The book, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones is a rich examination of the text of Matthew 5–7. In the following excerpt, Lloyd-Jones discusses how it is that one may lay up treasures in heaven. It begins, he says, with a right view of ourselves and, most importantly, a right view of God.
We must always start with that great principle. If we have a right view of ourselves in this world as pilgrims, as children of God going to our Father, everything falls into its true perspective. We shall immediately take a right view of our gifts and our possessions. We begin to think of ourselves only as stewards who must give an account of them. We are not the permanent holders of these things. It matters not whether it is money, or intellect, or ourselves, or our personalities, or whatever gift we may have. The worldly man thinks he himself owns them all. But the Christian starts by saying, ‘I am not the possessor of these things; I merely have them on lease, and they do not really belong to me. I cannot take my wealth with me, I cannot take my gifts with me. I am but a custodian of these things.’ And, at once, the great question that arises is: ‘How can I use these things to the glory of God? It is God I have to meet, it is God I have to face, it is He who is my eternal judge and my Father. It is to Him that I shall have to render up an account of my stewardship of all the things with which He has blessed me.’ ‘Therefore,’ the Christian says to himself, ‘I must be careful how I use these things, and of my attitude towards them. I must do all the things He tells me to do in order that I may please Him.’
There, then, is the way in which we can lay up treasures in heaven. It all comes back to the question of how I view myself and how I view my life in this world. Do I tell myself every day I live, that this is but another milestone I am passing, never to go back, never to come again? I am pitching my moving tent ‘a day’s march nearer home.’ That is the great principle of which I must constantly remind myself—that I am a child of the Father placed here for His purpose, not for myself.
D. MARTYN LLOYD-JONES, STUDIES IN THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT, [GRAND RAPIDS: WM. B. EERDMAN'S PUBLISHING COMPANY: 1984], 356–357.