📖 Biblical Definition
Treasure store is the accumulated wealth or stored value — material or moral — that one has laid up over time. Christ’s sharpest teaching on it is the Sermon on the Mount: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:19-21). The store is real; the question is where it is laid up. The heart, He says, follows the store. The Christian audits his treasure-store regularly: more in heaven than in this world.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
An accumulated stock of valuables, money, or moral worth; that which is treasured up.
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Greek thēsauros covers both the storehouse itself and the treasure stored in it; the same word translated treasure in Mt 6:19 and storehouse in some contexts.
Christ's logic in Matthew 6 runs: where the treasure is, there the heart will be. The store determines the affection, not the other way around. Lay it up rightly, and the heart follows.
📖 Key Scripture
Matthew 6:19 — "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal."
Matthew 6:20 — "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven."
Matthew 6:21 — "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
Luke 6:45 — "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern Christianity often quotes ‘where your treasure is, there your heart will be’ as descriptive; Christ uses it as prescriptive — build the store rightly, and the heart will move.
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Matthew 6:21 is often misread: I will follow my heart and the treasure will go where my heart is. Christ teaches the opposite: choose where to lay up the store, and the heart will follow it. The order is treasure-then-heart, not heart-then-treasure.
Practically: the household's budget is its discipling document. Where the money goes, the affections will follow. Move the store; move the heart.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Greek thēsauros covers both store and stored value.
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Greek thēsauros — storehouse, treasure; same word for the place and the contents.
Note: behind English thesaurus (a store of words).
Usage
"Build the store rightly; the heart will follow."
"The household's budget is its discipling document."
"Where the treasure is, there the heart will be — that is prescription, not description."