Monday

Related Verses
Psa. 118:22
22 The stone which the builders rejected Has become the head of the corner.

1 Pet. 2:4, 7
4 Coming to Him, a living stone, rejected by men but with God chosen and precious,
7 To you therefore who believe is the preciousness; but to the unbelieving, “The stone which the builders rejected, this has become the head of the corner,”

1 Pet. 3:4
4 But the hidden man of the heart in the incorruptible adornment of a meek and quiet spirit, which is very costly in the sight of God.

1 Sam. 16:7
7 But Jehovah said to Samuel, Do not regard his appearance and the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For it is not how man sees that matters; for man looks on the outward appearance, but Jehovah looks on the heart.

Luke 16:15
15 And He said to them, You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

Luke 9:54-56
54 And seeing this, the disciples James and John said, Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?
55 But turning, He rebuked them and said, You do not know of what kind of spirit you are.
56 The Son of Man has not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them. And they went into another village.

Phil. 3:7-8
7 But what things were gains to me, these I have counted as loss on account of Christ.
8 But moreover I also count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I may gain Christ

Related Reading
A person often measures the value of something according to the amount of knowledge he has of it. In Matthew 23:16-26 we find some people whose eyes were on the splendor of the temple and how it was built mostly with gold. They considered the temple to be most valuable. Some saw the altar and compared it with the oxen, lambs, and turtle doves offered on it. They reckoned the altar to be of little value but the oxen and lambs and turtle doves to be of much value. Some offered a tenth of the mint, anise, and cummin, yet they neglected the weightier matters of the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness. Some were very careful about everything. They strained out the gnat, but they swallowed the camel. Some were in a hurry to use the cup and the dish. They cleansed the outside of them, but inwardly there was filth…In Matthew 23:16-26 the Lord Jesus called these people fools, blind men, and hypocrites because they did not know the true concept of value. Their concept of value was all wrong. (CWWN, vol. 60, p. 387)  

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Once a person is saved, his concept of value changes. He no longer cherishes what he once cherished, and he treasures what he once despised. This is a change in his concept of value. 

The Bible has much to say concerning a change in one’s concept of value. Such passages on this change can shed light to the new believers. These passages show us the proper concept of value for a Christian. 

Psalm 118:22 [indicates]…a change in valuation. In the eyes of the builders, they rejected what they considered to be a useless stone. In the eyes of the Jewish leaders, Christ was something redundant, and they wanted to get rid of Him. Yet this rejected stone was chosen to be the cornerstone of the newly enacted salvation…God treasured the cornerstone that was rejected by the Jewish builders and used it for the building of His salvation. How different are these two kinds of valuation! We have to bring new believers to such a change in valuation. We have to ask how they viewed Christ before and how they view Christ now. We have to show them that what was once worthless is now priceless…Others have rejected Christ, but we treasure Him. 

First Corinthians 1:18 says, “For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”…Before a person is saved, he considers the cross useless. After he is saved, he sees it as the power of God, something precious and valuable. Once a person believes in the Lord, his concept of value changes immediately. The salvation of the cross becomes something very precious. 

Matthew 6:32-33 says, “For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”…Things pertaining to food and clothing are the greatest concerns of the human life. No unbeliever is an exception to this. But as soon as a person believes in the Lord, he turns to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. As believers, we have to realize that nothing in this life is more precious than the kingdom of God. Matthew 13:44 says that the kingdom of the heavens is like a treasure hidden in the field. When a man finds it, he hides it and in his joy sells all that he has to buy that field. This refers to the Lord’s discovering the treasure of the kingdom of the heavens and giving up Himself and all He has to buy the treasure. The Lord considers the kingdom of the heavens as something precious. Yet man does not treasure it. Only a believer with the Lord’s view knows the preciousness of the kingdom of the heavens. (CWWN, vol. 60, pp. 387-389) 

Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 60, ch. 45; Life-study of 1 Peter, msgs. 6, 12