Proverbs 23:23 – “Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.”
I found this analogy interesting when reading this passage. The word that caught my attention was the first, “buy.” How does one buy truth, wisdom, instruction, and understanding? How does one sell the same?
Well, how do you buy gasoline for your car? With money. How did you receive the money? Through a paycheck for services to your employer. How did you perform those services? With time, effort and the choice to do the work.
Truth, wisdom, instruction, and understanding can not be purchased, but they can be bought. You can buy them with sweat (sometimes tears) and time which you choose to set aside and pursue them with maximum effort. Where can that transaction be made? There is but one place where you can buy such things, the Bible. In God’s words, you can find no end of truth, wisdom, instruction or understanding.
The whole of the Bible was penned by God to deliver such knowledge to those that would labor within its pages in pursuit of them. But just as any business can refuse to serve a customer for cause, so can God withhold these treasures from those that labor selfishly.
God left this knowledge and promised to preserve it for eternity so that those people who sought to live a life of righteousness and holiness could understand how to. If you seek knowledge for selfish and vainglory, you will not find it in the Bible. Why do you think most modern-day hirelings and gainsayers don’t use the Bible? Because of their efforts to mime the pages for God’s truth were fruitless.
While you can only buy these items within the Bible, you can only sell them outside of its pages. When we assert our will above the will of God, we are selling some of those treasures so that we are not convicted or conflicted in our choices. When we neglect our duties to God, we sell the truth to make space for the lie we want to believe is true. When we scoff at preaching and ridicule the man of God, we are setting up a yard sale in our heart and trying to offload as much of God’s knowledge as possible so that we can comfortably sit in the world without internal turmoil.
Hoard the truths of God’s word in your hearts. Covet the wisdom, instruction, and understanding that the Holy Ghost has revealed to you above the most expensive earthly treasure. For it is only through understanding what God desires from us that we can fully enjoy the priceless joy of fellowship with the Master.
Your fellowservant in Christ,
Bro. Jordan Foster
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