Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 6:21
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
21. where your treasure is ] The words gain point if we think of the hoards buried in the earth.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 21. Where your treasure is] If God be the treasure of our souls, our hearts, i.e. our affections and desires will be placed on things above. An earthly minded man proves that his treasure is below; a heavenly minded man shows that his treasure is above.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
21. For where your treasure isthatwhich ye value most.
there will your heart bealso“Thy treasurethy heart” is probably the truereading here: “your,” in Lu12:34, from which it seems to have come in here. Obvious thoughthis maxim be, by what multitudes who profess to bow to the teachingof Christ is it practically disregarded! “What a man loves,”says LUTHER, quoted byTHOLUCK, “that is hisGod. For he carries it in his heart, he goes about with it night andday, he sleeps and wakes with it; be it what it maywealth or pelf,pleasure or renown.” But because “laying up” is not initself sinful, nay, in some cases enjoined (2Co12:14), and honest industry and sagacious enterprise are usuallyrewarded with prosperity, many flatter themselves that all is rightbetween them and God, while their closest attention, anxiety, zeal,and time are exhausted upon these earthly pursuits. To put thisright, our Lord adds what follows, in which there is profoundpractical wisdom.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. This seems to be a proverbial expression, and contains in it another reason, dissuading from worldly mindedness; because of the danger the heart is in of being ensnared and ruined thereby: and the sense of it is, if your treasure is on earth, and lies in earthly things, your hearts will be set upon them, and be in them, in your bags, your coffers and storehouses; and so your souls will be in danger of being lost; which loss will be an irreparable one, though you should gain the whole world. But if your treasure is put into the hands of God, your hearts will be with him, and be settled on him; your desires will be after heavenly things; your affections will be set on things above; your conversation will be in heaven, whilst you are on earth; and that will be the place and seat of your happiness, to all eternity.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
1) “For where your treasure is,” (hopou gar estin ho thusouros sou) “Because where your personal treasure is located, ” Col 3:1-3. To lay up treasure seems to be to lay up fruits of your labor of such nature as are recorded in heaven, such as soul-winning and soul building in Divine virtues, 2Pe 1:4-11; Rev 22:12.
2) “There will your heart be also.” (ekei estai kai he kardia sou) “Out there (at that place) will your heart or personal affections also be,” located, exist, Luk 12:34. What kind of things have first place or priority in the motives of your life? Are things being sought, pursued, accumulated for self -gratification, or for the glory of God? This is the real test of love. To be industrious, accumulate things by wise investment and honest labor is not evil, but to do it with priority commitment for a life of ease and self-pleasure is, 2Co 12:14; 1Co 10:31.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
21. Where your treasure shall be By this statement Christ proves that they are unhappy men who have their treasures laid up on the earth: because their happiness is uncertain and of short duration. Covetous men cannot be prevented from breathing in their hearts a wish for heaven: but Christ lays down an opposite principle, that, wherever men imagine the greatest happiness to be, there they are surrounded and confined. Hence it follows, that they who desire to be happy in the world (451) renounce heaven. We know how carefully the philosophers conducted their inquiries respecting the supreme good. (452) It was the chief point on which they bestowed their labor, and justly: for it is the principle on which the regulation of our life entirely depends, and the object to which all our senses are directed. If honor is reckoned the supreme good, the minds of men must be wholly occupied with ambition: if money, covetousness will immediately predominate: if pleasure, it will be impossible to prevent men from sinking into brutal indulgence. We have all a natural desire to pursue happiness; (453) and the consequence is, that false imaginations carry us away in every direction. But if we were honestly and firmly convinced that our happiness is in heaven, it would be easy for us to trample upon the world, to despise earthly blessings, (by the deceitful attractions of which the greater part of men are fascinated,) and to rise towards heaven. For this reason Paul, with the view of exciting believers to look upwards, and of exhorting them to meditate on the heavenly life, (Col 3:1,) presents to them Christ, in whom alone they ought to seek perfect happiness; thus declaring, that to allow their souls to grovel on the earth would be inconsistent and unworthy of those whose treasure is in heaven
(451) “ Ceux qui demandent d’estre riches et a leur aise en ce monde;”— those who are eager to be rich and at their ease in this world.”
(452) “ Nous savons comment les Philosophes se sont amusez a traiter subtilemerit du souverain bien des hommes.” — “We know to what trouble the Philosophers submitted in ingenious discussions about the supreme good of men.” — “The allusion is chiefly to the Greeks: for the philosophy of the Romans was at second hand, though nothing can be more ingenious or beautiful than the reasonings of Cicero in his Dissertations “ De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum.” He inquires into the τέλος, or end, of good and evil actions. In examining the principles of Epicurus, he professes to feel very much at ease, but approaches the Stoics with greater respect, and acknowledges the ability with which they had conducted their argument. The perusal of the whole treatise will gratify a reader prepared to accompany powerful minds in their most intricate researches, or to hail abstruse disquisition clothed in the choicest language by one who, as Robert Hall said of Pascal, “can invest the severest logic with the charms of the most beautiful composition, and render the most profound argumentation as entertaining as a romance.” But those studies have a far higher value. When we see the greatest minds tasked to their utmost strength, and yet utterly failing to discover, by unassisted reason, the path which leads to happiness, we appreciate more highly Leland’s argument “On the advantage and necessity of Divine Revelation,” and bless the name of the Great Prophet, who hath brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel, (2Ti 1:10.) — Ed.
(453) “ Car naturellement nous tendons tous a desirer ce qui nous semble estre le souverain bien.” — “For we have all a natural tendency to desire what appears to us to be the supreme good.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(21) Where your treasure is.The words imply the truth, afterwards more definitely asserted, that it is impossible to serve God and mammon (Mat. 6:24). Men may try to persuade themselves that they will have a treasure on earth and a treasure in heaven also, but in the long-run, one or the other will assert its claim to be the treasure, and will claim the no longer divided allegiance of the heart.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
21. Where your treasure is, there heart If your treasure is earthly, your heart is earthly.
Now, our Lord condemns no true earthly good, no true earthly enjoyment; he simply claims that in these shall not consist our treasures; and that all their value shall consist in their enabling us to be better servants of God and winners of the true treasures. For this purpose a single eye is necessary, as shown in the next two verses.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Mat 6:21 . For (deep moral obligation to comply with that exhortation) if the treasure which you have gathered is upon earth, so will your heart, with its feelings, dispositions, and tendencies, be also upon the earth as in the congenial sphere of your inner life, will be ethically bound to the earth, and vice versa . From the treasure , which is the result of effort and the object of love, the heart also cannot be separated. In the ground of obligation just stated it is assumed that the believer’s heart must be in heaven (Phi 3:20 ; Col 3:2 ff.; 2Co 4:17 ; 1Jn 2:15 ff.).
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Ver. 21. For where your treasure is, &c. ] i.e. Where your chief happiness is, there your affections will be settled: where the carcase is, there will the eagles be also. Beetles delight in muck hills; but Christ’s eagles are never in their pride till farthest off from the earth: they are said (even here) to “be set together with Christ in heavenly places,” Eph 2:6 . The Church in the Canticles hath this given her for a high commendation, that she had a “nose like the tower of Lebanon,” Son 7:4 . Si verborum faciem spectemus, saith an interpreter, quid poterit magis dici ridiculum? The words at first sight seem somewhat strange; for what so great a praise is it to have a nose like a tower? But by this expression is notably set forth that spiritual sagacity and sharpness of smell, whereby the saints resent and savour the things above, being carried after Christ, the true carcase, with unspeakable desire and delight. The earthly minded, that have their bellies filled with God’s hidden treasure, the trash of this world, and take it for their portion, Psa 17:14 ; these have their heads so stuffed and their eyes so stopped with the dust of covetousness, that they neither see nor savour heavenly things. As they are of the earth, so they speak of the earth, and the earth hears them, Joh 3:31 . As the grasshopper is bred, liveth, and dieth in the same ground, so these terrigenae fratres, these muck-minded men, are wholly earth in their whole course; and as the grasshopper hath wings but flieth not, sometimes she hoppeth upwards a little, but falleth to the ground again; so these have some light and short motions to godliness, when they hear a piercing sermon, or feel a pressing affliction, or see others snatched away by sudden death before them; but this is not of any long continuance, they return to their former worldliness. The devil hath gotten full possession of them, as once of Judas by this sin; and could a man rip up their hearts he might find there fair written, “The god of this present world,” 2Co 5:4 . He holds his black hand before their eyes, lest the light of the glorious gospel should shine upon them. We cry, “O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord;” but the devil hath made a pathway over their hearts, so that the seed cannot enter. Earth is cold and dry, so are earthly minded men to any holy duty. Earth is heavy, and bears downward, so do earthly affections. Earth doth often keep down the hot exhalations that naturally would ascend; so do those, holy motions and meditations. Earth stands still, and hath the whole circumference carried about it; so are God’s mercies and judgments about earthly minded men, and they are no whit moved thereat. Grace, on the other side, as fire, is active and aspiring. And as Moses would not be put off with an angel to go before the people, he would have God himself, or none; so the true Christian must have Christ, or nothing will give him content. Christ is his treasure, and hath his heart; all his cry is, “None but Christ, none but Christ.” As the sun draws up vapours, so doth the Sun of righteousness the affections of his people. And as the hop in its growing windeth itself about the pole, always following the course of the sun, from east to west, and can by no means be drawn to the contrary, choosing rather to break than yield; so the saints (as well militant as triumphant) do “follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth;” and being risen with Christ, and spiritualized by him, they seek the things that are above; their thoughts feed upon the fairest objects (such as are those set down by the apostle, Php 4:8 ), and run with much content, upon that firmament and those stars, in Daniel; that inheritance undefiled and unfadable, in Peter; a those palms and white robes, in the Revelation. They take ever and anon a turn or two on Tabor, and are there transfigured with Christ; or on Mount Olivet, where he was taken up, and have thence continual ascensions in their hearts. And as our Saviour in the interim between his resurrection and ascension, while he walked here on the earth, spake “of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God,” and waited for his exaltation into heaven, Act 1:3 ; so the faithful Christian (that hath his part in the first resurrection) walks, in his measure, as Christ walked, talks as he talked, he speaks of the things concerning the King, and therein his tongue is as the pen of a ready writer, 1Jn 2:6 ; Psa 45:1 . Of Origen it is said that he was ever earnest, but never more than when he treats of Christ. b And of St Paul it is well observed, that when he speaketh of heaven he useth a transcendent, lofty kind of language, his speech riseth higher and higher, as 2Co 4:17 , a degree above the superlative: so Phi 1:23 , to be with Christ is far, far the better: so 1Th 2:19 . c See how the apostle’s mouth is opened, his heart enlarged, he cannot satisfy himself, nor utter his conceptions. This a Christian can do, he can sigh out a cupio dissolvi, ” I desire to be with Christ,” whom as he more or less enjoyeth here, in the same measure he is merry; like as birds never sing so sweetly as when they are gotten in the air, or on the top of trees. As when Christ withdraws his gracious presence and influence, he is all amort, you may take him up for a dead man. He cries after Christ, as idolatrous Micah did after his lost gods, Jdg 18:14 . And as King Edward III, having the King of France prisoner here in England, and feasting him one time most sumptuously, pressed him to be merry; the French King answered, “How can we sing songs in a strange land?” So the good soul is in great heaviness while Christ absents himself, and never heartily merry till she get home to him, till she lay hold on him whom her soul loveth.
a Dan 12:3 . , 1Pe 1:4 .
b Nusquam Origenes non ardet, sed nusquam est ardentior, quam ubi Christi sermones actusque tractat. Erasmus.
c Hic oratio altius assurgit, &c. Rolloc.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
21. ] The connexion with the foregoing is plain enough to any but the shallowest reader. ‘The heart is, where the treasure is.’ But it might be replied, ‘I will have a treasure on earth and a treasure in heaven also: a divided affection.’ This is dealt with, and its impracticability shewn by a parable from nature.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 6:21 . . . The reflection goes back on the negative counsel in Mat 6:19 . Do not accumulate earthly treasures, for then your heart will be there, whereas it ought to be in heaven with God and the Kingdom of God.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
heart be also = heart also be.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
21.] The connexion with the foregoing is plain enough to any but the shallowest reader. The heart is, where the treasure is. But it might be replied, I will have a treasure on earth and a treasure in heaven also: a divided affection. This is dealt with, and its impracticability shewn by a parable from nature.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 6:21. – ,[273] your treasure-your heart) Others read – , thy treasure-thy heart.[274] The objects which are mentioned in Mat 6:22-23 (consequentia) are in the singular, those which are mentioned in Mat 6:19-20 (antecedentia), with which this verse is connected, are in the plural number. The plural therefore must stand in this verse. The singular, thesaurus tuus, thy treasure, easily crept into the Latin Vulgate, and was convenient to the Greeks for ascetic discourses. The treasure which YOU collect is called in Luk 12:34 , YOUR treasure.-, will be) sc. in heaven or in earth respectively.
[273] Thus E. M.-(I. B.)
[274] – is the reading of Babc Vulg. Memph. Theb. Cypr. 239. 303. The change to Sing. from Plur. Mat 6:20, is perhaps to imply that the heart of each individually is to be given to God.-ED.
Such is the reading supported by Bengel in his German Version, where he writes, Denn wo dein Schatz ist, da wird auch dein Herz seyn. For where THY treasure is, there will THY heart be also. He explains dein Sehatz (thy treasure) by Thy possession (dein Gut), on which thy Anxiety is set night and day. In his App. Crit. he supports the reading of the Received Text, and speaks of as having crept in from the next verse.-(I. B.)
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
where: Isa 33:6, Luk 12:34, 2Co 4:18
there: Mat 12:34, Pro 4:23, Jer 4:14, Jer 22:17, Act 8:21, Rom 7:5-7, Phm 1:3, Phm 1:19, Col 3:1-3, Heb 3:12
Reciprocal: Mat 13:44 – like
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
CHOOSING THE BEST
Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Mat 6:21
This is the reason which our Lord gives for the precepts which go immediately before. And our hearts re-echo the Saviours words.
I. A principle of human nature.We all know how true it is that a mans heart, his thoughts, his plans by day and his dreams by night, are with the things he values, whatever they are; with his favourite pursuits or pleasures, his riches, of whatever kind they may be. This is simply a principle of human nature. What our Lord does here is to warn us to turn this universal habit to account, to make good use of it, to make it a moral force, a lever to help us in our labour, and not a dead weight to hinder us and pull us back again.
II. The best things to choose.There are but two courses open to us. Either to serve the world all our lives, and to take the chance of being able and willing when old age comes to us to serve God then; or the safe and happy course, to serve Him all our lives long. What then shall be our treasures?
(a) The favour of our heavenly Father the thing we most wish to keep.
(b) The will of God, doing the duty He has given us.
(c) The love of God. Let our hearts be in heaven, even while our hands are busy with earthly work; that so when death comes to us we may truly find heaven a home to our souls.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
6:21
This is another reason for not hoarding material wealth for ourselves, because that will become the object of our greatest interest which will lead to a form of idolatry. Doubtless that is the reason for Paul’s statements in Eph 5:5 and Col 3:5. The heart is the inner man and the seat of emotions and the cause of activities. If that is centered in worldly wealth it will induce man to devote his attentions upon it to the neglect of God.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 6:21. For. A reason for the preceding precepts (Mat 6:19-20).
Where thy treasure is, whether on earth or in heaven, there will thine heart be also. The singular pronoun adds impressiveness. Not a question of mere profit and loss, but of affection and of character. The precepts are for those who hope to become subjects of the kingdom of heaven. Such must have their heart in heaven, hence they must lay up their treasures there. The dedication of the heart to God is the underlying thought on which the particular teachings are based. May be used in support of the voluntary principle. People take more interest in the Church, if they sustain it by purse and personal effort.