Buy of Me, Gold Tried in the Fire
Revelation 3:18
In this study we will use a spiritual application from the church of Laodicea in Revelation chapter 3 to help us understand the value of trials. Note the state of the church in verse 17 is that they are rich and in need of nothing. In verse 18 Jesus has a solution for this problem and tells them to buy of him gold tried in the fire. What does this mean?
Thinking about this statement literally precious metals are usually refined or made better by the fire. So for us there is something better than regular gold, we should be after gold that is tried in the fire. Note the connection in 1 Peter 1:7.
First we must apply this to ourselves then we can also apply it to our children. We do many things to keep our children from every being tried or tested but it is during the trials and temptations that God is made real to us. It would seem to me that there must be a way to introduce our children to smaller trials and temptations from the world verses total isolation in order to prepare them for the bigger trials that they will eventually face no matter how much we isolate them.
Remember it is usually the second or third generation that struggles in carry on the spiritual warfare started by their parents.
Lesson from our Trials:
1) Nothing is any good until it is tried (Proverbs 17:3 ; 27:21)
- I think many times we say our children have failed or left the faith when the truth was we gave them spiritual ranking without testing. It is easy to do right when you do not have many other choices. In jail those who struggle with certain sins do really well because they are isolated from the opportunities to sin, but when they are released it is a different story.
2) The trail must be connected with God (“Buy of Me”)
- The word of God is tried and true (Psalm 12:6-7)
- But the word of God must try us as well (Psalm 105:16-19)
- Even though Job did not understand what was really going on he looked at everything as coming from God and still trusted him (Job 23:1-14)
- These kind of trials are what will make God real to us.
3) It will cost you something (“buy”)
- At some point the Christian life will have to be a sacrifice, that is us paying a price for doing right (Psalm 4:5), which also makes God real when we see it through and reap the benefits on the other side.