Just today, August 24th, 2025, I read that a well-known celebrity paid nearly thirteen million dollars for a sports card, a small piece of cardboard with a picture on it! Notwithstanding whatever shrewdness may be involved in such a transaction, consider the irony of it all in light of the “one thing needful.” Luke 10:42. Only one thing, and no amount of wealth can buy it. The treasures of men vanish with time; they fade like grass, riches rot, and beauty decays. It’s good to be often reminded, as Abraham confessed, that “we are but dust and ashes.” Genesis 18:27. Our life is but a vapor, appearing for a little while and then vanishing away. James 4:14. And yet, knowing this, men will still bankrupt themselves for the things of this world, while showing no interest in salvation, no regard to truth, no time for Christ.
We may cling to anything and everything in this life, only to discover in the end that we have nothing. “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Mark 8:36. In fact, to cling to anything but Christ is to be left with nothing. Without Him we are hopelessly lost, whether we know it or not, boast of religion or despise it, whether we appear moral or plunge headlong into sin. At the end, all distinctions vanish, only Christ matters. “Thus saith the LORD, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me.” Jeremiah 9:23-24. MPJ