Focus: Not for Sale

Text: Prov.23:23

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

Truth is buyable, but not salable. It is good to buy it, but bad to sell it. Truth is for keeps. It is meant for you to own it, not to disown or discard it.

Why should you buy truth? It is because you need it. Life devoid of truth is not worth living. The good life is founded on truth. Truth is the solid foundation for the kind of life that God values, approves and appreciates. To sell truth means disregarding it, jettisoning it, losing it, not knowing its worth, throwing it away, trashing it or surrendering it. By selling truth you become a moral destitute and spiritually bankrupt. 

Esau readily sold his birthright to Jacob, and the Scripture says that he "despised his birthright." The author of Hebrews says that he sold it for "one morsel of bread." The Greek lays stress or emphasis on the word "one," and that is to say that he sold it for a single meal, not for several meals. Esau had no senses of vision and value. He traded the lasting for the passing, the forever for the fleeting, the eternal for the temporal. Sadly, he turned his belly into a god, and he worshipped it. God was never associated with Esau in the Bible. His life was a manifestation of worldliness and waywardness. He treated the sacred with disdain for his secular mindset.

Truth is sacred; it makes for sanity and sanctity. It liberates one's soul and makes it soar. From the altar of truth and with a heart indwelt by truth worship is offered to God. The psalmist says, "Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts…" (Ps.51:6). Truth is an inward reality that influences every facet of life.

No one has the right to make merchandise of the truth. Truth is not for sale. It is a treasure to be held in highest esteem and to be kept with utmost care. Own truth and guard it jealously.

Truth is meant to be taught, shared, and stored. In Isaiah, God declares, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price" (Isa.55:1). You buy truth to feed on it. Truth is food for the soul. The soul needs truth to stay afloat and aflame. Jesus Christ says to His church, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see" (Rev.3:18). Truth is for personal use. By truth you are made spiritually rich. By truth you are clothed. By truth you gain or regain your vision. 

Truth is the lens by which you can see clearly and make right judgments.

David bought the field of Ornan and fully paid for it (1Chron.21:24). He didn't buy it to sell or resell it, but he acquired it for divine use. The temple of the Lord was built on that land. David gave Ornan the reason for buying the land: "To buy the threshingfloor of thee, to build an altar unto the LORD…" (2Sam.24:21). 

It is on truth that life for God is built. Buy the truth, and sell it not. Truth is not for sale; it is for keeps.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter