Introduction
Are you letting the noise of our moment, culture, headlines, feelings, and personal opinions, tell you what’s real, or are you letting God’s truth anchor your life? The center of discipleship is this: I must buy the truth God reveals and refuse to sell it, because only truth leads to lasting freedom and victory (Prov. 23:23; John 8:31–36). I was reminded of this in a disorienting way while walking through New York City. The vastness, the humanity, the competing pursuits, it can make you feel small and unsure of where “center” really is. Sitting outside the New York Public Library, I saw a statue of Plato with words carved beneath it: “But above all things, truth beareth away the victory.” It struck me that people come and go, cultures rise and fall, and yet the need for truth remains. And then my mind went straight to God’s Word, because Proverbs says something even stronger and clearer than Plato:
“Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.” (Proverbs 23:23)
You don’t have to visit a big city to feel the disorientation of our times. Many of us feel it right now, trying to find the center of our lives, answers for our souls, and a path that won’t collapse under us. God’s wisdom begins here: pursue what is true, own it, live in it, and never trade it away.
Main Points
Are you letting the noise of our moment, culture, headlines, feelings, and personal opinions, tell you what’s real, or are you letting God’s truth anchor your life? The center of discipleship is this: I must buy the truth God reveals and refuse to sell it, because only truth leads to lasting freedom and victory (Prov. 23:23; John 8:31–36).
I was reminded of this in a disorienting way while walking through New York City. The vastness, the humanity, the competing pursuits, it can make you feel small and unsure of where “center” really is. Sitting outside the New York Public Library, I saw a statue of Plato with words carved beneath it: “But above all things, truth beareth away the victory.” It struck me that people come and go, cultures rise and fall, and yet the need for truth remains. And then my mind went straight to God’s Word, because Proverbs says something even stronger and clearer than Plato:
“Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.” (Proverbs 23:23)
You don’t have to visit a big city to feel the disorientation of our times. Many of us feel it right now, trying to find the center of our lives, answers for our souls, and a path that won’t collapse under us. God’s wisdom begins here: pursue what is true, own it, live in it, and never trade it away.
Truth Exists Despite Cultural Confusion
We live in an age that often treats relativism like an anthem: There is no right, no wrong; truth is subjective; reality is perspective. But if truth is only personal preference, then we lose any shared ground to stand on, reason from, or build a life upon.
It may be more accurate to say we live not only in a “post-Christian” culture, but in a post-truth culture, where the very concept of truth is treated as negotiable. Yet your soul cannot thrive on shifting ground. Discipleship starts by rejecting the idea that truth is whatever I want it to be.
A simple definition many once accepted is this: truth is that which corresponds to reality. And the core question becomes: Is there a reality outside of me that I must submit to? Scripture answers yes, both in the natural world and the spiritual world.
Natural Laws Prove Reality Is Real
Even people who deny spiritual truth still live every day under the authority of natural truth. Water boils at a real temperature. Water freezes at a real temperature. Gravity does not ask permission to be true.
As a parent, I’m constantly preaching “natural law” to my kids: fire burns; water can drown you; you need oxygen; you can’t breathe underwater. The world doesn’t bend to our feelings about it.
That’s important, because it exposes a contradiction: we respect natural reality, but we try to place spiritual reality into the category of “that’s just your perspective.” Proverbs won’t let us do that. Spiritual truth is not less real than gravity, it’s simply often slower to show consequences, which makes it easier to ignore.
God’s Word Reveals Spiritual Reality
Proverbs is not a book of math equations; it’s a collection of God-given wisdom about how life works under His rule. And Scripture speaks plainly about itself:
“Every word of God proves true… Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.” (Proverbs 30:5–6)
God’s Word is not merely inspirational; it is revelation, a “textbook,” if you will, of spiritual reality. To reject it is to step outside what is real and become a liar about the world and about myself.
Jesus presses this even further:
“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31–32)
And in the same conversation, Jesus states a spiritual law as concrete as gravity:
“Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” (John 8:34)
Discipleship means I stop treating God’s truth as an opinion and start receiving it as reality, reality that diagnoses slavery and offers freedom.
Buying Truth Means Abiding, Not Browsing
When Proverbs says “buy the truth,” it doesn’t mean glance at it, admire it, or even agree with it. It means acquire it, own it, remain in it.
Jesus uses the word abide. To abide is to remain, to stay, to live there. Like buying a house means you occupy it, buying truth means it becomes the place your mind and life live from.
Also notice: Jesus ties truth to a written Word. Truth has definitions and boundaries. It is objective, not moody, not updated by cultural trends, not reinvented by my preferences.
“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” (Isa. 40:8)
This is deeply stabilizing for weary souls. In a world where “what was acceptable yesterday is condemned today” (and might reverse again tomorrow), God offers you a foundation that does not shift.
Truth Requires Discipleship, Repentance, And Submission
This is where it gets narrow, and challenging. Jesus says:
“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples…” (John 8:31)
Truth isn’t merely information; it requires discipline. God’s truth will confront you. It will expose where you are not living in reality. It will call you to repentance and obedience.
Grace is free, but it costs you your whole life. In the same way, truth is “free” in the sense that God reveals it, through creation, through Scripture, through the Spirit, but to buy it will cost you something: your pride, your autonomy, your pet sins, your excuses.
We only cling to “my truth” when objective truth threatens what we want. But the authority of God’s Word is the most loving threat you can face, because it rescues you from slavery to sin and self-deception.
Francis Schaeffer said Christianity is not merely “truths” in plural, but Truth with a capital T, truth about total reality. That’s why Jesus can promise not just clarity, but freedom: truth liberates you from fear, anxiety, condemnation, purposelessness, and ultimately separation from God.
Don’t Sell Truth: Kill Lies At The Door
Proverbs doesn’t only say “buy” truth; it says “sell it not.” Don’t trade it away. Don’t compromise it. Don’t return it for something more comfortable.
One practical starting place, especially when the world feels confusing, is simply this: don’t lie. Tell the truth, or at least don’t lie.
Proverbs gives a sharp contrast:
“A righteous man hates lying, but a wicked man is loathsome and comes to shame.” (Prov. 13:5)
Most people hate being lied to. Discipleship goes deeper: I learn to hate lies coming out of me. I learn to examine my words, my motives, my exaggerations, my half-truths, my image-management, even my “spiritual-sounding” statements that aren’t honest before God.
I love the picture of hating lies like hating flies: don’t let them in the house. Watch the doors. Watch the windows. And when one gets in, don’t make peace with it, kill it quickly. Confess it. Drag it into the light. Don’t build a life that requires more lies to keep the first lie alive.
Truth is precious. Lies always multiply. So we practice the habit of truth-telling as one concrete way of refusing to “sell” the truth we claim to believe.
Conclusion
The return on the investment is where we began: above all things, truth bears away the victory. Proverbs 23:23 calls you, and I’m calling you as your brother and discipler, to make truth your highest pursuit: buy it, own it, abide in it, and do not sell it.
In a post-truth world, God offers you something solid: His unchanging Word. Jesus offers you more than opinions; He offers you reality, and the freedom that reality brings. So let’s live like disciples indeed: disciplined by His Word, repentant when we drift, obedient when truth confronts us, and vigilant to hate lies at the door.
Father, You are the God of truth, and Your Word proves true. Forgive me for the ways I have treated truth as optional, negotiable, or dependent on my feelings. Give me faith to believe that Your spiritual reality is as real as anything in creation. Teach me to abide in Your Word as a true disciple of Jesus. Expose lies in my heart and on my lips, and give me a righteous hatred for deceit, especially my own. Help me buy the truth and never sell it, even when it costs me repentance and submission. Set me free by Your truth, and make my life stable, clear, and fruitful for Your glory. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Conclusion
The return on the investment is where we began: above all things, truth bears away the victory. Proverbs 23:23 calls you, and I’m calling you as your brother and discipler, to make truth your highest pursuit: buy it, own it, abide in it, and do not sell it.
In a post-truth world, God offers you something solid: His unchanging Word. Jesus offers you more than opinions; He offers you reality, and the freedom that reality brings. So let’s live like disciples indeed: disciplined by His Word, repentant when we drift, obedient when truth confronts us, and vigilant to hate lies at the door.
Closing Prayer
Father, You are the God of truth, and Your Word proves true. Forgive me for the ways I have treated truth as optional, negotiable, or dependent on my feelings. Give me faith to believe that Your spiritual reality is as real as anything in creation. Teach me to abide in Your Word as a true disciple of Jesus. Expose lies in my heart and on my lips, and give me a righteous hatred for deceit, especially my own. Help me buy the truth and never sell it, even when it costs me repentance and submission. Set me free by Your truth, and make my life stable, clear, and fruitful for Your glory. In Jesus’ name, amen.