Exceedingly Great Value

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

EXCEEDINGLY GREAT VALUE

Matt 13:45-46

45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

NIV

Is there anything more valuable than the kingdom of heaven? Jesus makes it clear there is nothing worth more than the kingdom of God. Once again, if this man found this pearl of great value and went and sold everything, he had to buy it, what was he going to do with this pearl? Did he sell all his possessions, his donkey, sheep, house, all his clothes, all his provisions he may have laid up? It is unlikely that is what Jesus was saying. Here again, this pearl represents the kingdom of God and the man’s possessions represent his way of life, his sinfulness, or his life of sin. When he found the truth of the kingdom of heaven, he repented, changed the way he thought about his life, and got rid of his sinful lusts of this world. Did he become sinless? Doubtful, but he no longer desired to sin but rather desired the kingdom of heaven. That is our goal, is it not, to enter the kingdom of heaven? Jesus told Nicodemus that in order to see the kingdom of heaven a man needs to be born again or born from above. This goes straight to our heritage. For the most part, we think our heritage has to do with some nationality. For example, because my two grandfathers were of German descent, my heritage would be German, although with two grandmothers being of English descent, then I would be a descendent of both German and English. However, because we are born from above, we no longer have any connection to any heritage in this world. We are now sons of God or children of God and we are now the descendants of God, which has value beyond anything this world could ever offer. We are no longer children of German or English descent, or whatever country or nation our forefathers came from. We have been adopted into the family of God, and our inheritance no longer comes from this world, it is from the kingdom of heaven. We need to be willing to leave all this behind, all our former way of life, all our earthly things, all our plans, goals, desires for our future in this present age and seek first and foremost the kingdom of God, without any reservations. It is not that God wants us to be destitute, for He promised that he would add things of this world that we need, although that is not the reason, we should seek first His kingdom. The reason is that is the kingdom of heaven is the only thing that has eternal value, and it goes without saying, we are commanded to seek His kingdom above all else. We can store up so much for ourselves in this life, but we will leave it all behind. Everything we will ever need for all of eternity is in the kingdom of heaven which is of exceedingly great value.