Fifty Thousand Pieces of Silver

When Paul preached at Ephesus, “The name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed” (Acts 19:17-20). The Come, Follow Me manual asks this question after referencing this event: “Notice the value of the possessions that the people were willing to give up in order to embrace the gospel (see verse 19). Are there worldly possessions or activities we need to give up in order to receive heavenly blessings?” I don’t know exactly what fifty thousand pieces of silver was worth but clearly it was an enormous sum of money that these converts to the gospel were willing to give up. Perhaps some were tempted to sell the books to non-Christians instead of burning them; wouldn’t that be just as good? But like Anti-Nephi-Lehies, they didn’t want anyone else to have their instruments of evil and so the only true choice was to get rid of them completely. The story invites us to consider what things of the world we should give up to come more fully to the Lord. What movies should we stop watching, what books should we stop reading, what music should we stop listening to, what activities should we stop participating in so that we may have the Holy Ghost more fully with us? It reminds me of a wonderful young man that we taught on my mission who felt the Spirit very strongly when we started teaching him the gospel. He set a date for baptism, attended church, and he progressed well until we got to a certain commandment. He told us that he knew what we were teaching was true but that it was really hard for him to give up this sin. Ultimately he never could, at least not while I knew him. My last entry in my mission journal about him says this, “He told us he knows it’s all true, he’s says he knows everything we’ve taught is true. But, he just can’t pull himself away from the world.” To fully come unto Christ all of us must be willing to figuratively throw our evil books into the fire and forsake them, and much to my sorrow as a missionary this young man could not bring himself to do it.

               The story of these converts in Ephesus reminds me of the father of King Lamoni in the Book of Mormon. When he realized what the gospel had to offer him if he would transform his life to follow the Savior, he prayed to the Lord, “If there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day” (Alma 22:18). We must be willing to give up our sins as well to truly come to know Him, but it can be so hard for us to let go of things of the world. My teenage daughter asked me yesterday if she read the whole Book of Mormon if I would let her do a certain thing she has been begging for recently. I suggested to her that if she really read the Book of Mormon, she would no longer want to do that thing, though she insisted she would never let go of this particular desire as long as she lived. It reminded me of something my family reminds me of occasionally: when I was about five years old, I was apparently obsessed with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and declared adamantly that I would never not like them. Well, that certainly did not prove to be the case, but at that time it would have been very hard to give them up for the gospel if that had been required of me. I think we all have these things of the world that we hold on to which we think we cannot give up, just like the rich young ruler to whom the Savior said, “Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.” The man “was very sorrowful: for he was very rich” (Luke 18:22-23). To me the story is not so much about riches but about the need for us to sacrifice the things of the world to truly come unto the Savior. The Lord could probably tell us each individually something that we need to give up that we would likewise be very reluctant to do. As He said in this dispensation, we must be “willing to observe [our] covenants by sacrifice—yea, every sacrifice which I, the Lord, shall command” (Doctrine and Covenants 97:8). We can take courage from those early converts in Ephesus and sacrifice whatever things of the world that hold us back from fully keeping our covenants with the Savior. Then the word of God will grow and prevail in us too.