The same day“Pay them their wages each day before sunset … Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.”
Deut 24:14–15
Embassy of the Kingdom
Embassy of the Kingdom
“Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” — Matthew 6:20
Jesus talked about money often, and He never talked around it. And He gave one piece of investment advice no adviser can beat: open your account where nothing is ever lost.
“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.”Matthew 6:19–21
Jesus told of a farmer whose land produced a bumper crop (Luke 12:16–21). He did not steal and he did not cheat — the harvest was a blessing. He decided to tear down his barns, build bigger ones, and say to his own soul: you have plenty stored up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.
God answered him with one word: fool. “This very night your life will be demanded from you.” The Greek word apaitousin comes from the language of debt — to call in a loan. His soul was never his property. It was on credit.
“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
LUKE 12:21
The contrast is precise: for themselves — or toward God (Greek eis theon, a word of direction). Being rich toward God is not a balance. It is a direction of flow. There are two banks — and every one of us already keeps our savings in one of them.
“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.”1 Timothy 6:17–19
This is Paul’s most direct command to the wealthy anywhere in his letters. He does not condemn them and he does not tell them to get rid of everything. He gives five commands:
And the result: a firm foundation for the coming age and the life that is truly life (Greek ontōs zōē). The farmer in the parable built bigger barns. Paul tells the rich: build a foundation.
“Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you … Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.”James 5:2–4
James uses the very same words as Jesus: moths and corrosion. It is Matthew 6 read from the other side. Whoever stores up in the wrong bank does not just lose the treasure. The treasure becomes a witness for the prosecution: “their corrosion will testify against you.”
And the loudest witness is money that belonged to someone else. Wages held back from a worker cry out. It is the same picture as Abel’s blood: “Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10). Injustice has a voice. And it reaches the ears of the Lord Almighty — the Lord of Hosts, not only the Judge but the Commander of heaven’s armies.
Nobody reaps another man’s fields with a sickle anymore. But a subcontractor’s invoice pushed to “next week” can cry out. So can a paycheck delayed because “things are tight right now.” A craftsman whose bill was cut because he didn’t have the strength to argue. Overtime nobody counted.
Heaven does not only hear prayers.
It also hears unpaid invoices.
It works both ways. Withheld wages cry out against you. Wages paid on time — and even more, paid more generously than required — are one of the simplest deposits into the Heavenly Bank. You do not have to look for the poor at the end of the earth. Sometimes it is enough to pay the people who already work for you, today.
Before anything is stored up, this has to be said honestly: salvation cannot be bought with treasure. “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works” (Ephesians 2:8–9).
Treasure in heaven is not an entrance fee. It is a reward for those who already belong to the King. The account is opened once — when a person gives their life to Jesus. The deposits are everything that comes after.
If you do not have an account yet — do not start with deposits. Start with prayer. That is the first step.
Jesus did not leave this vague. He named specific transactions that go into this account:
Jesus warns that good done for show is paid out immediately. Of those who announce their giving with trumpets He says: “they have received their reward in full.” The Greek apechousin is the word merchants wrote on receipts.
Applause is a withdrawal. Whoever takes it here has nothing left to collect there. That is why the left hand should not know what the right hand is doing (Matthew 6:3).
The cheapest thing in ancient Israel was water. And that is exactly what Jesus attached one of His strongest guarantees to:
In Greek this is a double negative — the strongest form the language has: never, in no way, under no circumstances. Jesus does not say “maybe.” He says “certainly.”
Jesus speaks of a cup of cold water (Greek psychrou). Warm water was at hand in the skin bottle. Cold water meant going deeper into the well. What is rewarded is that little extra care in a small thing — the call you make when you don’t have to; the help you give someone who will never pay you back.
This verse closes a chain: “Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward” (Matthew 10:41). You do not have to be a prophet to receive a prophet’s reward. You only have to stand behind one. David set the same rule: those who stayed with the supplies share the plunder equally with those who went into battle (1 Samuel 30:24).
God keeps no books with a minimum deposit.
Scripture does not describe a vault full of gold bars. It describes something more secure: a deposit held by a Person. The safety does not come from the place, but from the One who keeps it.
That last one is easy to miss. Part of the treasure is deposited in the people you helped. Money passes away — but the person you served with it is eternal.
There is one Accountant: your Father, who sees what is done in secret (Matthew 6:4). “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him” (Hebrews 6:10). The prophet Malachi saw that a scroll of remembrance is written before God about those who fear Him (Malachi 3:16).
Paul describes the day of accounting as a building site. On one foundation — Christ — a person can build with gold, silver and costly stones, or with wood, hay and straw. “The fire will test the quality of each person’s work” (1 Corinthians 3:12–15).
The word hopoion means “of what sort” — not “how much.” Fire tests quality, not quantity. What survives brings a reward. What burns is lost — though the builder himself is saved.
Every jeweler knows gold is proven by fire.
God tests it the same way.
Those with the most recorded in heaven did not keep count themselves. At the judgment they ask in surprise: “Lord, when did we see you hungry?” (Matthew 25:37). They did not remember their deposits. He remembered every one.
This bank pays in two ways. The interest comes now. The main payout comes later.
And at the end, the most beautiful picture in all of Scripture: the elders lay their crowns before the throne (Revelation 4:10). The final use of treasure in heaven is to give it back to the One it all came from.
Exactly — no. Paul writes: “I do not even judge myself … Judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will expose the motives of the heart” (1 Corinthians 4:3–5). There will be surprises both ways: some will point to great works and hear “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:22–23); others will be amazed by their reward.
Not knowing is part of the design. If we could see the numbers, we would start playing for the balance — and every deposit would become a performance.
Jesus gave one indicator: the heart follows the treasure. Ask yourself:
Two errors Jesus rules out. First: “rich toward God” means God will make me rich — yet the farmer in the parable was blessed and died a fool. Second: money itself is sin — yet Jesus praised the servants who multiplied their talents (Matthew 25), and women supported Him out of their own means (Luke 8:3). The truth is in stewardship. You are not the owner. You are the steward.
From a trader who knows what things are worth.
I will say this straight, because I don’t know another way.
I have been trading since I was nine years old. For thirty years gold, diamonds and watches worth more than many houses have passed through my hands. I am not against money. I do not envy you. And I did not come to shame you. I came to tell you what your adviser, your lawyer and your accountant will not.
In this world you have influence. You have phone numbers that open doors and lawyers who close cases. A lot will slide for you. A deadline gets moved, an invoice gets “clarified,” someone weaker lets it go because he has no strength to take you to court. That is how it works here. I know.
But that is not how it works there.
“People are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). At that judgment there is no lawyer to hire. No settlement off the record. No call to a friend. “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10). All of us. No VIP list.
Let me tell you something from my trade. When I appraise jewelry I look at two things: what the gold itself is worth, and what people pay extra for the brand. In this world the brand premium can be bigger than the metal. A name, a position, a logo — that is what people pay the most for. But in the crucible the brand does not exist. Fire leaves only the metal.
That is exactly how God will appraise your life: “the fire will test the quality of each person’s work” (1 Corinthians 3:13). Your influence, your position and your name are the brand premium. There, only what survives the fire counts.
“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded” (Luke 12:48). That is not a threat. It is the rule of the audit. Bigger capital — bigger audit.
Jesus told of a rich man who feasted every day while Lazarus lay at his gate (Luke 16:19–31). The rich man beat no one and robbed no one. He simply did not see the man at his gate. After death he begged for one drop of water. He did not get it. Not because God is cruel — because the time for deposits was over.
And something you know better than I do: a shroud has no pockets. “We brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it” (1 Timothy 6:7). Everything you leave behind, others will divide. The only question is whether you get to do it yourself first.
So I advise you as one trader to another: prepare in advance.
Jesus commended a manager who heard that an audit was coming — “give an account of your management” (Luke 16:2) — and started acting before it arrived. He did not wait for the auditors. He used what was still in his hands to make friends for eternity. He had a few days. You do not know how many you have.
What exactly:
I am not telling you to give everything away and go live under a bridge. Paul did not tell the rich to stop being rich. He told them to be “rich in good deeds, generous and willing to share” — and he said why: “so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life” (1 Timothy 6:18–19).
And one honest thing: you cannot buy heaven. Not for a million, not for a billion. Heaven is a gift of grace to everyone who gives their life to Jesus. But whoever has truly met the King stops holding money as if it were his own. He starts managing it like an ambassador — someone else’s wealth, on behalf of the One who owns it all.
God is no man’s debtor. But He will settle accounts with everyone.
You still have time. Use it.
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much … So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?”Luke 16:10–11
Today, do one good thing that nobody will see and nobody will repay. Your Father sees in secret. And if you want to understand what to do with the first part of your money — read the teaching on the tithe.