is effective on Sundays like the ones they use on the weekdays." Some people try to give God a place in their lives, but not the first place. They think they can worship God and money at the same time. They are like the Samaritans in the old days, they feared God, but had also others gods, "They feared God the Lord, yet served their own gods-according to the rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried away."[2 Kings 17:33]

God resents that you worship him beside money. God must come first.

Where do we personally stand? What goal do we have in this life? What do we want from it?

We pray to God to grant us the blessing that we choose worshiping Him only and not to be concerned about money. Put God in the first place, put your faith in Him and in His precious promises.

If we do that, nothing is worth worrying us.

If we decide to live for God and in serving Him, He will honor His promises that He takes care of our needs.

Our Father is kind and according to His fatherhood, He takes care of us, as God is love.