So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
The verse closes the parable of a man blessed with a rich harvest who planned to store it in larger barns for years of ease, only to die that night with all he had prepared passing to others. God calls such a person a fool, and the same verdict falls on everyone who stores earthly plenty for personal ease while not rich toward God. No amount of possessions can make life secure, valuable, long or happy, and hoarded goods are lost at death without profit to the soul. To be rich toward God is to love, trust and serve Him rather than self, to follow Christ, seek first His kingdom and righteousness, and let His love flow out in mercy to others. That life is shown by holding all things as His entrusted stewardship and using them to relieve the poor, suffering and afflicted and to advance His cause, instead of hoarding from covetousness and unbelief for selfish comfort and display.
Parable Setting and Verdict
Luke 12:21 is the conclusion to the parable of the rich man whose abundant harvest and full barns led him to plan larger storehouses and years of ease and pleasure, yet he died that very night and could not keep or use what he had gathered, so that what he had prepared passed to others and his earthly accumulation proved no true gain. Material abundance does not make life secure, valuable, long, or happy, and to store wealth only for personal security while withholding what is due to God is spiritual poverty ending in a cut-short, unprofitable life. The rich farmer had received his crops from God, which gave him both reason for gratitude and responsibility to help others, but he hoarded the gifts and planned only personal ease.
God judges such a person to be a fool, and everyone who stores earthly plenty for his own ease, eating, drinking, and merriment while not rich toward God meets the same end, with his soul required of him and his provided goods passing to another. Earthly fortune, however great, cannot secure life or God's favor, and having great wealth, status, or worldly success does not make anyone rich, great, or favored toward God. Those who do not diligently seek heavenly treasure and divine wisdom are counted fools by their Creator, and their example is not to be followed. True wisdom is the opposite course, revealed in following Jesus Christ, believing in Him for everlasting life, and seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, which is what it means to be rich toward God.
The teaching stands against seeking heavenly grace and power for selfish worldly benefit, calling followers instead to bear witness to truth and not to use gifts for personal advantage. The rich man's failure was to forget God as source and owner of his possessions, to give no thanks and no glory to his Maker, and to use wealth for himself rather than to bless others. His abundant harvest came through blessings God gives to both the just and the unjust in sunshine and rain and watchcare over fields and goods, entrusting him as a steward with opportunity to help the needy.
Being rich toward God meant recognizing that the wealth of goods came directly from God's hand and recounting His goodness by dividing goods in benevolence, relieving those in suffering need, including the poor, orphaned, widowed, suffering, and afflicted. Instead he ignored God altogether in the year of plenty, showed no gratitude, calculated to hold the gift and consume it upon himself, and planned only for his own comfort, so the Lord's poor were not relieved.
Great possessions and strong defenses give no lasting security against judgment, death, or ruin for one who stores wealth for selfish ends and lives for self. Belshazzar's feast, worship of material gods, and sudden death and downfall illustrate this truth, warning every age that selfish living and covetousness cut the soul off from life while life is found in God and expressed by giving and sacrificing for others.
Earthly Wealth Cannot Secure Life
Material abundance does not make life secure or valuable, and length and happiness of life are not secured by earthly possessions, for true riches are measured by relation to God rather than by accumulated goods. The one who stores wealth for personal security, comfort and pleasure while not rich toward God is like the foolish rich man with abundant harvest and full barns who dies that night, so that what was prepared passes to others who inherit it. Hoarded wealth cannot be kept or used when life ends but is lost, and earthly riches cannot secure lasting good or secure the soul, leaving the hoarder with no true gain and no religious profit.
To rely on abundance for ease, pleasure, eating, drinking and merriment mistakes borrowed goods for personal possessions and mistakes possessions for what gives life, thereby misplacing the purpose of life and possessions. Covetous desire to gain for self cuts the soul off from life, so that living for self leads to perishing, in contrast to being rich toward God by recognizing God as owner and faithfully using entrusted resources and abilities in His service rather than for selfishness and self-glory. Storing for self in this way includes gaining fortunes through covetousness and exploitation, using resources meant to help others to extort the poor, living selfishly without mercy or love, and exploiting the vulnerable and defrauding others, and such wealth brings judgment rather than blessing and cannot be retained when life is required.
Gaining earthly riches at the cost of the soul is a terrible failure, for wealth and status cannot measure a person's worth before God, and those who gather wealth for themselves while not rich toward God are poor in the light of eternity. Those who store treasure for themselves by breaking God's law, neglecting the hungry and naked, refusing justice and mercy, and seeking their own elevation instead of honoring God have put earthly treasure before their Maker. When their riches, possessions and status are swept away and taken away, their lives are exposed as failures: earthly gain becomes corruption, pleasures turn bitter, and treasures perish and are lost.
Meaning of Rich Toward God
Being rich toward God means loving and serving God rather than self, giving faithfully what belongs to Him, and using wealth to meet the needs of others and do good, for storing wealth for personal use while neglecting Him is spiritual foolishness. It means recognizing God as owner and using entrusted resources and abilities faithfully in His service rather than for selfishness, self-glory, ease and pleasure, and trusting in possessions. To be rich toward God is to follow Jesus Christ, to believe in Him for everlasting life, and to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, which is true wisdom and the opposite of the rich fool's course. By contrast, to turn away from God, refuse Christ, and give oneself as a willing subject to the great leader of apostasy leaves one with no religious inclination and laying up treasure only for self. Loving one's neighbor belongs to this richness, for it means recognizing that the neighbor has claims that cannot be ignored while obeying God.
A poor person with little who trusts God's love and care and wisely uses what he has to bless others is rich toward God, abounding in good works. Being rich toward God is not measured by how much a person owns, and accumulating wealth, status or worldly success does not make anyone rich, great or favored toward God. Love of riches can lead the wealthy to selfish indulgence, to indulge every desire, to look down on the poor, and to be left spiritually wanting, while a poor person who depends on God may inherit eternal riches. Hoarding wealth, gaining it through deceit or oppression, and refusing to help people in need show a selfish heart that is not rich toward God, for wealth belongs to God and is entrusted as stewardship to relieve the poor and advance His kingdom.
Being rich toward God means receiving divine love and letting it flow out in mercy to others, in the spirit of Christ who gives and sacrifices self for the good of others. Living for self through covetousness — the desire to gain for oneself — cuts the soul off from life, so that living for self leads to perishing and ruin. The spirit of selfishly taking is opposed to Christ's spirit of giving and sacrificing, and belongs to the spirit of Satan. To store earthly wealth for self without becoming rich toward God is therefore to choose earthly rather than spiritual life, to reject that love and thus to reject life itself, a false security that cannot keep death or ruin away. This warning applies in every age, as shown by sudden downfall amid wealth and earthly defenses.
Being rich toward God involves being united with Christ and the Father and with fellow believers in a life shaped by the divine nature. That unity is shown in escaping the world's corruption through lust and in living at peace with one another, speaking in unity and love. Being rich toward God means valuing eternal life and heavenly riches above perishable possessions, and using God's gifts to bless others and glorify Him. It means counting the salvation of others and the worth of souls for whom Christ died as greater than all gold and silver, wealth being insignificant beside them. Such an estimate is shown by willingness to sacrifice earthly riches to gain heaven and to bring souls to the knowledge of Christ, feeling their worth with earnest Christian zeal that does something rather than much talking and professed love, for talk is cheap.
Having a large treasure in heaven by being rich toward God calls for an advance move, for all to work for themselves, and when Jesus is in the heart He will be confessed to others with a force that cannot be hindered, as the waters of Niagara cannot be stopped from flowing over the falls. Being rich toward God means diligently and earnestly seeking heavenly treasure and divine wisdom as wisely as temporal things are pursued, thereby becoming rich for eternity. Those who do not seek heavenly treasure and divine wisdom, though they have great earthly wealth, are counted fools by their Creator.
Stewardship and Faithful Use
Life, possessions, abilities, time and influence belong to God and are only lent to people to be used faithfully in His service rather than mistaken for personal treasure to be stored for ease and self-glory. The steward must give account to the Giver for how entrusted wealth is used, and all that is held adds to true value only as wise stewardship for the Lord is shown instead of binding the heart up with treasure and measuring worth by increase of ability and wealth. Wealth and status do not make anyone great, rich or favored in God's sight, for goods are entrusted to relieve the poor and advance His work, and hoarding them while neglecting the suffering poor leaves the account wrong before God. At death everything must be left behind and probation ends, and worldly standing cannot supply the righteousness that keeps the life right with God.
Being rich toward God requires recognizing Him as source and owner of goods, giving thanks and glory to the Maker, and recounting His goodness by dividing goods in benevolence to bless others. The rich fool's failure was to forget God altogether in the year of plenty, though sunshine and rain and watchcare over fields and goods had brought abundance directly from God's hand giving both reason for gratitude and responsibility to help. He gave no thanks, ignored God, calculated to hold the gift and consume it upon himself for personal ease, and did not relieve those in suffering need. However great an earthly fortune may be, it cannot secure life or God's favor.
Faithful stewardship means using entrusted means to meet others' needs and do good, loving and serving God rather than self and giving faithfully what belongs to God. The abundant harvest was a test that exposed unfitness to be trusted with eternal riches, because instead of using goods to help those in need the plan was to store them up and live at ease, neglecting both God and others. That stewardship embraces the poor, hungry, naked, orphaned, widowed, suffering and afflicted, acting justly and mercifully and helping to save souls. Those who gain wealth by breaking God's law, neglecting the hungry and naked, refusing justice and mercy, and seeking their own elevation have stored treasure for themselves rather than sought what matters to God, and their lives stand exposed as failures.
Being rich toward God means acknowledging God's claims first by faithfully paying tithes and offerings, honoring Him with substance and firstfruits, giving liberal returns for His bounties, and supporting His cause and work. Withholding the tenth owed to God and failing to help needy neighbors shows self-serving use that disregards love for God and others and robs both God and self, while wealth used for good and given to those in need in Christ's name lays up treasure in heaven. Such giving to advance present truth and aid the salvation of others is a safe investment that shifts affection from earthly wealth to the eternal inheritance and leads toward eternal life, bringing peace and assurance of God's care to those who give freely what was entrusted to them. Earthly wealth is to be measured by treasure secured in God's kingdom, not by possessions accumulated or spent to please self, for a life's worth is not measured by how much it gathers.
Means are not to be wasted on self-pleasing and self-glory, needless display, luxury, appetite, pride and amusement, nor spent on show that encourages vanity, benefits no one, feeds no one, clothes no one, and helps no soul turn to Christ and live, bringing only remorse and shame. They are not to be tied up in unneeded houses and land, nor spent on cathedrals and needless adornment and interest on avoidable debt, nor used to glorify and indulge self while leaving God's work uninvested. God's money should instead be given freely and sacrificially to the necessities of His cause without ostentation, supporting plain, neat, tasteful houses of worship dedicated to God free from debt and advancing the message to others. Wealth spent on unnecessary things does not amount to heavenly treasure.
God's gifts test and develop character, and blessings themselves do not make anyone better or worse but their effect depends on the character developed in receiving them, on dependence on God when self is tested, and on gratitude shown by helping those in need. Wealth increases responsibility and accountability, and one who shares abundantly with those who need abundantly shows faithful stewardship and may be entrusted with more.
Covetousness and Selfish Hoarding
Covetousness, the desire to gain for oneself, cuts the soul off from life, so that to live for self is to perish. Being rich toward God stands in contrast to this self-seeking, for it reflects the spirit of Christ who gives and sacrifices self for the good of others. The spirit of selfishly taking is opposed to that giving spirit and belongs to the spirit of Satan. One who accumulates wealth for personal benefit but is not rich toward God is therefore spiritually poor, having mistaken possessions for what gives life.
The one who is poor toward God hoards means for the future, grows close and selfish, and fears coming to want. He fears God will not provide and puts trust in accumulating riches instead of faith in God and His promises. Growing riches can deepen that fear of future need and the desire to accumulate, encouraging selfish hoarding and trust in possessions. Such a person loves riches more than neighbor and God and fails to realize possessions are not his own but lent to be used for God's glory.
Storing treasure for self includes gaining fortunes through covetousness and exploitation, using resources meant to help others to extort the poor. It includes defrauding others, deceit, oppression, breaking God's law, living selfishly without mercy or love, neglecting the hungry and naked, and refusing justice and mercy while seeking personal elevation. Such wealth brings judgment rather than blessing and cannot secure the soul when life ends. Earthly possessions do not determine the length or happiness of life, and covetous selfishness that exploits others loses both this world and the next.
The self-centered life plans only personal ease, eating, drinking, merriment, comfort, indulgence and self-glory. It binds itself up with its treasure and measures personal value by increase of ability and wealth. To rely on abundance for ease and pleasure misplaces the purpose of life and possessions, for earthly goods cannot secure life and at death pass to someone else. The love of riches can lead the wealthy to indulge every desire and look down on the poor, revealing that abundance has not made them rich in what matters to God.
Earthly riches can bind affections to possessions and intensify the desire for more, so that pursuit of wealth absorbs the heart and becomes idolatry. Having greater possessions does not ensure greater generosity. The greater the treasure stored on earth the harder it is to see it as lent to be used for God's glory, and those whose works testify of love for riches prove unprepared for heaven. Pursuing money-making projects and success in business while neglecting duties to God reveals failure to live faithfully and to prepare for the Lord's return. Such pursuit can leave people with neither time nor willingness to use time, influence, abilities, means and energy in God's work to serve others and help save souls. To turn away from God, refuse Christ, and give oneself as a willing subject to the great leader of apostasy leaves one with no religious inclination and laying up treasure only for self.
Watchfulness and Present Application
To be rich toward God is to live as pilgrims and strangers whose lasting citizenship is above, in a waiting, watching position believing that time is short, the end of all things is at hand, and Christ is at the door. That faith is acted out by selling off earthly possessions, freeing oneself from cumbersome things of earth, and transferring treasure to heaven so that interest and heart are there. It is shown by giving freely and sacrificially to the necessities of His cause without ostentation or display, moving out by faith to build plain, neat, tasteful houses of worship dedicated to God free from debt instead of spending the Lord's money on cathedrals and needless adornment or interest on avoidable debt. It requires educating not only older church members but children and youth not to live to please themselves or to court praise and human honor but to guard their hearts with perpetual vigilance and jealousy lest they be estranged from God, to hunger and thirst after righteousness, and to walk in self-abasement, lowliness and humility through the inward spiritual perception of the truth as it is in Jesus, which never exalts the human agent in his own estimate of self.
To lay up treasure for oneself is to increase in riches, lay up treasures upon the earth, add house to house and land to land, prepare to remain in this world as its citizens, and make preserving and adding to treasure the study of life. Such works prove unbelief that Christ will come in this generation, show that what is valued most is in this world, and take little stock in heavenly treasure. Earthly investments draw the mind down from the heavenly and imperishable to the earthly and corruptible.
Being rich toward God requires putting the whole heart into Christ's service with daily prayer and watchfulness instead of tame, listless striving without religious interest. This applies especially to those blessed with great light, including students. It means guarding the heart with perpetual vigilance, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and walking in self-abasement, lowliness and humility.
Being rich toward God means using entrusted life, means, influence and abilities in faithful service without selfish interest, putting the kingdom of heaven first and valuing eternal things rightly. A person is not rich toward God when professing to serve Christ but neglecting responsibilities, failing to use abilities and opportunities, withholding means and self from God's work, and bringing no souls to Christ, which leaves them fruitless and accountable to God. It calls for an advance move and manifest earnest Christian zeal by feeling the worth of souls and being willing to sacrifice to bring souls to the knowledge of Christ. It is not much talking and professed love for perishing souls, for talk is cheap, but zeal shown by doing something, for all must work and when Jesus is in the heart He will be confessed to others with a force that cannot be hindered, as the waters of Niagara cannot be stopped from flowing over the falls. Such faithful service, including seeking the salvation of others, brings the hope of eternal life and glory.
The warning applies in every age to all who worship farms and money and neglect God-given responsibility to help save people nearby, including through warning and teaching in large cities. Earthly wealth, possessions, and skill and success in business have no lasting value when set against service to God, and those who receive light and counsel are accountable for acting on it, not merely hearing it. Self-focused attachment to wealth reveals failure to live faithfully and to prepare for the Lord's return. Selfish living and covetousness cut the soul off from life, while life is found in God and expressed by giving and sacrificing for others, and to live selfishly for gain is to choose earthly rather than spiritual life and to reject divine love flowing out in mercy and therefore to reject life itself. Wealth and earthly defenses cannot keep death or ruin away, as Belshazzar's sudden downfall illustrates, and earthly riches cannot protect anyone from death or prevent possessions from passing to someone else.
Selfish interests and devotion to worldly wealth consume true godliness, turn the heart from God, and leave a person alienated from Him and spiritually bankrupt. Even the humblest and poorest disciples who are rich in good works are more blessed and precious to God, and more honorable in heaven, than wealthy rulers and nobles who are not rich toward God. Material prosperity and the favor of the world do not make a church rich toward God. For a church to regard those outward advantages as proof of its standing while it has turned from God's commandments and lost its spiritual strength is a fatal delusion.
The verse calls for repentance while there is still time rather than allowing worldly pursuits to consume one's life. At death everything must be left behind and probation ends, and worldly status and wealth cannot provide Christ's righteousness or keep one's account right with God. The rich man’s possessions were not truly his to use selfishly, for he was a steward who neglected God’s call and the needs of the suffering poor. The verse warns wealthy parents who fail as stewards by neglecting to arrange the disposition of their property while alive, so that death or loss of reason leaves affairs unsettled and property distributed against their wishes.
The verse closes the parable of a man blessed with a rich harvest who planned to store it in larger barns for years of ease, only to die that night with all he had prepared passing to others. God calls such a person a fool, and the same verdict falls on everyone who stores earthly plenty for personal ease while not rich toward God. No amount of possessions can make life secure, valuable, long or happy, and hoarded goods are lost at death without profit to the soul. To be rich toward God is to love, trust and serve Him rather than self, to follow Christ, seek first His kingdom and righteousness, and let His love flow out in mercy to others. That life is shown by holding all things as His entrusted stewardship and using them to relieve the poor, suffering and afflicted and to advance His cause, instead of hoarding from covetousness and unbelief for selfish comfort and display.
Parable Setting and Verdict
Luke 12:21 is the conclusion to the parable of the rich man whose abundant harvest and full barns led him to plan larger storehouses and years of ease and pleasure, yet he died that very night and could not keep or use what he had gathered, so that what he had prepared passed to others and his earthly accumulation proved no true gain. Material abundance does not make life secure, valuable, long, or happy, and to store wealth only for personal security while withholding what is due to God is spiritual poverty ending in a cut-short, unprofitable life. The rich farmer had received his crops from God, which gave him both reason for gratitude and responsibility to help others, but he hoarded the gifts and planned only personal ease.
God judges such a person to be a fool, and everyone who stores earthly plenty for his own ease, eating, drinking, and merriment while not rich toward God meets the same end, with his soul required of him and his provided goods passing to another. Earthly fortune, however great, cannot secure life or God's favor, and having great wealth, status, or worldly success does not make anyone rich, great, or favored toward God. Those who do not diligently seek heavenly treasure and divine wisdom are counted fools by their Creator, and their example is not to be followed. True wisdom is the opposite course, revealed in following Jesus Christ, believing in Him for everlasting life, and seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, which is what it means to be rich toward God.
The teaching stands against seeking heavenly grace and power for selfish worldly benefit, calling followers instead to bear witness to truth and not to use gifts for personal advantage. The rich man's failure was to forget God as source and owner of his possessions, to give no thanks and no glory to his Maker, and to use wealth for himself rather than to bless others. His abundant harvest came through blessings God gives to both the just and the unjust in sunshine and rain and watchcare over fields and goods, entrusting him as a steward with opportunity to help the needy.
Being rich toward God meant recognizing that the wealth of goods came directly from God's hand and recounting His goodness by dividing goods in benevolence, relieving those in suffering need, including the poor, orphaned, widowed, suffering, and afflicted. Instead he ignored God altogether in the year of plenty, showed no gratitude, calculated to hold the gift and consume it upon himself, and planned only for his own comfort, so the Lord's poor were not relieved.
Great possessions and strong defenses give no lasting security against judgment, death, or ruin for one who stores wealth for selfish ends and lives for self. Belshazzar's feast, worship of material gods, and sudden death and downfall illustrate this truth, warning every age that selfish living and covetousness cut the soul off from life while life is found in God and expressed by giving and sacrificing for others.
Earthly Wealth Cannot Secure Life
Material abundance does not make life secure or valuable, and length and happiness of life are not secured by earthly possessions, for true riches are measured by relation to God rather than by accumulated goods. The one who stores wealth for personal security, comfort and pleasure while not rich toward God is like the foolish rich man with abundant harvest and full barns who dies that night, so that what was prepared passes to others who inherit it. Hoarded wealth cannot be kept or used when life ends but is lost, and earthly riches cannot secure lasting good or secure the soul, leaving the hoarder with no true gain and no religious profit.
To rely on abundance for ease, pleasure, eating, drinking and merriment mistakes borrowed goods for personal possessions and mistakes possessions for what gives life, thereby misplacing the purpose of life and possessions. Covetous desire to gain for self cuts the soul off from life, so that living for self leads to perishing, in contrast to being rich toward God by recognizing God as owner and faithfully using entrusted resources and abilities in His service rather than for selfishness and self-glory. Storing for self in this way includes gaining fortunes through covetousness and exploitation, using resources meant to help others to extort the poor, living selfishly without mercy or love, and exploiting the vulnerable and defrauding others, and such wealth brings judgment rather than blessing and cannot be retained when life is required.
Gaining earthly riches at the cost of the soul is a terrible failure, for wealth and status cannot measure a person's worth before God, and those who gather wealth for themselves while not rich toward God are poor in the light of eternity. Those who store treasure for themselves by breaking God's law, neglecting the hungry and naked, refusing justice and mercy, and seeking their own elevation instead of honoring God have put earthly treasure before their Maker. When their riches, possessions and status are swept away and taken away, their lives are exposed as failures: earthly gain becomes corruption, pleasures turn bitter, and treasures perish and are lost.
Meaning of Rich Toward God
Being rich toward God means loving and serving God rather than self, giving faithfully what belongs to Him, and using wealth to meet the needs of others and do good, for storing wealth for personal use while neglecting Him is spiritual foolishness. It means recognizing God as owner and using entrusted resources and abilities faithfully in His service rather than for selfishness, self-glory, ease and pleasure, and trusting in possessions. To be rich toward God is to follow Jesus Christ, to believe in Him for everlasting life, and to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, which is true wisdom and the opposite of the rich fool's course. By contrast, to turn away from God, refuse Christ, and give oneself as a willing subject to the great leader of apostasy leaves one with no religious inclination and laying up treasure only for self. Loving one's neighbor belongs to this richness, for it means recognizing that the neighbor has claims that cannot be ignored while obeying God.
A poor person with little who trusts God's love and care and wisely uses what he has to bless others is rich toward God, abounding in good works. Being rich toward God is not measured by how much a person owns, and accumulating wealth, status or worldly success does not make anyone rich, great or favored toward God. Love of riches can lead the wealthy to selfish indulgence, to indulge every desire, to look down on the poor, and to be left spiritually wanting, while a poor person who depends on God may inherit eternal riches. Hoarding wealth, gaining it through deceit or oppression, and refusing to help people in need show a selfish heart that is not rich toward God, for wealth belongs to God and is entrusted as stewardship to relieve the poor and advance His kingdom.
Being rich toward God means receiving divine love and letting it flow out in mercy to others, in the spirit of Christ who gives and sacrifices self for the good of others. Living for self through covetousness — the desire to gain for oneself — cuts the soul off from life, so that living for self leads to perishing and ruin. The spirit of selfishly taking is opposed to Christ's spirit of giving and sacrificing, and belongs to the spirit of Satan. To store earthly wealth for self without becoming rich toward God is therefore to choose earthly rather than spiritual life, to reject that love and thus to reject life itself, a false security that cannot keep death or ruin away. This warning applies in every age, as shown by sudden downfall amid wealth and earthly defenses.
Being rich toward God involves being united with Christ and the Father and with fellow believers in a life shaped by the divine nature. That unity is shown in escaping the world's corruption through lust and in living at peace with one another, speaking in unity and love. Being rich toward God means valuing eternal life and heavenly riches above perishable possessions, and using God's gifts to bless others and glorify Him. It means counting the salvation of others and the worth of souls for whom Christ died as greater than all gold and silver, wealth being insignificant beside them. Such an estimate is shown by willingness to sacrifice earthly riches to gain heaven and to bring souls to the knowledge of Christ, feeling their worth with earnest Christian zeal that does something rather than much talking and professed love, for talk is cheap.
Having a large treasure in heaven by being rich toward God calls for an advance move, for all to work for themselves, and when Jesus is in the heart He will be confessed to others with a force that cannot be hindered, as the waters of Niagara cannot be stopped from flowing over the falls. Being rich toward God means diligently and earnestly seeking heavenly treasure and divine wisdom as wisely as temporal things are pursued, thereby becoming rich for eternity. Those who do not seek heavenly treasure and divine wisdom, though they have great earthly wealth, are counted fools by their Creator.
Stewardship and Faithful Use
Life, possessions, abilities, time and influence belong to God and are only lent to people to be used faithfully in His service rather than mistaken for personal treasure to be stored for ease and self-glory. The steward must give account to the Giver for how entrusted wealth is used, and all that is held adds to true value only as wise stewardship for the Lord is shown instead of binding the heart up with treasure and measuring worth by increase of ability and wealth. Wealth and status do not make anyone great, rich or favored in God's sight, for goods are entrusted to relieve the poor and advance His work, and hoarding them while neglecting the suffering poor leaves the account wrong before God. At death everything must be left behind and probation ends, and worldly standing cannot supply the righteousness that keeps the life right with God.
Being rich toward God requires recognizing Him as source and owner of goods, giving thanks and glory to the Maker, and recounting His goodness by dividing goods in benevolence to bless others. The rich fool's failure was to forget God altogether in the year of plenty, though sunshine and rain and watchcare over fields and goods had brought abundance directly from God's hand giving both reason for gratitude and responsibility to help. He gave no thanks, ignored God, calculated to hold the gift and consume it upon himself for personal ease, and did not relieve those in suffering need. However great an earthly fortune may be, it cannot secure life or God's favor.
Faithful stewardship means using entrusted means to meet others' needs and do good, loving and serving God rather than self and giving faithfully what belongs to God. The abundant harvest was a test that exposed unfitness to be trusted with eternal riches, because instead of using goods to help those in need the plan was to store them up and live at ease, neglecting both God and others. That stewardship embraces the poor, hungry, naked, orphaned, widowed, suffering and afflicted, acting justly and mercifully and helping to save souls. Those who gain wealth by breaking God's law, neglecting the hungry and naked, refusing justice and mercy, and seeking their own elevation have stored treasure for themselves rather than sought what matters to God, and their lives stand exposed as failures.
Being rich toward God means acknowledging God's claims first by faithfully paying tithes and offerings, honoring Him with substance and firstfruits, giving liberal returns for His bounties, and supporting His cause and work. Withholding the tenth owed to God and failing to help needy neighbors shows self-serving use that disregards love for God and others and robs both God and self, while wealth used for good and given to those in need in Christ's name lays up treasure in heaven. Such giving to advance present truth and aid the salvation of others is a safe investment that shifts affection from earthly wealth to the eternal inheritance and leads toward eternal life, bringing peace and assurance of God's care to those who give freely what was entrusted to them. Earthly wealth is to be measured by treasure secured in God's kingdom, not by possessions accumulated or spent to please self, for a life's worth is not measured by how much it gathers.
Means are not to be wasted on self-pleasing and self-glory, needless display, luxury, appetite, pride and amusement, nor spent on show that encourages vanity, benefits no one, feeds no one, clothes no one, and helps no soul turn to Christ and live, bringing only remorse and shame. They are not to be tied up in unneeded houses and land, nor spent on cathedrals and needless adornment and interest on avoidable debt, nor used to glorify and indulge self while leaving God's work uninvested. God's money should instead be given freely and sacrificially to the necessities of His cause without ostentation, supporting plain, neat, tasteful houses of worship dedicated to God free from debt and advancing the message to others. Wealth spent on unnecessary things does not amount to heavenly treasure.
God's gifts test and develop character, and blessings themselves do not make anyone better or worse but their effect depends on the character developed in receiving them, on dependence on God when self is tested, and on gratitude shown by helping those in need. Wealth increases responsibility and accountability, and one who shares abundantly with those who need abundantly shows faithful stewardship and may be entrusted with more.
Covetousness and Selfish Hoarding
Covetousness, the desire to gain for oneself, cuts the soul off from life, so that to live for self is to perish. Being rich toward God stands in contrast to this self-seeking, for it reflects the spirit of Christ who gives and sacrifices self for the good of others. The spirit of selfishly taking is opposed to that giving spirit and belongs to the spirit of Satan. One who accumulates wealth for personal benefit but is not rich toward God is therefore spiritually poor, having mistaken possessions for what gives life.
The one who is poor toward God hoards means for the future, grows close and selfish, and fears coming to want. He fears God will not provide and puts trust in accumulating riches instead of faith in God and His promises. Growing riches can deepen that fear of future need and the desire to accumulate, encouraging selfish hoarding and trust in possessions. Such a person loves riches more than neighbor and God and fails to realize possessions are not his own but lent to be used for God's glory.
Storing treasure for self includes gaining fortunes through covetousness and exploitation, using resources meant to help others to extort the poor. It includes defrauding others, deceit, oppression, breaking God's law, living selfishly without mercy or love, neglecting the hungry and naked, and refusing justice and mercy while seeking personal elevation. Such wealth brings judgment rather than blessing and cannot secure the soul when life ends. Earthly possessions do not determine the length or happiness of life, and covetous selfishness that exploits others loses both this world and the next.
The self-centered life plans only personal ease, eating, drinking, merriment, comfort, indulgence and self-glory. It binds itself up with its treasure and measures personal value by increase of ability and wealth. To rely on abundance for ease and pleasure misplaces the purpose of life and possessions, for earthly goods cannot secure life and at death pass to someone else. The love of riches can lead the wealthy to indulge every desire and look down on the poor, revealing that abundance has not made them rich in what matters to God.
Earthly riches can bind affections to possessions and intensify the desire for more, so that pursuit of wealth absorbs the heart and becomes idolatry. Having greater possessions does not ensure greater generosity. The greater the treasure stored on earth the harder it is to see it as lent to be used for God's glory, and those whose works testify of love for riches prove unprepared for heaven. Pursuing money-making projects and success in business while neglecting duties to God reveals failure to live faithfully and to prepare for the Lord's return. Such pursuit can leave people with neither time nor willingness to use time, influence, abilities, means and energy in God's work to serve others and help save souls. To turn away from God, refuse Christ, and give oneself as a willing subject to the great leader of apostasy leaves one with no religious inclination and laying up treasure only for self.
Watchfulness and Present Application
To be rich toward God is to live as pilgrims and strangers whose lasting citizenship is above, in a waiting, watching position believing that time is short, the end of all things is at hand, and Christ is at the door. That faith is acted out by selling off earthly possessions, freeing oneself from cumbersome things of earth, and transferring treasure to heaven so that interest and heart are there. It is shown by giving freely and sacrificially to the necessities of His cause without ostentation or display, moving out by faith to build plain, neat, tasteful houses of worship dedicated to God free from debt instead of spending the Lord's money on cathedrals and needless adornment or interest on avoidable debt. It requires educating not only older church members but children and youth not to live to please themselves or to court praise and human honor but to guard their hearts with perpetual vigilance and jealousy lest they be estranged from God, to hunger and thirst after righteousness, and to walk in self-abasement, lowliness and humility through the inward spiritual perception of the truth as it is in Jesus, which never exalts the human agent in his own estimate of self.
To lay up treasure for oneself is to increase in riches, lay up treasures upon the earth, add house to house and land to land, prepare to remain in this world as its citizens, and make preserving and adding to treasure the study of life. Such works prove unbelief that Christ will come in this generation, show that what is valued most is in this world, and take little stock in heavenly treasure. Earthly investments draw the mind down from the heavenly and imperishable to the earthly and corruptible.
Being rich toward God requires putting the whole heart into Christ's service with daily prayer and watchfulness instead of tame, listless striving without religious interest. This applies especially to those blessed with great light, including students. It means guarding the heart with perpetual vigilance, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and walking in self-abasement, lowliness and humility.
Being rich toward God means using entrusted life, means, influence and abilities in faithful service without selfish interest, putting the kingdom of heaven first and valuing eternal things rightly. A person is not rich toward God when professing to serve Christ but neglecting responsibilities, failing to use abilities and opportunities, withholding means and self from God's work, and bringing no souls to Christ, which leaves them fruitless and accountable to God. It calls for an advance move and manifest earnest Christian zeal by feeling the worth of souls and being willing to sacrifice to bring souls to the knowledge of Christ. It is not much talking and professed love for perishing souls, for talk is cheap, but zeal shown by doing something, for all must work and when Jesus is in the heart He will be confessed to others with a force that cannot be hindered, as the waters of Niagara cannot be stopped from flowing over the falls. Such faithful service, including seeking the salvation of others, brings the hope of eternal life and glory.
The warning applies in every age to all who worship farms and money and neglect God-given responsibility to help save people nearby, including through warning and teaching in large cities. Earthly wealth, possessions, and skill and success in business have no lasting value when set against service to God, and those who receive light and counsel are accountable for acting on it, not merely hearing it. Self-focused attachment to wealth reveals failure to live faithfully and to prepare for the Lord's return. Selfish living and covetousness cut the soul off from life, while life is found in God and expressed by giving and sacrificing for others, and to live selfishly for gain is to choose earthly rather than spiritual life and to reject divine love flowing out in mercy and therefore to reject life itself. Wealth and earthly defenses cannot keep death or ruin away, as Belshazzar's sudden downfall illustrates, and earthly riches cannot protect anyone from death or prevent possessions from passing to someone else.
Selfish interests and devotion to worldly wealth consume true godliness, turn the heart from God, and leave a person alienated from Him and spiritually bankrupt. Even the humblest and poorest disciples who are rich in good works are more blessed and precious to God, and more honorable in heaven, than wealthy rulers and nobles who are not rich toward God. Material prosperity and the favor of the world do not make a church rich toward God. For a church to regard those outward advantages as proof of its standing while it has turned from God's commandments and lost its spiritual strength is a fatal delusion.
The verse calls for repentance while there is still time rather than allowing worldly pursuits to consume one's life. At death everything must be left behind and probation ends, and worldly status and wealth cannot provide Christ's righteousness or keep one's account right with God. The rich man’s possessions were not truly his to use selfishly, for he was a steward who neglected God’s call and the needs of the suffering poor. The verse warns wealthy parents who fail as stewards by neglecting to arrange the disposition of their property while alive, so that death or loss of reason leaves affairs unsettled and property distributed against their wishes.