Bible Strands
Matthew 6:21
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jesus addresses his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount, giving the "for" (γάρ) reasoning behind the command to store treasures in heaven (v. 20).
The words — θησαυρός (thēsauros) carries the verse: it denotes a stored, accumulated treasure, not a single possession but a pattern of investment. The future ἐσται ("will be") frames the heart's location as a necessary consequence, not a mere tendency.
The thread — Luke 12:34 repeats the saying verbatim in Jesus' teaching on stewardship; Colossians 3:1 and 2 Corinthians 4:18 apply the same logic to the believer's orientation toward the unseen.
Why it lands — The verse functions as a diagnostic: your heart is not something you redirect by declaration; it has already settled where your resources have gone. It forces the question of whether your stated allegiance and your actual spending are in the same place.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Cross-references
- Colossians 3:1 Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
- Luke 12:34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
- 2 Corinthians 4:18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
- Proverbs 4:23 Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow springs of life.
- Isaiah 33:6 He will be the sure foundation for your times, a storehouse of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of the LORD is Zion’s treasure.
- Hebrews 3:12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a wicked heart of unbelief that turns away from the living God.
- Jeremiah 4:14 Wash the evil from your heart, O Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts within you?
- Matthew 12:34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.
- Acts 8:21 You have no part or share in our ministry, because your heart is not right before God.
- Romans 7:5 For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death.