I Give Them All

People are not willing to pay that price, and that is why so many Christians must be described as "common." 

Most Christians talk piously about the cost of Christianity in terms of the unclean, injurious and grossly sinful things they have "surrendered."

But if they never get beyond that they are still common Christians.

They talk about having given up the bad things, but the Apostle Paul said that for Christ's sake he surrendered the good things as well as the bad.

What things were gain to me I count but loss, he said. 

He meant things to which he still had a legal and moral right, things about which he could have said, These are mine and Christianity is not going to take them from me!

I yield them all, I give them all because I have found That which is so much better, he wrote. 

He had found "That" which was with the Father, Jesus Christ, the fountain from Whom flows all wisdom and beauty and truth and immortality!
 
Paul knew something that many Christians still have not learned...that the human heart is idolatrous and will worship anything it can possess. 

Therein lies the danger of the "good" things.
 
We have surrendered evil things, bad things, but we hold on to the good things and these we are prone to worship. 

Whatever we refuse to surrender and count but loss we will ultimately worship. 

It may be something good, but it gets between you and God,,,whether it be property or family or reputation or security or your life itself.
 
Jesus warned us about our selfishness in grasping and hanging on to our own lives. 

He taught that if we make our life on earth so important and so all-possessing that we cannot surrender it gladly to Him, we will lose it at last.

He taught that plainly...

And He also warned us about trusting earthly security rather than putting our complete confidence in God.
 
~A. W. Tozer~