The Merchant Teaches Us to Put Off All
THE MERCHANT TEACHES US TO PUT OFF ALL ELSE SO THAT WE MIGHT OBTAIN THIS ONE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE
“Who…went and sold all that he had, and bought it.”
In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord tells us that if our eye offends us pluck it out. While he is not literally saying to remove our eye that sins, so Jesus is not literally telling us to sell everything we have, leave all worldly possessions to others and take him. We know this from many other portions in Scripture – “If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” (I Timothy 5:8).
But just as there is a very real spiritual truth in the Sermon on the Mount so the meaning here is very truly spiritual and may in fact become physical if the Lord wills. We must, like Paul, count all things as loss if we are to gain Christ. Christ is not received partially with the things of the world. We cannot have God and mammon. We cannot hold on to the pearl of great price and the pearls of low price hoping that the combined value will get us something greater. Jesus Christ shares his glory and honor and riches with no one else. Our hopes, joys, love, strength, peace, and refuge must be in Christ alone and Him crucified, dead, risen, and ascended up into heaven. The merchant in this parable understood this clearly. All in the Kingdom of Heaven have put off all else and obtained this one pearl.
My friends, if you put all aside to gain Christ, your treasure is very great. It will never be taken away, and you will never find anything greater. If you do not gain Christ, the pearl of great price, though you have the whole world it is already lost. It is in the present good for nothing. For if you die and go to hell what good is anything now? But if you have Christ today, you shall have Him always, He will be your guide from this life through death and to eternal life. For this is Eternal life, to know God the Father and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. Put all else aside, do not rest, do not stop, do not be content until you have Christ, are found in Him, and have in Him life Eternal. When the merchant found Christ, the pearl of great price, he sold all and bought the pearl. He is no fool who sells that which he cannot keep to buy that which he cannot lose. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.”
Ben Stahl, Elder