Buying Truth
“Buy truth and do not sell it, also wisdom and instruction and understanding” (Pr 23:32)
Could you recollect last when you were out buying something? Then suppose someone had intervened to ask, “why are you buying this?” You would have at least replied this, “I need this”. Need! This has become a word of everyday usage. One cannot recount how often he was out there, to satiate his need, confessing the reason for seeking to his neighbours; ‘I need this! Man is surrounded by needs all the time; physiological and psychological. Your physiological needs arises from your physical self; needs of your daily provisions for your body as well as your kin dependent on you. While your psychological needs arise from your social self; the society or community of which you are a part; needs for your social belonging, status and self-esteem. These two needs are mutually inclusive; they cannot be separated. As your body and soul are inseparable while you live, so are these two needs. You cannot do without anyone. Lack of your physical needs may starve you to death; nevertheless, lack of social belonging can cause severe mental depression and suffering. Imagine why some prisoners sentenced to severe and rigorous imprisonment are kept alone in cell; banished from the outside world! And how much St John might have suffered when he was ostracized to a lonely island of Patmos! Hence, needs are natural. Adam, when he became a living creature, felt himself surrounded by all types of need. Hence, we see why God takes him to the Garden of Eden. Bible says that, “God took Adam to the Garden of Eden to tend and to keep it” (Ge 2:15). God wanted Adam to work with his hands and earn his living. Then God saw the need of social belonging of man when he said, “it is not good for man to be alone” (Ge 2:18). So God made woman and gave her to Adam. This not only explains that needs is natural, but also gives clear confirmations that needs are not free. Man has to strive for fulfilling his needs. This was actually asserted by God later when He said, “in toil you shall eat of it” (Ge 3:17). Not only this, man has to buy it!
So what was instituted at the time of creation is recurring till now. In toil one seeks for his living! As you work hard to fetch your physical needs, in the same way you strive to gain or maintain your social belongingness, status and self-esteem. You try and migrate to a better place or community, try and get a more respectable job in a reputed company, get better education from best schools or colleges; not only for yourself but also for your children, seek for life partners akin to you. All these you do to gain recognition in your society. We all do it the best way we could to meet all these needs. If we do it in the best way or the most true way, then why does Bible interrupt us with this “buy truth and don’t sell it!”
Bible has never been vague in its sayings. The fact is that, everytime we have done any act of fulfilling our needs, we have heeded our conscience speaking to us the approbation of the act? For our conscience taught us the appropriateness of the act that catered to our needs till now. He is the main person behind the scenes to direct all our acts. The amplitude of the arousal by our conscience, to do the act, does alter with the magnitude of our needs and to him this is implicit. As our need rises, he seeks for better ways to fulfill those. It is the needs that give rise to various desires in an individual, the word that appears in the Bible several times. It is our conscience that invokes desires in us and these desires invigorates actions. Desires are good as well as evil. Evil desires come in as a result of manipulation of any need, to meet it in the shortest or easiest possible way irrespective of the rectitude. Now, though our conscience is a hidden person within us assigned with a sense of right and wrong, the sad news is that it seldom senses right and never annunciates anything wrong to his physical companion. For, this person was seared with hot iron in the Garden of Eden when he heeded the voice of the enemy. Professing to be wise he became a fool. Since then to cover his foolishness, he always tries all sorts of excuse and teaches his physical companion the same. Hence, his physical companion, unable to withold, sells truth, his precious possession, to fulfill his needs. Again I repeat; ‘it takes the shortest or easiest possible way; irrespective of the rectitude’.
So even when we have a very good companion that allures our appetite to take care our health; that it is nurtured at the right time and in a right way, it doesn’t take care of our personality along with its subsidiaries; character, attitude and behavior. For, in whatever way our conscience directs us, our personality becomes in that fashion. Each person differs from every other person in one-way or the other. Psychology calls it a ‘law of individual differences’. The same, science delineates when it describes our body with the uniqueness of millions of DNA assembled together. This leads to every person having a unique perception about the environment they see or hear around him. What a person may interpret from seeing or hearing an event or news, one can find out only what he perceives it to be. As a result each person has an adjustment sui generis to others and environment. Hence, we see each person with a different personality and a varying degree of needs. For, the conscience drives each person in a different direction, always wrong, deceiving him in every act, curtailing the truth from him, lest he buys!
We see many saying categorically, “its fine with it or who cares!" If we are so presumptuous, then, as a Christian, I feel that we are hindering our growth, the supernatural process of transformation, in the image and likeness of God. To be true, I feel, so often, so casually, men have overlooked these traits, that stands juxtaposed in making us a “child of God”.
Since ‘God is Spirit’ and no precepts and laws, known as the Truth, justifying His immutability and invincibility, can one buy, except through your own personality, which is a complex functionality of what the Bible calls your soul and Spirit, correcting your conscience, that has given you social status.
Friends! If you really want to be one like this, then stop selling truth, buy it!
On Truth:
Jesus said, “I am the Truth”. Ask your conscience, what does he say about truth? He may well say, “who was there to see Him or His acts. I never saw it!” Or all His sayings are pretty indifferent from what you see around or what your society or culture accepts. But does your thoughts, feelings and belief deny the fact that Jesus is Truth?
When you say, “you never saw it, you are actually depending upon your sight to justify truth and when you think that His sayings doesn’t have any resemblance to the ethics of your society or culture, then you are comparing or replacing truth with ideology. For truth does not depend upon your eyes seeing it or your belief to justify itself. The reality itself makes a statement true. A description of a particular object by it features; height, breadth, colour etc can be stated as true because it is that way; even if you have not measured it or seen it. In the same way belief or ideology cannot deny truth. When I first heard about a community named ‘Flat Earth Society’ (a community that holds the belief that earth is flat), I was amazed. Living in 21st century, with an exponential increase in science and technological breakthroughs, how can one hold such beliefs! But the point is does their belief count as truth? Not at all!
A standard that is set in its divine conception cannot be altered or manipulated. “For we can do nothing the truth, but only for truth. (2Co 13:8).
The conclusion is this: Truth is absolute, it’s independent of human mind. “Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven” (Ps 119:59)
With this immutability of truth revealed to your heart, are you now ready to buy this excellent thing?
The Quest of Buying Truth?
As already discussed, each day you buy something or the other to contend your physical and your social self; your knowledge derived from your conscience about the authenticity of the substance you buy! So is necessary to have dealing with some characteristics that are so essential to get identity and status before God. As you strive to get social status; doing all those things that will fetch you recognition before men. You realise its worth and hence you buy these by selling your own personality appeals. But do you think that your appraisal and eulogy from men or church or community assures your status before God? For Bible says that there are many things “that are highly esteemed among men, but is actually an abomination before God. (Lu 16:15).” This should not be taken in a wrong way; so that men will lose their self-esteem. But it says that there are some things, which are praised by men, but in reality are wrong in the eyes of God. Hence, unless you realize the worth of truth, and the merits of possessing it, you will not strive to buy it. Let not get into the analysis of knowing those wrong things, as many people do, but try to, buy those “good, which can overcome the evil. (Ro 12:21)."
What the word of God is pointing to when it says, “buy truth and do not sell it”, one sees from some of the assertions of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, where He says ‘love your enemies’. Here Jesus is trying to change the attitude that by referring to a preconceived belief, “you shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy”. This Jesus mentions at least five times in His sermon. In spite of their hardened belief, he now says, “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven (Mt 5:44). Before this, referring to the same belief, He repeatedly points out the flaw in the way they were trying to maintain their social status and with that their status before God. He says that just an act of good conduct does not make them right before God; neither gains them any status, as they have gained before men. Something has to done at the level of conscience which will change the attitude, character and hence behavior in response to that. Jesus was making them aware of the righteousness of God; that they being ignorant of this have not submitted themselves to God’s righteousness.”(Ro 10:3) Jesus knew that since people there hailed form different social, racial, economic and ethnic background, they can have a varied beliefs fastened to their attitude. Hence, He gave reference to applications of these traits to different social relations i.e. brother, friend, neighbour, sister. Just take the example of loving your neighbour. This verse says about the type of love that is sacrificial and not superficial. The superficiality of love is presented by the fact that if we love only those who love us, we will make ourselves no better than sinners, for they do the same. Such sacrificial attitude of loving those, not just enemies, who are not good towards you or hate you, has never flowed in the personality of human race. We are so much engrossed with our self, providing it and nurturing it, that we all fall in love our self. Hence, we will not like anyone who disparages our loving self. Even though you may have a pleasing and loving personality, as spoken by men, yet its gets difficult loving enemies. For you may consider it as hurting your own ego. You may start loving someone with all your heart, but soon his or her erroneous acts may offend you. However, God’s ways and principles are different and superior than our ways. His law says, “Love your enemies”! The moment you get offended and reject your brother, you have not only stopped buying the true love, but also sold off all that you had accumulated. Sacrificial love is the true divine love and the more you love your neighbour sacrificially, the more this will fill your heart. This Bible calls as “loving your neighbour as yourself” and not just loving your neighbour! If you want to love someone with true heart, then you must know that “ love is patient and it endures long” (2Co 13:7), irrespective of behavior of others. For many people love their neighbour, but not as much as they love themselves. However, God wants us to buy this divine attitude of loving others sacrificially with all joy towards Him.
Next Jesus makes a distinction between charity and humility. To be more specific, one should not look towards charity as an act of humility. For people often speak of such as an act of humility; that, a person doing it is a ‘down to earth’ person and wants to share his prosperity with the outcast, the needy and the desolate. However, Jesus says that deep inside your charitableness can be driven motive for self-exaltation rather than true benevolence towards the needy. Charity can be an act of humility if done with proper motives. The act of charity referred here can be compared to an act of serving God’s people; i.e. ministry. Your motives behind doing the act of serving people in your church or your community or the entire domain of your daily involvement in this mundane life should emerge from a true heart and love towards the people of God. An act of just gaining some control over the masses is an abomination before God. Hence, it says, “Do not sound trumpets”; for “true love for people does not parade itself nor is puffed up” (1Co 13:4) that one should consider himself better than others, but is an act of humility adhering only to the needs of people. If you have bought this truth, then do not sell it buy doing a false show of your righteousness as the hypocrites do. The more you serve others humbly, the more you get enriched with this truth from God, for He gives grace to the humble. Hence, God wants us to buy the divine behavior of humbly serving others.
Lastly, if any thing remains to be pen down about buying is that of a divine character, a character that is so morally strong. Enduring in all real life battles. Strength to stand amidst this dark and immoral world with all courage and ethics of our Lord Jesus firmly grounded in him. A strength in similitude of a soldier prepared for battle, as Paul says, unwilling to be obsequious to all the futile affairs of this world that entangles and gobbles in its vicious circle. We may get great success in many things, but at the same time, we should not lose our character in return for all this accomplishments. For it our genuine character that will preserve us for eternity!
LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart; (Ps 15:1-3)
Though there are many characteristics and features, an individual should have, in his personality, yet I have written to you, though with all brevity, some of the most essentials of them. I cannot say, or rather would confess that, ‘I don’t know’ the reason why many people have kept themselves from buying all these invaluable traits that corroborates a person towards the personality of our Lord Jesus Christ. However, one thing I definitely want to say to those who have found it, ‘its by grace of God that you have found such precious pearls. Preserve it and if need arises hide it as a treasure, so that you will not sin against Him who gave you according to His most excellent will. Nevertheless, beware! Do not sell it!
