The Christian and Passive Income

Creating Passive Income in Heaven, or Invest in your forever life (here on earth).

You thought I was about to give you some thoughts on passive income and the Christian. Or perhaps on the believer and the side hustle. That wouldn’t be a bad idea, actually. Income in the future will probably look a lot different than the past.

But no. You have been tricked.

With no further ado, let me introduce you to something far more disruptive.

                                   Creating Passive Income in Heaven, or
                                    Invest in your forever life (here on earth).

Let’s look at the text, and see if my title has merit.

“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).

Why did Jesus say this? Why did He say these exact words?

Because He was preaching to men. Men who worried about food every day, clothing, station, some kind of security. Men who knew exactly how prevalent it was for thieves to take your things.

He chooses moth.
He chooses rust.
He chooses thieves.

All three are corrupters, destroyers.

In no way is Jesus saying that earthly treasure is immoral. Look closely. He argues that it is extremely vulnerable. He exposes its slow decay and vanishment (moth). He points out the corrosion of all things earthly (rust). He exposes the theft of time and talent, people robbing your treasure, or robbing you of the best years of your life. Everything you store up here has an expiration date; threescore and ten, maybe twenty.

But, “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”

I remember a woman in my second congregation who said that this verse upset her. She said, “We should never be so selfish as to do good for a future reward. We should just do it.” I do not think she is far off in sensing the danger of mercenary motives. Yet still, Jesus did say it.

I do not believe this is metaphor. It is imperative language in the Greek, so it presumes a real connection between this life and the next. What the believer does here in faith, enabled by the indwelling Spirit, accrues treasures in heaven (not as wages by our merit), but as gracious fruits accepted in the Beloved. God is pleased, out of His mere grace, to reward these works (Westminster Larger Catechism 193), crowning what He Himself has wrought in us through union with Christ.

The implication is staggering.

Your earthly life is short. Some call it a waiting room for glory. I rather think it is an time of enterprise for our forever home. There will come a time when this “inch” we call earthly life (Rutherford) will be but the faintest of our faint memories.

Our Lord is telling us this life is gospel-fruit accumulation that, somehow, gives the child of God treasure in heaven. This life is the believer’s greatest investment opportunity.

I am not speaking about the health-and-wealth prosperity heresy. It is more like upper-east-side living in the New Jerusalem. Because you will have to die to spend it. “As one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:41–42).

He then gives the governing principle:

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Your heart follows your investment. I know this by experience.

If my capital is buried in reputation, my heart will quake at criticism.
If my capital is buried in retirement, my heart will tremble with the market.
If my capital is buried in comfort, my heart will panic at inconvenience.

But if my treasure is in heaven, my heart begins to detach from the volatility of this market. We hold onto it with a loose grip, because we are holding fast to Christ’s promise, “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:2–3).

Do we ever look at good works as future treasure? Do we ever consider that manifesting the Spirit-wrought fruit of the Spirit will actually be tasted in heaven?

Mostly, we look at good works as merit for acceptance. But that is not right. We are not saved by works, for then faith is no longer faith.

If Perkins has taught me anything, the unconverted man can do good things, but they always proceed from a polluted fountain. But the believer, doing the same things, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, offers what pleases God. These acts, done in faith and supremely for love of Christ, become deposits that God graciously rewards in the next life. Not to earn acceptance (which is ours solely in Christ), but to enlarge our capacity for eternal delight in Him. The reward is deeper communion, greater measures of glory commensurate with faithfulness, all without envy in the presence of the Lamb.

What does this mean for the Christian in the modern world?

It means you measure success differently.

Today, the world runs on visibility. Followers. Scale. Output. Personal brand. Optimization. Efficiency.

The hidden life does not trend.

But heaven’s economy runs on treasure acquired on earth.

Take the fruit of the Spirit for instance.

Love that actually costs you something.
Joy that persists in affliction.
Peace that steadies a home with the gospel.
Longsuffering in a marriage that stretches you.
Gentleness in a conversation where you could easily dominate.
Goodness when no one is watching.
Faith in an unseen Christ.
Meekness under provocation.
Temperance when no one is around.

Each act of Spirit-wrought obedience is a deposit in heaven’s treasury.

You forgive when you could retaliate.
You give when you could hoard.
You pray when you could scroll.
You remain faithful in obscurity.

These all compound eternally, not through any mechanical interest of our own, but through the multiplying grace of God who rewards grace for grace.

This is passive income in heaven.

The upfront investment is costly, though the account is totally free. I fear my account too empty, too sparse. Because the investment, I have found, costs the flesh dearly. But there is much mortification to gain, and no time to lose. Jesus says the yield manifests long after the moment has passed.

You will probably never see any returns here. This life is a vale of tears. That’s precisely Jesus’ point. The return is stored away in glory, where nothing can touch it. Safe in the Person and work of Christ.

You cannot generate this passive income on your own, you must collaborate.

Christ Himself is the treasury. He is the inheritance. All heavenly investment flows from union with Him. Without Him, we are all spiritually bankrupt. In Him, even little things done in faith become a deposit.

A word of advice: do not tell people about it! Do not Instagram, or Facebook, or X your good works for all to see. Jesus spoke of those that did: “Verily I say unto you, They have their reward” (Matthew 6:2).

Post it on X, poof, it is gone.
Tell it to your friends, ever so humbly, poof, gone.

Do not broadcast your mercy.
Do not curate your generosity.
Do not leak your obedience by carefully measured humility.
Poof, poof, poof.
Do so, and heaven marks it paid.

But if you do good where no one can repay you,
if you love where there is no return,
if you give where no applause follows, flowing from your love to Christ,
then the treasure grows.

And Christ says the recompense waits “at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:14).

There are only two moments you can be paid.

Now.
Or then.

Believer, choose carefully.