The Meaning of Matthew 6:21 Explained

Matthew 6:21

KJV: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

YLT: for where your treasure is, there will be also your heart.

Darby: for where thy treasure is, there will be also thy heart.

ASV: for where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

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

What does Matthew 6:21 Mean?

Context Summary

Matthew 6:19-26 - What To Seek And Whom To Serve
What is in our inner life which answers to the eye of the body? Some have said that it is the intellect; others the heart. But it is truer to say that it is the inner purpose and intention of the soul.
When our physical eye is in an unhealthy condition, the image is doubled and blurred. To use a common expression, it has a squint, such as affected the noble face of Edward Irving, the noted English clergyman. We are told that as a babe he was laid in a wooden cradle, in the side of which was a small hole through which he watched what was going on. This distorted his vision through life. So we may look two ways at once.
The endeavor to serve God and mammon, to stand well with both worlds, to lay up treasures on earth and at the same time be rich toward God, is a spiritual squint. John Bunyan tells of Mr. Facing-Both-Ways, who kept one eye on heaven and the other on earth; who sincerely professed one thing and sincerely did another. He tried to cheat God and Devil, but in the end cheated only himself and his neighbors. [source]

Chapter Summary: Matthew 6

1  Giving to the Needy
5  The Lord's Prayer
16  Proper Fasting
19  Store up Treasures in Heaven
25  Do Not Worry
33  but seek God's kingdom

What do the individual words in Matthew 6:21 mean?

Where for is the treasure of you there will be also the heart
ὅπου γάρ ἐστιν θησαυρός σου ἐκεῖ ἔσται καὶ καρδία

ὅπου  Where 
Parse: Adverb
Root: ὅπου  
Sense: where, whereas.
θησαυρός  treasure 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Masculine Singular
Root: θησαυρός  
Sense: the place in which good and precious things are collected and laid up.
σου  of  you 
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Genitive 2nd Person Singular
Root: σύ  
Sense: you.
ἔσται  will  be 
Parse: Verb, Future Indicative Middle, 3rd Person Singular
Root: εἰμί  
Sense: to be, to exist, to happen, to be present.
καὶ  also 
Parse: Conjunction
Root: καί  
Sense: and, also, even, indeed, but.
καρδία  heart 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Feminine Singular
Root: καρδία  
Sense: the heart.