Pearl of Great Price
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
Matthew 13 includes several parables of the Kingdom of God. A parable is a short story or analogy. Parables can be used to make a complex subject easier to understand, but in this case Jesus specifically said His parables were designed to conceal His meaning from the majority at His time (verses 13-15).
But He did want His disciples to understand, and He often went on to privately explain the meaning of His parables to the disciples (see verses 18-23 and 37-43).
This short parable of the pearl of great price was not explained separately by Christ, but the overall meaning was clear in the context. God’s Kingdom is priceless, and we should be willing to make it the first priority in our lives (Matthew 6:33).
Jesus Christ explained elsewhere that Christians must count the cost and be willing to give up anything to be His disciples (Luke 14:25-33).
To read more about the priceless Kingdom of God, see the section on the “Kingdom of God.” For more about the parables of the Kingdom, see “The Kingdom of Heaven Is Like...”
