Treasures in Heaven: The Wisdom of Almsgiving

Seeking True Wisdom in Troubled Times

1. When someone faces trouble and their own resources fail them, they look for a wise person from whom to seek counsel. Let us imagine the whole world as a single person. This person seeks to escape evil yet is slow to do good. As troubles increase and their resources fail, who could be a wiser counselor than Christ? By all means, find someone better if you can. But if you cannot find anyone better, come to Him whom you can find everywhere. Consult Him, take His advice, keep His good commandment, and escape the great evil.

People are terribly afraid of present, temporary troubles—they complain bitterly about them and by their complaining offend the very One who is correcting them, so they don't find His saving help. But without a doubt, present troubles are merely passing. Either they pass through us, or we pass through them—either they pass away while we live, or we leave them behind when we die.

Now, what's not such a big deal in matters of trouble is something that's short in duration. Whoever you are who worries about tomorrow, you don't recall yesterday. When the day after tomorrow comes, tomorrow itself will have become yesterday. But if people are so disturbed with anxiety to escape temporal troubles that pass—or rather fly by—what thought should they give to escaping those troubles that remain and endure without end?

2. Human life is a hard condition. What else is it to be born but to enter a life of toil? Even an infant's cry bears witness to the hardship that awaits. From this cup of sorrow, no one is excused. The cup that Adam pledged must be drunk by all.

We were indeed made by the hands of Truth, but because of sin we were cast out into days of emptiness. "We were made in the image of God" (Genesis 1:27), but we disfigured that image through sinful transgression. The Psalm reminds us how we were made and the state we've come to: "Though a man walks in the image of God" (Psalm 39:6). See what he was made to be! But where has he ended up? Listen to what follows: "Yet he will be disquieted in vain."

He walks in the image of truth but becomes disquieted in the counsel of vanity. See his disquiet—look at it, and as if seeing yourself in a mirror, be displeased with yourself. "Though," the Psalm says, "man walks in the image of God" and therefore has great dignity, "yet he will be disquieted in vain." And as if we might ask, "How, I ask you, is man disquieted in vain?" "He heaps up treasure, and does not know for whom he gathers it" (Psalm 39:6).

Look at this person—representing the whole human race—who lacks resources for their own situation, has lost wisdom, and has wandered from the path of sound thinking. "He heaps up treasure, and does not know for whom he gathers it." What could be more foolish or more miserable? But surely, you might say, he's doing it for himself? No. Why not for himself? Because he must die. Because human life is short. Because the treasure endures, but the one who gathers it quickly passes away.

So, with pity for the one who "walks in the image of God" yet follows after empty things, the Psalm says, "He will be disquieted in vain." I grieve for him; "he heaps up treasure, and does not know for whom he gathers it." Is he gathering it for himself? No, because the person dies while the treasure remains. For whom then? If you have any good counsel, share it with me. But you have no counsel to give me, and so you have none for yourself. Therefore, if we both lack counsel, let us both seek it, both receive it, and consider the matter together.

This person is disquieted—heaping up treasure, thinking, toiling, and kept awake by anxiety. All day long he's harassed by labor, all night agitated by fear. His money chest may be filled, but his soul is in a fever of anxiety.

3. I see this and grieve for you. You are disquieted, and as the One who cannot deceive assures us, "You are disquieted in vain." You're heaping up treasures, and even if all your undertakings succeed (to say nothing of losses and the many perils and deaths involved in each kind of gain), you're still troubled in vain.

I'm not speaking of the things against you—the dangers or the spiritual costs, where to gain gold, integrity is lost, where to be clothed outwardly, you're made naked within. Let's pass over these things and others like them in silence. Let's set aside all the things that oppose you and think only of favorable circumstances.

Look, you're laying up treasures. Gains flow to you from every direction. Your money runs like fountains. Wherever need presses, abundance flows. Haven't you heard, "If riches increase, do not set your heart on them" (Psalm 62:10)? You're gaining wealth, you're disquieted—not fruitlessly, perhaps, but certainly in vain.

"How," you ask, "am I disquieted in vain? I'm filling my coffers. My walls can barely hold what I get. How am I disquieted in vain?" "You are heaping up treasure, and do not know for whom you gather it." Or if you do know, please tell me. I will listen to you. For whom is it? If you're not disquieted in vain, tell me for whom you're heaping up treasure.

"For myself," you say. Do you dare say this, when you must so soon die? "For my children," you say. Do you dare claim this for those who must also soon die? It's considered a great duty of natural affection for a father to save for his sons. But in reality, it's great futility—someone who must soon die saving for others who must soon die as well.

If it's for yourself, why save when you'll leave everything when you die? The same applies to your children. They'll succeed you but won't remain long either. I won't even discuss what kind of children they might be, whether perhaps wasteful spending might squander what greed has amassed. So another through recklessness might scatter what you with great effort gathered together.

But let's set this aside. Perhaps they'll be good children. They won't be wasteful. They'll keep what you've left, will increase what you've maintained, and won't squander what you've accumulated. Then your children will be just as caught up in vanity as you are if they follow this pattern and imitate you, their father. I would say to them what I just said to you. I would say to your son, the one for whom you're saving, "You are heaping up treasure, and do not know for whom you gather it." Just as you didn't know, neither does he. If the vanity has continued in him, has the truth lost its power over him?

The Uncertainty of Earthly Treasures

4. I won't even press the point that you may be saving for thieves. In a single night, they could come and find ready for them the gatherings of so many days and nights. You may be saving for a robber or a highwayman. I won't say more about this, for fear of recalling and reopening the wound of past sufferings. How many things that empty vanity has piled up has the cruelty of an enemy found ready at hand!

It's not my place to wish for this—but it's everyone's concern to fear it. May God avert it! May His own correction be sufficient. May He, to whom we pray, spare us! But if He should ask us for whom we're saving, what will we answer?

How then will you, whoever you are, who are heaping up treasure in vain—how will you answer me as I discuss this matter with you and seek counsel with you on our common problem? You spoke and gave your answer: "I am saving for myself, for my children, for my descendants." I've already pointed out how many reasons there are to fear, even regarding those children themselves.

But I'll skip over the possibility that your children might live in such a way as to bring you misery, just as your enemy would wish them to. Let's suppose they live exactly as their father would want them to. Yet how many have fallen into the misfortunes I've already described! You shuddered at them, but you didn't change your ways.

What do you have to answer except, "Perhaps it may not happen that way"? Well, I said that too. Perhaps you're saving for the thief, or robber, or highwayman. I didn't say definitely—I said "perhaps." Where there's a "perhaps," there's also a "perhaps not." So you don't know what will happen, and therefore "you are disquieted in vain."

You see now how truthfully the Truth spoke, how uselessly vanity is troubled. You have heard and at last learned wisdom, because when you say, "Perhaps it's for my children," but don't dare to say, "I'm sure it's for my children," you clearly don't know for whom you're gathering riches.

So, as I see and have already said, you have no resources. You find nothing to answer me, nor can I answer you.

Christ's Wisdom About Treasures

5. Let us both, therefore, seek and ask for counsel. We have the opportunity to consult not just any wise person, but Wisdom herself. Let us both listen to Jesus Christ, "to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:23-24).

Why are you preparing such a strong defense for your riches? Hear the Power of God—nothing is stronger than He. Why are you preparing wise counsel to protect your riches? Hear the Wisdom of God—nothing is wiser than He.

Perhaps when I say what I must say, you'll be offended, and in this way you'll be like a Jew, "because to the Jews Christ is an offense." Or perhaps when I've spoken, it will seem foolish to you, and so you'll be like a Gentile, "for to the Gentiles Christ is foolishness." Yet you are a Christian—you have been called. "But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God."

So don't be sad when I've said what I must say. Don't be offended. Don't mock my apparent foolishness with an air of disdain. Let us listen, for what I'm about to say, Christ has said. If you despise the herald, at least fear the Judge.

What shall I say then? The Gospel reading has just now relieved me of this concern. I won't read anything new but will simply remind you of what has just been read. You were seeking counsel, as your own resources have failed. See, then, what the Fountain of right counsel says—the Fountain from whose streams there's no fear of poison. Draw from it as much as you wish.

6. "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" (Matthew 6:19-21).

What more do you wait for? The matter is clear. The counsel is open, but evil desire remains hidden—or rather, not hidden but openly exposed. For plundering doesn't cease. Greed doesn't stop defrauding. Malice doesn't stop swearing falsely. And all for what? That treasure may be heaped together. To be laid up where? In the earth—and rightly so: earth for earth.

For to the person who sinned and who pledged us our cup of toil, as I've said, it was said, "Earth you are, and to earth you shall return" (Genesis 3:19). With good reason the treasure is in earth, because the heart is there too. But what about that part of the liturgy where we say, "We lift up our hearts"? I grieve for your condition, you who have understood me. And if you truly grieve, change your ways.

How long will you keep applauding and not doing? What you've heard is true—nothing is truer. So let what is true be done. We praise one God, yet we don't change, so that even in our very praise we're troubled in vain.

7. Therefore, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth" —whether you've learned from experience how what's laid up in the earth is lost, or even if you haven't experienced this yet, still fear that you might. Let experience change those whom words won't change.

We can't get up now, we can't go out, without everyone crying together, "Woe to us, the world is falling!" If it's falling, why don't you move away? If an architect told you that your house was about to fall, wouldn't you move out before indulging in useless complaints? The Builder of the world tells you the world will soon fall—won't you believe it?

Hear the voice of prediction: "Heaven and earth will pass away" (Matthew 24:35). Hear the voice of warning: "Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth." If you believe God in His prediction, if you don't despise His warning, then do what He says. The One who has given you such counsel doesn't deceive you.

You won't lose what you give away—you'll follow what you've sent ahead of you. Therefore my counsel is, "Give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven" (Matthew 19:21). You won't remain without treasure, but what you possess on earth with anxiety, you'll possess in heaven free from care.

Move your goods, then. I'm giving you advice for preserving them, not losing them. "You will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow Me" (Matthew 19:21), so I can bring you to your treasure. This isn't wasteful—it's protective. Why do people keep silent? Let them hear, and having finally learned from experience what to fear, let them do what will give them no cause for fear. Let them transport their goods to heaven.

Imagine you put wheat in low ground, and your friend who knows about grain and soil advises your inexperience and says, "What have you done? You've put grain in damp, low soil. It will all rot, and you'll lose your work." You ask, "What should I do, then?" "Move it," he says, "to higher ground."

So you listen to advice about your grain from a friend, but will you ignore God who advises you about your heart? You're afraid to put your grain in low earth, and will you let your heart be lost in the earth? See—the Lord your God, when He gives you advice about your heart, says, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Lift up your heart to heaven, He says, so it doesn't rot in the earth. This is the counsel of One who wants to preserve your heart, not destroy it.

The Poor as Carriers of Our Treasures to Heaven

8. If this is so, how much regret must those feel who haven't acted accordingly! How they must reproach themselves now! "We might have had in heaven what we've now lost on earth. The enemy has broken into our house, but could he break into heaven? He killed the servant set to guard our possessions, but could he kill the Lord who would have kept them 'where no thief approaches, nor moth destroys' (Luke 12:33)?"

How many now are saying, "We could have kept our treasures safe there, where after a little while we could have followed them securely. Why didn't we listen to our Lord? Why did we despise the Father's warnings and so experience the enemy's invasion?"

If this is good counsel, let's not be slow to heed it. If what we have must be moved, let's transfer it to a place from which we can't lose it. What are the poor to whom we give but our carriers, by whom we transport our goods from earth to heaven? Give, then—you're only giving to your carrier who brings what you give to heaven. How, you ask, does he carry it to heaven? I see that he consumes it by eating.

Yes, he carries it, not by keeping it but by making it his food. Have you forgotten, "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" (Matthew 25:34-35)? And "inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me" (Matthew 25:40)?

If you haven't despised the beggar who stands before you, consider to whom what you gave has come. "Inasmuch," He says, "as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me." He who gave you the means to give has received your gift. He has received it, who in the end will give Himself to you.

9. I've reminded you of this at various times, beloved, and I must confess that something in the Scriptures of God amazes me greatly, and I should repeatedly call your attention to it. I ask you to consider what our Lord Jesus Christ Himself says—that at the end of the world, when He comes for judgment, He will gather all nations before Him and will divide people into two groups. Some He will place at His right hand, others at His left.

To those on the right, He will say, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." But to those on the left, "Depart into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matthew 25:34, 41).

Look for the reasons for such a great reward or such a great punishment. "Inherit the kingdom" and "Depart into everlasting fire." Why will the first group receive the kingdom? "For I was hungry, and you gave Me food." Why will the others go into everlasting fire? "For I was hungry, and you gave Me no food" (Matthew 25:35, 42).

What does this mean? I can see regarding those who receive the kingdom that they gave like good and faithful Christians. They didn't despise the Lord's words, and with confident trust in His promises, they acted accordingly. Had they not done so, this very barrenness wouldn't have aligned with their otherwise good lives.

Perhaps they were chaste, honest, not drunkards, and kept themselves from evil deeds. Yet if they hadn't added good works, they would have remained barren. They would have kept "Depart from evil," but they wouldn't have kept "and do good" (Psalm 34:14).

Nevertheless, even to them He doesn't say, "Come, receive the kingdom because you lived in chastity, defrauded no one, oppressed no poor person, invaded no one's property, deceived no one by swearing falsely." He doesn't say this but rather, "Receive the kingdom, because I was hungry and you gave Me food."

How excellent is this above all! The Lord makes no mention of the rest but names only this. And again to the others, "Depart into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." How many things could He charge the ungodly with, if they were to ask, "Why are we going into everlasting fire?" Why? Would you ask, you adulterers, murderers, cheats, sacrilegious blasphemers, unbelievers? Yet He mentions none of these but says, "Because I was hungry, and you gave Me no food."

10. I see that you're surprised, as I am. It's truly an astonishing thing. But I gather, as best I can, the reason for this strange emphasis, and I won't hide it from you.

It is written, "As water extinguishes fire, so almsgiving atones for sin" (Sirach 3:30). Again it is written, "Store up almsgiving in your treasury, and it will deliver you from all affliction" (Sirach 29:12). And again, "Hear, O king, my advice, and redeem your sins by almsgiving" (Daniel 4:27).

There are many other passages in the divine Scriptures showing that almsgiving is very effective in quenching and wiping out sins. Therefore, to those He's about to condemn—or rather, to those He's about to crown—He will credit almsgiving alone.

It's as if He were saying, "It would be difficult for Me not to find grounds to condemn you, if I were to examine you thoroughly and scrutinize your deeds with great precision. But 'enter into the kingdom, for I was hungry and you gave Me food.' You will enter the kingdom not because you haven't sinned, but because you've redeemed your sins through almsgiving."

And again to the others, "Go into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." They too, guilty and old in their sins, late in their fear of punishment—in what way, when they reflect on their sins, could they dare say they're unjustly condemned, that this sentence is unfairly pronounced against them by such a righteous Judge?

When examining their consciences and all the wounds of their souls, how could they dare say, "We are unjustly condemned"? Of them it was said before in the book of Wisdom, "Their own iniquities will convict them to their face" (Wisdom 4:20). Without doubt, they will see they're justly condemned for their sins and wickedness. Yet it will be as if He said to them, "It's not for the reasons you're thinking, but 'because I was hungry, and you gave Me no food.'"

For if you had turned away from all those evil deeds of yours and turned to Me, you could have redeemed all those crimes and sins by almsgiving. Those alms would now deliver you and absolve you from the guilt of such great offenses, for "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy" (Matthew 5:7). But now go away into everlasting fire. "He shall have judgment without mercy who has shown no mercy" (James 2:13).

Feeding Christ in the Hungry

11. Oh, that I might persuade you, my brothers and sisters, to give away your earthly bread and to knock for the heavenly Bread! The Lord is that Bread. He says, "I am the bread of life" (John 6:35). But how will He give to you, if you don't give to those in need?

One person stands in need before you, and you stand in need before Another. Since you are in need before Another, and another is in need before you, that other person stands in need before someone who is himself in need. For He before whom you are in need needs nothing.

Do to others, then, as you would have done to you. It's not in this case as with friends who might remind each other of their mutual kindnesses, saying, "I did this for you," and the other answers, "And I did this for you." God doesn't want us to do some good service for Him because He has first done such a service for us. He needs nothing, and so He is truly the Lord.

I said to the Lord, "You are my God, for You do not need my goodness" (Psalm 16:2). Nevertheless, though He is the Lord, the true Lord, and needs not our goods, yet so that we might do something even for Him, He has chosen to be hungry in His poor. "I was hungry," He says, "and you gave Me food. Lord, when did we see You hungry? Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of Mine, you did it to Me" (Matthew 25:35, 37, 40).

To be brief, then, let people hear and consider as they should how great a merit it is to have fed Christ when He hungers, and how great a crime it is to have despised Christ when He hungers.

12. Repentance for sins changes people for the better, it's true. But it seems that even repentance would be useless if it were empty of works of mercy. The Truth testifies to this through John, who said to those who came to him, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (Matthew 3:7-10).

Concerning this fruit, he said earlier, "Bear fruits worthy of repentance." Whoever doesn't bring forth these fruits has no reason to think they'll obtain pardon for their sins through a fruitless repentance.

What these fruits are, John later shows himself. For after these words, the crowds asked him, "What shall we do then?" That is, what are these fruits you urge us with such alarming force to bring forth? "He answered and said to them, 'He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise'" (Luke 3:10-11).

My brothers and sisters, what could be plainer, more certain, or more explicit than this? What other meaning could his earlier statement have— "Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire" —except the same that will be said to those on the left: "Depart into everlasting fire, for I was hungry and you gave Me no food" ?

So it's not enough to turn away from sins if you neglect to heal the wounds of past sin, as Scripture says, "My son, you have sinned? Do so no more" (Sirach 21:1). And so that he might not think this alone would keep him secure, it adds, "But pray about your former sins that they may be forgiven" (Sirach 21:1).

But what will it profit you to pray for forgiveness if you don't make yourself worthy to be heard by not bearing fruit worthy of repentance? Then you would be cut down like a barren tree and cast into the fire. If you want to be heard when you pray for pardon of your sins, "Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you" (Luke 6:37-38).