When Your Heaven Is On Earth

“And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’ Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”—Mark 10:21-22

We are addicted to stuff. We are the only country in the world with storage facilities for our extra stuff that we can’t fit in our already big houses. It’s amazing. We are always constantly trying to get the newest, most innovative, and nicest stuff—which can be barriers between God and us just as it was for the rich young ruler who came to Jesus. He was a righteous man who sought God, but his money, or better yet, his love for money got in the way. Which is exactly the reason why Jesus told him to sell everything and then follow Him. He knew the stranglehold that money had on the young ruler’s heart, and asked a question to help identify where his true loyalty lay.

The apostle Paul wrote about the danger of loving money, he wrote,

“But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs”—1 Timothy 6:9-10.

The truth of the matter is that we don’t believe Paul when he said this. Nor do we believe Jesus’ words to sell everything is for us—or at least we hope not. It’s for others. Not for us. He couldn’t have possibly meant that for us—could He? I think that He did mean it for many of us. Maybe you. Maybe me. What if God were to ask you sell your stuff and give away everything you had? Could you do it?

I think the reality is that many of us have our heaven on earth, just as the rich young ruler did. Jesus captured the essence of this truth when He said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”—Matthew 6:21. It’s much easier to find our satisfaction in creaturely comforts rather than in fulfilling the call of Christlikeness. After all, who needs treasure in heaven when our treasure is on earth?

We don’t want to give up anything for following Him, just enough to get us into His kingdom. Such as view is completely antithetical to the Gospel of Christ. We cannot have something and God, no more than we can have a little rat poison in our coffee and have it not affect us. God wants our hearts. Does He have yours? Think about it. Amen.