For Friday July 8, 2022:
MATTHEW 13:46
Matthew 13:46 (NKJV)
“When he had found one pearl of great price,
went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
Among heathen peoples it never occurs to any one not to be religious. It is as much a matter of course to share in the religious life of the people as it is to accept their other customs and habits.
Not until Christianity begins to affect the old religion of a people do we note any change.
However, if Christianity becomes the prevailing religion of a people, we observe the very remarkable thing that most of the people within the nation do not share in the religion of their people.
The reason for this is given us in this parable about the pearl.
The Christian religion makes demands that are unknown to other religions. It is a pearl of so great a price that most people give up owning it personally. Whereupon they proceed to provide themselves with imitations or to live entirely without the pearl of life.
We are told here how costly it is.
They had to sell all they had in order to come into possession of the pearl. This is a tremendous act of daring. Many conclude, therefore, that it is less hazardous to do without the pearl, for then they can keep what they already have.
But does it cost so much to become a Christian?
Do we not enter into the kingdom of God gratis? Is not the grace of God free? Can we not receive it without money and without price?
Yes, that is quite true. We need not pay anything to be saved. But there are things we must sell.
God does not need to receive anything from us in order to save us. But there are things He must persuade us to surrender. “If thy hand cause thee to stumble, cut it off.”
“Those who do not renounce all that they have cannot be my disciples,” Jesus says.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 
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