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. His 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. Here’s how John defines the commandments of God for the Christian:
1 John 3:23. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.
This is our heavenly Father’s commandment that we must treasure in our hearts. Faith in Christ. Love for others.
Is it really that simple? Yes. And no. Anyone who’s ever tried to live it on their own knows that these two simple commandments are far from easy to obey. We can only do it from a place of complete dependence on Christ in us. And that’s the gospel, that’s the good news – the commandment is obeyed by faith, not by self-effort. We can’t believe more and love more by trying hard. We can only believe more and love more by giving up. That’s why the very next thing John says is this:
1 John 3:24. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
I know it doesn’t sound like it, but the abiding here comes first. John is saying that the one who abides in God and God in him WILL keep these two commandments. The Spirit in us is the guarantee of this entire dynamic. Union with Christ produces ever increasing faith and love. How? As we treasure Christ himself and his love, his command to love is easy and light. The command is no longer a burden but a delight.
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 