The text declares two great truths: first, that truth is a matter of purchase; and, secondly, that there is a possibility of selling it and an inclination to do so.
I. Truth is, of course, in itself, one, perfect, and eternal; but to us it is a growing and increasing treasure. The discovery of truth rolls onward, widening as it rolls. While along its banks far back gathered the eager crowd of inquirers who came to dip their vessels into the passing stream, to each company it appeared broader; it swelled in a more magnificent current; it washed the banks of a deeper channel. We cannot see where the river rushes to the sea; it may be far, it may be near: but we see the shore where we are standing, and we know the truth that we have bought.
II. How shall we who have got truth devote ourselves in any way to its enlargement or retention? (1) One way in which we all of us can continue to purchase truth is by having the eye ever open to its still developing lessons. (2) A more direct means of the acquisition of truth will be reading, meditation, and conversation. (3) The reproof of the wise and good or of those in authority over us will be a third means by which we can purchase truth for ourselves. (4) Prayer to God becomes a constant mode of purchasing truth.
III. There is great danger lest we sell what has been gained by the sufferings of centuries, and cut ourselves off from the blessings which generations of our ancestors have striven to give us. Among other shrines at which we are tempted to sell the truth at this day, there are none more common than those that are raised by the principles of Erastianism, commercialism, and scepticism. We are the executors of a great will, the testament of the Cross and the day of Pentecost. We are responsible for our administration of it. But more than that, we are the heirs of the property and the inheritance which that will distributes. We all of us stand in two relationships. If we forfeit our claim of having performed the one faithfully, we forfeit the other. If we betray our trust, we forfeit our inheritance, and cancel for ourselves at least the testament of Calvary and the covenants of the bride of Christ.
E. Monro, Practical Sermons,vol. iii., p. 65.
The teaching of one who had a right to speak, from the largest experience, perhaps, that any man had, is that truth is hard to get and difficult to retain: "Buy the truth, and sell it not." The force of the metaphor lies in this, that we cannot obtain truth without cost, and that when we have it we shall be bribed to part with it. "Buy it" then there must be a price; "sell it not" then there must be a temptation to let it go.
I. What is the cost of truth? (1) You must follow truth wherever it leads you. (2) You must get out of the littlenesses and narrownesses of party feeling. (3) You must feel and act as an infant in intellect, being conscious of weakness and ignorance even in your strongest point. (4) You must fling away the selfishness of an indolent, luxurious, and pleasure-seeking life. (5) You must begin with God, else your brightest truth will be full of shadows, and your best wisdom shall turn out folly.
II. Truth is a precious treasure. But where there is a treasure, there the robbers will come. And they will come very deceptively, not by force, but by artifice. And they will pretend to buy. But the bargain is ruinous, ruinous to the seller. It often takes as much to keep truth as it does to get it. A little worldliness, a little frittering of pleasures, will enervate the very fibre of truth. And if you trifle with truth in one thing, you will loosen it in another thing, till you can scarcely keep it in anything. Christ and the Holy Ghost alone can make truth; and where they live, there is the image of God. And every seeker of truth, whether consciously or not, is striving after a thing no less than the image of God.
J. Vaughan, Sermons,12th series, p. 85.
References: Proverbs 23:23. Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Genesis to Proverbs,p. 181; J. Vaughan, Children's Sermons,5th series, p. 160; R. Newton, Bible Warnings,p. 60.