In the parable of the pearl of great price, we have again the same idea as the treasure hid in a field, but it is modified by others. A man was seeking goodly pearls. He knew what He was about. He had taste, discernment, knowledge, as to that which He sought. It was the well-known beauty of the thing that caused His research. He knows, when He has found one corresponding to His ideas, that it is worthwhile to sell all that He may acquire it. It is worth this in the eyes of one who can estimate its value. And He buys nothing else with it. Thus Christ has found in the church by itself a beauty and (because of this beauty) a value, which made Him give up all to obtain it. It is just so with regard to the kingdom. Considering the state of man, of the Jews even, the glory of God required that all should be given up in order to have this new thing, for there was nothing in man that He could take to Himself. He was not only content to give up all for the possession of this new thing, but that which His heart seeks for, that which He finds nowhere else, He finds in that which God has given Him in the kingdom. He bought no other pearls. Until He found this pearl, He had no inducement to sell all that He had. As soon as He sees it, His mind is made up; He forsakes all for it. Its value decides Him, for He knows how to judge, and He seeks with discernment.
I do not say that the children of the kingdom are not activated by the same principle. When we have learned what it is to be a child of the kingdom, we forsake all that we may enjoy it, that we may be of the pearl of great price. But we do not buy that which is not the treasure, in order to obtain it, and we are very far from seeking goodly pearls before we have found the one of great price. In their full force, these parables only apply to Christ. The intention in these parables is to bring out that which the Lord was then doing, in contrast with all that had taken place before, with the Lord’s relations to the Jews.
Present Testimony, Vol. 7