The Greek verb apothesaurizo (G597) means to store up or to lay up treasure for oneself. It is a compound of apo (intensive) and thesaurizo (to accumulate/treasure up). The word appears once in the New Testament, in 1 Timothy 6:19, where Paul instructs the wealthy to apothesaurizo — but not earthly wealth. Rather, they are to be rich in good deeds, laying up treasure for themselves as a 'firm foundation for the coming age.'
Paul's use of apothesaurizo in 1 Timothy 6:19 brilliantly redeems the very impulse to accumulate. The wealthy are not told to stop building treasure — they are redirected to invest in eternal currency: generosity, good deeds, sharing. This echoes Jesus' teaching in Matthew 6:20 to 'store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.' The theological principle is that the economy of eternity operates by a different logic: what we give away in generosity here, we lay up as treasure there. Apothesaurizo is the verb of eternal investment strategy.