Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Revelation 3:17-18
A buyer at a contemporary art exhibition in Los Angeles found a piece that caught his attention. He studied it, decided he wanted it, and offered $4,000. The gallery accepted. There was just one problem. When he asked for a certificate of authenticity, the staff huddled briefly and then informed the prospective buyer of the bad news: the “artwork” was not part of the exhibition at all. It was a broken vacuum cleaner that had been left in the corner by the janitor when it stopped working. Rather than being an example of modern art, it was simply a piece of garbage waiting for a trip to the dump.
Many times people place great value on things that aren’t really worth much in eternal terms. The church at Laodicea was convinced that they were doing well, not realizing that the things they were counting on were actually worthless. God sent them a pointed message, instructing them to focus on the real thing—gold that had been proven and refined. Satan has been offering counterfeits since the Garden of Eden. He dangles things in front of us and tries to get us to focus on their appearance rather than the reality. “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat” (Genesis 3:6). We need to be wise and discerning, knowing the truth well enough to detect the counterfeits and focus on the real thing.
