Devotional

buy gold and become rich

I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich. Revelation 3:18

Jesus is speaking to the rich church in Laodicea which thinks it needs nothing. Obviously, He is not telling the church of Laodicea to buy gold metal. Perhaps the best way to interpret what Jesus means is to look at a statement made by the Apostle Peter.

… for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, (being) more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire … 1 Peter1:6b-7a

Here Peter compares one’s faith to gold. Both are purified by fire. Faith is purified by the fire of suffering. In this case, Peter likely refers to the suffering of persecution. The gold that the Laodiceans were to buy was faith purified by persecution.

In 2 Timothy 3:12, Paul writes:

Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

In John 15:18-19, Jesus says to His disciples:

"If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

When we buy the gold of faith through suffering, we are on our way to becoming rich with the riches of faith (James 2:5), the riches of goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering (Romans 2:4), the riches of His glory (Romans 9:23), the riches of wisdom and knowledge (Romans 11:13), and the riches of His grace (Ephesians 2:7).