Buy the Truth and Do Not Sell It

Observe the tone. After long warnings about drunkenness, gluttony, and the company of the envious, Proverbs 23 pauses for something gentler. Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old. Buy the truth and do not sell it, wisdom, instruction and insight as well. The father of a righteous child has great joy; a man who fathers a wise son rejoices in him. May your father and mother rejoice; may she who gave you birth be joyful.

Interpret it. The command to honor parents is here, but it is framed by aging. Do not despise your mother when she is old. The son being addressed is not a child; he is an adult with an aging mother, and the temptation is to treat her as a burden or a relic. The proverb also gives parents a stake in their child's wisdom. Their joy depends on it. A wise child is a gift back to the people who gave the child life.

The middle line, buy the truth and do not sell it, is one of the book's sharpest. Truth costs something to get and can be traded away for a price. The proverb says pay the price to have it and refuse every offer for it.

Apply it. What has the truth cost you, and would you pay it again? Is there an aging parent or older believer you have quietly begun to overlook? And whose joy is bound up with your becoming wise?