January 23

Jan 23 - Today from Proverbs 23 we look at verse 23

"Buy the truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline and understanding."

To buy something is to barter or trade something that you have for something you desire even more. To sell is for you to give up something you have in exchange for something you consider to be of reasonably equal value.
It is strange that even in our slang vernacular 'buy' has come to be a positive term and 'sell' has come to be a negative term. When we hear something that we believe is credible, we say, "Yeah, I'll buy that". It seems to mean that we will trade our old concept of whatever the subject matter is for the new concept that we just heard. A Positive term. On the other hand, when someone betrays us we say, "He sold me out". It seems to indicate that the person valued something else above your friendship. A Negative term.Now let's apply this to today's verse.
To "buy the truth" means that we will practically discard unproven concepts for proven ones, even when the unproven seem more self-gratifying. Truth is to be valued more than pleasure. To obtain a valuable truth, we have to trade something - and to the flesh it may seem costly. Too abstract? Okay, let's throw out a concrete example: John grew up believing that the better he lived a moral life, the better his chances were of him getting to heaven. He worked hard to follow the Ten Commandments, to attend church, and to do good deeds. Whenever he 'fell' he became very insecure and worked all the harder to win back God's approval. John greatly valued heaven and pleasing God was his ticket to get there. Then one day he came across TRUTH; He discovered that his sin separated him from God, and there was no way he could ever do enough good to get to heaven - but he also discovered that God loved him and desired a personal relationship with him. So much so, that He Himself paid the price for John's sin by dying in his place on a cross. All John needed to do was to confess his sin, his inadequacy to overcome it, and to simply receive the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus by faith. Now John saw something of greater value than heaven, and he was willing to gain that truth by giving up his old concept. What was of greater value for John? A personal relationship with the One who lives in heaven. John 'bought' it and gained what he had been struggling for his whole life. A Positive thing.
"Do not sell it." To sell something means that you would have to trade it for something of relatively equal value. There is nothing of equal value to the truth. You would have to be self-deceived in order to give up a truth you hold for anything else. In Genesis 25:27-35, Esau had the truth. You can be sure that his daddy Isaac told Esau of the great value of his birthright. But Esau 'sold' his birthright for something that only temporarily satisfied his fleshly appetite. It wasn't a 'just kidding' thing. God took it very seriously. Hebrews 12:16, 17 says that afterwards when Esau wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected - even though he sought it with tears. He 'sold out' his blessing (the truth), when he gave in to the immediate desires of his appetite. Pretty serious stuff - and definitely a Negative thing.

HOW do we hold onto the truths that we possess?
By getting wisdom,
by practicing discipline,
and by understanding why it is truth.