Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew Mark and Luke John Calvin (continued)
Matthew 6:19-21;Luke 12:33-34
MATTHEW 6:19-21; LUKE 12:33-34
Matthew 6:19-21
Luke 12:33-34
19. Lay not up for yourselves treasures on the earth, where rust and the moth consume, where theives break through and steal. 20. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither rust nor moth consumes, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. 21. For where your treasure shall be, there will also your heart be.
33. Sell what ye possess, and give alms. Prepare for yourselves bags, which do not grow old, a treasure in heaven which does not fail, where the theif approaches not, nor moth corrupteth. 34. For where your treasure shall be, there will also your heart be.
Matthew 6:19. Lay not up. This deadly plague reigns everywhere throughout the world. Men are grown mad with an insatiable desire of gain. Christ charges them with folly, in collecting wealth with great care, and then giving up their happiness to moths and to rust, or exposing it as a prey to thieves. What is more unreasonable than to place their property, where it may perish of itself, or be carried off by men?450
Covetous men, indeed, take no thought of this. They lock up their riches in wellsecured chests, but cannot prevent them from being exposed to thieves or to moths
They are blind and destitute of sound judgment, who give themselves so much toil and uneasiness in amassing wealth, which is liable to putrefaction, or robbery, or a thousand other accidents: particularly, when God allows us a place in heaven for laying up a treasure, and kindly invites us to enjoy riches which never perish.
20. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven They are said to do so, who, instead of entangling themselves in the snares of this world, make it their care and their business to meditate on the heavenly life. In Luke's narrative, no mention is made of the contrast between laying up treasures on the earth and laying up treasures in heaven; and he refers to a different occasion for the command of Christ to prepare bags, which do not grow old: for he had previously said, Sell what you
450"Ou bien perir d'eux-mesmes, encores que personne n'y touche;" — "or even perish of themselves, though nobody touch them."