Hoarded Love of Eternity

By Craig Ashton Jr., February 17, 2024

Some conclude that be a good Christian, one must give up their life—must lose everything to follow Jesus. That’s the mistake the rich young ruler made when He came to Jesus. When Jesus told Him to sell all he had, He thought that he was losing treasure (Mark 10:17–27). I don’t think Jesus intended for this ruler to lose any treasure, however, because the rich young ruler was about to gain the greatest treasure of all.

Jesus told a parable about treasure hidden in a field and found by a laborer. This laborer could scarcely believe it. I can just imagine the excitement on his face as he plunged his fingers into the greatest treasure he had ever seen. He was so filled with joy that he sold everything he owned to buy the field with the hidden treasure (Matthew 13:44).

It’s not hard to give up everything you’ve got if you realize you are making the greatest trade of your life. Once you find the heavenly treasure you’ve been searching for, you’ll give everything you’ve got to get it. All else seems valueless compared to the immeasurable value of this greatest treasure of surpassing worth—the hoarded love of eternity.

When God gave His Son to our world, He endowed human beings with imperishable riches—riches compared with which the treasured wealth of men since the world began is nothingness. Christ came to the earth and stood before the children of men with the hoarded love of eternity, and this is the treasure that, through our connection with Him, we are to receive, to reveal, and to impart.

White, The Ministry of Healing, p. 37.

Craig Ashton Jr.