Lesson 78. Different Values

I once heard a story about a store in an American city that was broken into. When the police arrived, they tried to determine what was missing and what had been stolen. To everyone’s surprise, however, they discovered that everything was still in place. When the next business day began, astonished customers approached the salespeople, asking why expensive goods were being sold at low prices while, conversely, items that had been inexpensive had become very costly. The investigation revealed that the intruders had switched all the price tags, making the cheapest items many times more expensive and reducing the most valuable goods to the lowest prices.

This illustration clearly shows how completely everything in our world has been turned upside down. Sin has been exalted and placed upon a pedestal of honor, while true values have been reduced to the level of indecency, and people ridicule those who seek to obtain them.

What is valuable in this world? What currency is in circulation?

All of this has been elevated into life’s cherished goal—something worth striving for and holding on to, so that after attaining it, one may receive the world’s applause and acclaim. All humanity is engaged in the pursuit of such values. In doing so, people sacrifice their health, their time, their personal needs, and even their lives. This way of living may be described briefly as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Possessing the values mentioned above is considered highly honorable.

If I publicly announce that I am a millionaire in dollars who wishes to share the secrets of my achievements, I will interest some people. But if I say that I am a billionaire, the whole world will pay attention to me, and many will become intensely interested in how I achieved such success and what its secret is.

What is a billion? Suppose I am able to deposit $1,000 into a savings account every month. To accumulate one billion dollars, I would need one million months, or 83,333 years. A million is a little easier. If I could save one million dollars every year, I would need only one thousand years to accumulate a billion. Can you picture it? All of this is a pursuit of the wind.

Around 2002, the grand jackpot in Germany’s Toto-Lotto reached €32,000,000. Within one week, 42 million lottery tickets were sold at €12 each. The media spoke of nothing else. I also came under the influence of this deception, discussing with my coworkers how we would spend the money we were going to win. Naturally, everyone became very generous in their dreams and, out of the largeness of their hearts, gave me apartments and cars. Even I decided to imagine that sum in my own pocket. I immediately saw that I had lost my peace and calm while trying to preserve and spend money that I did not have. Yet I had no intention of buying a ticket, because I regard gambling as a satanic deception and do not participate in such games. Nevertheless, God’s peace left me. It took a long time before I was able to remove this infection from my mind and simply stop thinking about it. God’s peace became mine again, and I worked calmly, earning my bread with my own hands.

But the world has not stopped in its pursuit of the wind. It has a goal and a purpose toward which it desires to lead every person.

What is valuable in the sight of Heaven, and what currency is exchanged among holy beings now and throughout all Eternity?

These heavenly values are already in demand today. But the world has reduced them to the level of passions and base lusts. Yet God has a plan to restore His true values at the end of time and to show the entire visible and invisible world what is truly vital and what blessings these values bring to everyone, giving meaning and life to all things. God is confidently carrying out His plan in the souls of those whose hearts are open and thirst to receive love, friendship, and happiness.

Jesus calls my achievements, wealth, and knowledge poverty, destitution, and nakedness. What I consider great is rubbish and filthy clothing in His sight. Christ offers something truly valuable, clean, and white. I think that I see and know everything, but He calls me blind and offers me the opportunity to buy His vision and knowledge.

He desires me to be zealous in acquiring heavenly values and, through the gift of repentance, to change my thinking.

What does Jesus counsel Laodicea to buy? Why does He give counsel? Usually, He commands or offers, but in this case He counsels us to buy.

Counsel is a recommendation or guidance concerning what, from the counselor’s point of view, may be right and beneficial. It does not deprive a person of freedom of choice or of the ability to decide to follow his own path. What love and respect God shows! He offers me values that are vital, without which I will not be able to stand in the last days. He gives me the opportunity to choose for myself what I consider necessary. This counsel is offered so modestly that it has simply become lost as something insignificant and unimportant among the hundreds of laws and instructions on the pages of the Bible. When I hear the word Laodicea, I associate it with a lukewarm condition. I agree that Jesus is right, while hoping that I am still at least a little hot. Yet what He counsels there remains entirely unclear. Because of my corruption and damaged mind, even biblical values have acquired their particular significance and priority in my thinking. But the Lord will leave no one ignorant concerning the true values of the last days. He draws people’s attention to what will help them and make them rich.

What does a man offer his beloved when he gives her a small ring in a box? Is he offering merely a ring, or something greater? I think that through this gift he presents his whole self—his time, his freedom and love, his possessions, and his authority. After making this proposal, the man watches closely, observing her reaction to his gift. He is very attentive to the behavior and response of the woman he has chosen. At this special moment, the most important decisions are made. Afterward, either the process of separation begins or preparations for the wedding celebration commence.

Jesus loves me very much. When He counsels me to buy various goods from Him, He is not offering a heavenly assortment from which I may choose; He is offering Himself. Although these goods have different names, in essence they form a single whole. They are contained in one package that cannot be divided. The heart of Jesus is placed within this package, and He desires to give it to everyone who wishes to receive it.

Yet how modestly He presents it. He quietly gives counsel, clothing Himself in symbols, and nowhere else mentions it. Such an offer is like a small key to a great city, entrusted under certain conditions to the victor as an eternal possession in which to reign.

Thus, Jesus gives counsel and offers an advantageous transaction. What should I do with it? He awaits my decision and watches very carefully to see how I will respond, what I will imagine, whether I will hear this counsel, and what I will ultimately decide.

What matters to Him is not what I say, but how I proceed afterward.

1. Please read John 17:2–3; 1 John 5:11–12; Galatians 5:6; Job 23:10; Malachi 3:2–4; Isaiah 1:25; Matthew 22:11; Galatians 3:27; Matthew 6:22; and James 1:23–25, and consider these verses in the light of our lesson.

2. What did you understand from this lesson?

3. What prevents Laodicea from accepting the message from God?

4. Why are the symbols called “gold tried in the fire,” “white raiment,” and “eyesalve”?

5. What is your response to Jesus’ counsel?

6. What can I use to pay for this purchase?