Buy The Truth, Sell It Not

Hello,

We saw a sign in the window of a business recently that read:  "We buy junk and sell antiques".  We all want to buy good products, but buy them for as low a cost as possible.  Bev and I were traveling in Mississippi several years ago, and we stopped at a small bargain store.  I remember purchasing, for three dollars, an old Case knife worth several hundred. What a find!  But there's a greater find that is available to everyone.  "Truth", it's an amazing bargain, but it's not free or even inexpensive.

Every true Christian should understand that the truth costs. If you don’t think so, make it your own, value it, defend it, stand for it, and see if it doesn’t cost. Before you are through it may cost you far more than you had thought — hours of ease and pleasure, friends and money.  Salvation is gloriously free but the truth costs — that is, if you want it for yourself. Many who know the truth won’t buy it. They won’t pay what it costs to say: “This is what I believe. This is my conviction.” The truth isn’t worth that much to them.

But in Prov. 23:23 God’s Word urges us: “Buy the truth”! Not, “Buy it if you can get it at a bargain; if the price is not too great.” No, “Buy the truth”! Buy it at any price. It is worth far more than anything you can give in exchange for it.

And when you have bought it: “sell it not.” How many, sadly, have bought the truth only to sell out again! For a while they valued and defended some God-given light from His Word, but presently they sold it again for something that seemed more valuable. Perhaps it was peace with others, or position, or popularity or some other temporal gain. They still gave mental assent to it but it formed no part of them. It was no longer a conviction.

If that is where you are, read again the Spirit’s counsel: “Buy the truth, and sell it not....” He does not say: “Don’t sell it unless you can get a very good price for it.” He says: “Sell it not.” Sell it not at any price. Buy it, no matter what it costs and when it is yours do not sell it for any price or under any consideration.

It is because the truth is so little valued in this indifferent age, that many of God’s people have become so spiritually powerless. They hold opinions instead of convictions, because they have given the infallible, unchangeable Word of God little place in their lives. God blesses and uses those who “buy the truth and sell it not.”

We enjoyed a great day at Dogwood yesterday.  The new SS class dealt with some effective ways to study God's word.  From that first lesson, we came to understand it takes much effort, cost, to find the truth, to embrace it, and keep it.  Digging into God's word is not for lazy people, and it just so happened that the theme in Anthony's message from Proverbs gave us, picture after picture, of the difference in the life of one with good work ethics and of the one without.  Let's apply diligence to our Bible study.

"Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding."  Proverbs 23:23

May God bless your Monday as you value and defend the God-given light you've received, and know for sure that you are loved!!!