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According to Hertzler, all assets can be divided into two categories; tools and investments. A tool is something that is currently used, while an investment's primary purpose is to pro-duce a return on investment and to build wealth. This analysis yields no useful conclusions. Consider the most basic of basic tools a hammer; if currently used it would be considered a tool, but if you plan on deriving value from the item in the future it would be considered an investment. How about real estate? Hertzler states that it is probably ok to own a house to live in because it is a tool, but a house used to bring profit through its rental is an invest-ment and therefore is not allowed. This is illogical. Why can a barn or a hammer or any other asset be used to feed my family, but not a rental home? Clearly this part of the argu-ment is based on an agrarian life style. Under this line of reasoning it is ok to feed and care for a heifer, an investment, with the hope that in the future the return on investment of that labor and cost of feed will be a milking cow that will yield a future product that is worth more than the sum of the expenditures required to create it; but it is not ok to invest in a business with that same aspiration of return on investment.
Interestingly Hertzler previously stated that, "owning the assets necessary to make profits" is not condemned by Jesus. That statement is actually a very good definition for the word "investment". The specific act Hertzler is forbidding us to do in this section and also the en-tirety of his book. If our own self-evaluation of our heart condition is not a factor in deter-mining whether an item is categorically treasure, then what evaluation should we use? Is our treasure anything that we do not currently need? How do you define need? Is a need something that makes your life easier, or something that is required for basic survival? Hardly a hypothetical application. Consider your need for a house; in Maine you would need one because you would freeze to death, but in Hawaii, where the temperature is com-fortable year round, a house could be considered treasure because it is not needed for basic survival or even for relative comfort. Hertzler attempts to deal with this issue in the application of his second pillar by stating , "distribute whatever possessions we do not currently need. In other words, sell and give those possessions that are clearly of an investment nature (as opposed to a "tool")".
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