Matthew 6:19-21
“Do not store up for yourselves
treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves
break in and steal.
But store up for yourselves treasures
in heaven,
where moths and vermin do not destroy,
and where thieves do not break in and
steal.
For where your treasure is, there your
heart will be also.
Hope is
one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to
the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or
wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not
mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you
will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just
those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot
the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages,
the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on
Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since
Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have
become so ineffective in this.
Aim at Heaven and you will get earth
“thrown in”:
aim at earth and you will get neither.
It seems
a strange rule, but something like it can be seen at work in other matters.
Health is a great blessing, but the moment you make health one of your main,
direct objects you start becoming a crank and imagining there is something
wrong with you. You are only likely to get health provided you want other
things more—food, games, work, fun, open air. In the same way, we shall never
save civilization as long as civilization is our main object. We must learn to
want something else even more.
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