Buy Truth, Buy Gold...

Buy truth, and do not sell it;

Buy wisdom and instruction and understanding. 

Prov. 23:23 

As we were fellowshipping over dinner with a couple of brothers last night I was so impressed by the matter of "buying". Anything that is worthy needs a price to pay. Even if received for free, it was paid for by someone else. Concerning the truth, we must also pay the price to buy the truth. Only when there is some payment involved then there is the worth with it. 

When many people bargain for the truth it is because their hearts are not pure and sincere. For things of necessity or even worldly things, many believers can shell out thousands of rupees. But when it comes to the matter of spiritual pursuit or paying the price for spiritual matters, the degraded tendency is, "it should have been for free!" Even if not, it must be cheap. With this attitude, how can one really except the Lord's blessing? When this topic was fellowshipped, I testified of how my conscience would not allow me to buy the New Testament Recovery Version just for Rs.5 when the brothers did a distribution in my campus in 2001 at MCC, Chennai. Instead, I  took 2 Copies and paid Rs. 500 for it as I deemed proper according to my conscience. Later, that Bible for which I paid the price became so useful to me that I received so many revelation from the studying of it. Which later ushered me into the church-life in the Lord's recovery. And the other I gifted to my best friend who now is in the church life. 

Besides, two weeks ago, I was so burdened by the Lord concerning the need for paying the price to buy three things as spoken to the church in Laodicia. I reckon my situation was just that of the degraded church. And the Lord spoke strongly in the matter of paying the price to gain Him.

Rev. 3:18 - I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire that you may be rich, and white garments that you may be clothed and that the shame of your nakedness may not be manifested, and eyesalve to anoint your eyes that you may see. 

Notes from the Bible, Recovery Version:

Buying requires the paying of a price. The degraded recovered church must pay a price for gold, white garments, and eyesalve, which she desperately need. 

Gold (1 Pet. 1:7;  1 Cor. 3:12-13)
In the Bible our operating, working faith (Gal. 5:6) is likened to gold (1 Pet. 1:7), and the divine nature of God, which is the divinity of Christ, is typified by gold (Exo. 25:11). By faith we partake of the divine nature of God (2 Pet. 1:1, 4-5). The degraded recovered church has the knowledge of the doctrines concerning Christ but not much living faith to partake of the divine element of Christ. She needs to pay the price to gain the golden faith through the fiery trials that she may participate in the real gold, which is Christ Himself as the life element to His Body. Thus she can become a pure golden lampstand (1:20) for the building of the golden New Jerusalem (21:18)

White  (Rev. 3:5)
In figure, garments signify conduct. White garments here signify conduct that can be approved by the Lord. Such conduct is the Lord Himself lived out of the church, and it is required by the degraded recovered church for the covering of her nakedness.  

EyesalveThe eyesalve needed to anoint their eyes must be the anointing Spirit (1 John 2:27), who is the Lord Himself as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). The degraded recovered church needs this kind of eyesalve also for the healing of her blindness. For the three items mentioned in this verse, she must pay the price. 

To pay the price spiritually is the giving up of anything that hinders us from gaining gold, the white garment, and the eyesalve; all these things are Christ Himself. Anything that frustrates my enjoyment of Christ, that hinders my growth in life, that obstructs my going on with the Lord and with the saints must be thoroughly dealt with. If there are things to be given up to clear these blockages, I must trust in the Lord’s grace and give them up. That giving up of the obstacles is the paying of the price. 

The ministry of the word helps me a lot in this matter. The Lord's speaking through the ministry as I pursued the truth personally and corporately, has nourished me so much. I shared this burden of paying the price with the brothers in our brothers' fellowship and also with the saints in the Lord’s Day morning. It was indeed a message and food supply from the Lord to the church on that day. 

O for the grace to pay the price to gain Christ as the gold, the white garments and the eyesalve!