TREASURE.—The word ‘treasure’ upon the lips of a Hebrew signifies a store of anything that constitutes wealth—of corn and wine and oil, as well as of gold and silver and precious stones (Matthew 13:52). Hence spiritually the word suggests an apt figure of the true eternal riches. Just as on earth the worldly-wise may lay up stores of wealth, so in the heavens the man who seeks after spiritual things may lay up for himself an eternal treasure. It has been imagined by some commentators that by ‘treasure in heaven’ our Lord means merely the reward which shall be given hereafter to all who suffer loss for His sake on earth. ‘Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven’ (Matthew 19:21, Mark 10:21, Luke 18:22), they take to mean merely, ‘Give away thine earthly wealth, and God shall give thee instead heavenly blessedness’; but so to interpret the words is to miss by far the most valuable part of their teaching. It was this interpretation that formed the chief justification for the monkish asceticism of the Middle Ages. It gave rise to a false spiritualism, to the fatal and irreconcilable dualism of sacred and secular. In addressing the words to the rich young man, our Lord was treating a particular case, the case of one whose spiritual aspirations were crushed beneath the burden of his wealth. The treasure in heaven which Christ told him he should have was not to be gained by the simple process of denuding himself of his worldly possessions—God would not step in to supply in the next world what he had voluntarily sacrificed in this. Such teaching would have been an appeal to selfish prudence merely, would justify, if it were correct, all that unbelievers have said about the selfishness of Christianity. It was not to the man’s selfishness that Christ addressed Himself, but to the earnest longing after righteousness which He perceived in him. ‘What lack I yet?’ the man had said, even after asserting that he had kept the commandments from his youth up. Christ therefore bade him cast aside the temptation which bound him down, that his aspirations might at last have free play; that, untrammelled by earthly cares, he might take to himself the treasure of righteousness and truth which he had always longed to make his own.

That spiritual treasure is regarded by our Lord as a personal thing, not as a mere reward assigned from without, is rendered even more plain by what He says regarding the ‘treasure of the heart’ (Matthew 12:35 || Luke 6:45). This treasure of the heart is manifestly the accumulated tendencies which we call character, the habits which a man makes, the qualities which he acquires, by the repeated choices of his life. He who strives continuously to follow the dictates of righteousness and love, makes for himself a righteous and loving character. His past deeds become a store from which he can continually draw anew. The more good deeds he does the richer grows his heart in goodness, and the greater will his joy become in doing what is right. His heart will of itself bear fruit of goodness. But the same is true also of the evil man. The second lie is proverbially easier than the first. The more evil he does, the more evil grows his heart, until it is well-nigh impossible for it to produce what is good. His heart becomes callous and hard, so that he can no longer take delight in goodness. Thus, again, it is true that ‘where the treasure is, there will the heart be also.’ The heart of the good man brings down heaven to earth, while that of the evil man could find no bliss in heaven itself.

When in Colossians 2:3 St. Paul tells his readers that in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, he is but following out the same figure. ἐν Χριστῷ expresses one of the two great principles of the Pauline theology. To win the true treasure a man must be in Christ; for He is the universal Man, the ideal of manhood, the only perfectly loving and wise and true of all mankind. In Him only was the heavenly treasure revealed in perfect fulness. He who would share it must therefore be in Christ, must be inspired by His spirit.

The true treasure of the human heart is the Kingdom of heaven. To have the Kingdom of God within one, is to be spiritually rich indeed. In setting forth the manner in which the Kingdom is received into different kinds of hearts, our Lord once again uses the figure of treasure, in the parable of the Treasure hid in a field (Matthew 13:44). Here He refers to an experience not uncommon in the East, where the uncertain tenure of property led men often to hide their wealth, and where the equal uncertainty of life caused it often to remain unclaimed. This and the parable of the Pearl of Great [Note: reat Cranmer’s ‘Great’ Bible 1539.] Price (another kind of treasure), which follows it, describe the two ways in which the truth of the gospel is received by men. There is the finder who has never sought at all, and who comes upon his find by accident; and there is the finder who has spent his life in seeking. In this, however, they are like, that when the treasure is discovered each is willing to part with all he has for its possession. Indeed, this willingness is the test of the true finder; but it is also the essential mark of the true treasure. It is of such a nature that it cannot be possessed for less than all that a man is and has. It lays hold upon the true finder’s heart; for in it he recognizes the satisfaction of all his longings: it is the completion of his being, the source of his life to all eternity.

Literature.—The Comm. on the NT; standard works on the Parables; Beyschlag’s and Weiss’ NT Theol.; Flint, Christ’s Kingdom upon Earth (1865), 196; H. Scott Holland, God’s City (1894), 161; W. G. Tarrant in Serm. by Unitarian Ministers, i. (1905). 25.

W. J. S. Miller.

Bibliography Information
Hastings, James. Entry for 'Treasure'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/t/treasure.html. 1906-1918.

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Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

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Treasure