To be perfectly honest with you, the sign was so small that I did not even notice it at the corner of Madison Avenue and Maryland Street. That is, until a friend informed me that our church building was for sale. It was then that I made an effort to check and see if there was a sign at the location of the Capitol Heights church building, and there was. However, at the bottom of the small sign was an arrow pointing down Maryland Street to the area where a house had been placed on the market for sale. During this period of time I heard from various sources that the word had been spreading that, yes, our building was for sale. It is amazing how a rumor gets started; in so many cases the person who began it really never took the time to investigate as to the possibility that the fact of the matter had not really been proven, and that is the way that it goes sometimes. I even see a sense of humor in some rumors while other tales can be very damaging to someone’s reputation, and that is bad. I hope the home owner has success in selling the house and that the buyer will obtain it at a reasonable price. Buying and selling of a commodity/product really helps our economy, and we all know that we need some assistance in that area.
In the spiritual realm of things, the church (not the building) should be in the buying (obtaining) but not in the selling (discarding) business regarding one commodity and that is truth. In Proverbs 23:23 we read the following: “Buy the truth, and do not sell it, Also wisdom and instruction and understanding.” What is the “truth” that we are to purchase? Jesus answered that question in His prayer as recorded in John 17:17 when He was praying to His Father: “Sanctify them by your truth, Your word is truth.” Jesus Christ is the very essence of truth because He is the Eternal Word (John 1:1-2). The Lord taught in John 8:31-32: “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” And in verse 36 Jesus said: “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” In John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” To believe in and accept Jesus as the Son of God is also to accept His word as truth. They are inseparable. The Hebrew writer declares that God presently speaks to us “by His Son” (1:1). Jesus Christ informed His apostles that when He left them to return to His father, the Holy Spirit would guide them into “all truth” (John 16:13). Today, we have “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints,” that is, the inspired Word of God (Jude 3; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). Our sentiment should be the same as the apostle John who wrote: “For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 John 1:3-4). How sad to realize and to know that even among the body of Christ some are fulfilling the words of Paul as found in 2 Timothy 4:3-4: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but according to their own desires, because they had itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” That is the very reason why we should continue to “Preach the word!” The apostle Peter stated that the truth should always be taught: “For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you” (2 Peter 1:12-13). We should all be seekers of truth and obtain it at any cost, but we should never “sell” it in the sense of rejecting or disobeying it.
