Proverbs 7:1. My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you;
What are you saving up your money for? What treasure do you have in your sights?
Proverbs 7 compares God’s commandments (spoken from father to son) to treasure. Treasure that we store up and carry with us. Does this image describe how you view the gospel? Is it a treasure that you carry with you all day every day? Or do you hear it preached, prayed, and sung on Sunday only to leave it at the church until you return in a week.
All truth is useless unless we take it into our hearts and allow it to become the instinctual way that we live. If you were a billionaire, but had no access to your billions in your daily life, what good is all that money. You need to keep some cash on you, or carry a credit card in order to live like the billionaire that you are.
What about the treasure of Christ in you? Do you have access to him? Do you carry him with you (or better yet, does he carry you?)? Are you spending his grace and love as you go through life? Is the gospel becoming instinctual to you? A new nature? A first response?
Maybe you’re wondering why we’re talking about the gospel when the Proverb says “commandments.” Isn’t the gospel the opposite of commandments? Not really. The gospel is the source of a new commandment. The Law of Christ. The law of love. The rule of life which places all faith and hope in Christ and our union with him, and then directs us to live from his life and his love. In fact, we can say that the commandment IS Christ. He is his new law written on our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
Our law is his life.
Our commandment is Christ.
Christ our treasure.
You: What is your treasure? What do you take with you wherever you go?
You in Christ: In what way is union with Christ a new commandment? A new way of life?
Christ in you: How can you actively treasure up Christ in you today and every day? How can you “spend” that treasure?
Pray: Father, to treasure your commandments is to treasure your Son and his gospel. By your Spirit make this gospel my new instinct, my new default reaction. Amen.
To Live is Christ 