“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” -Matthew 13:44

Do you recall when the full force of the Gospel stopped you in your tracks and you simply marveled at the person and work of Jesus Christ? Perhaps it was a moment, or series of moments, or season in your life. Maybe it was a conversation with a friend, a timely book you read, a sermon you heard, or simply turning and crying out to God in your brokeness. We remember it as a powerful and profound time in our life. A time where, like this man finding this treasure in this field, we were ready and willing to flip the script on anything and everything in our life because there was nothing we valued more.

Joy unspeakable. A feeling too wonderful to describe. A feeling that lasered our focus onto this treasure, this opportunity to be a part of the kingdom of heaven, through the work of Christ, by the power of the Spirit. A kingdom full of peace, joy, love, power, forgiveness and freedom like we’d never known.

We lived apart from the truth so long, that after we trust in Christ, we want to fill ourselves with truth. We must know the truth of Scripture, and if we profess to believe the Bible is authoritative in our life, then we ought to be filling ourself up with the Word of God. However, our faith is not a series of propositional truths. Our faith is not a series of correct doctrinal statements nor can it be reduced to a system of beliefs.The substance of our faith is a right relationship with God that is made possible by Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God dwells in us to help us take these truths and help them lead to love, by rightly applying Biblical prinicples to our life.

While we started out like this man who found this treasure in this field, too often we are weak and short-sighted and fail to value our relationship with God in such a way that results in joy and peace that because of His nearness to us. Too often our walk of faith stagnates to the point where there is more frustration than joy, more gloom than satisfaction. The joy of our salvation tends to indicate how we felt at the point of transformation, when our heart of stone became a heart of flesh. But that joy should last for more than a moment. That joy should flood our souls not just when we initially filled with faith in Christ, but as often as we think on Christ, as often as we have fellowship with him.

The point of this parable is not to compel every Christian to sell all they have, although we should be willing to. I believe the purpose of this parable is to show how we should value the Kingdom of God, how we should value what God has done in our life and what God is doing in our world. A few chapters before this Jesus says to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. We put first in our lives what we value. We all have a host of responsibilities and opportunities each day in how we invest our time and energy. How do our schedule, our commitments, the manner in which we spend our time and money, reflect what we truly value?

My prayer is that we be like the man who found the treasure in this field and value the the kingdom of heaven above all else.