“Have You Counted The Cost?”

by Chris Simmons

We read in Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” We’re to teach and learn from the songs we sing in worship to God. Let us consider a portion of the song “Have You Counted The Cost?” by A. J. Hodge.

Verse 2 of that songs reads, “You may barter your hope of eternity’s morn for a moment of joy at the most; for the glitter of sin, and the things it will win, have you counted, have you counted the cost?”

This verse of the song speaks of the bartering of our hope of an eternal home with God for the temporal and but momentary pleasures of sin. Moses was a man who understood the perspective that we need to have for the momentary pleasures associated with sin. We read in Hebrews 11:24-26, “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward.” Moses looked for joy and pleasure that would last beyond the immediate moment. That’s what this song is trying to teach.

This is in contrast to the rich man described in Luke 12:15-21 who thought his life of pleasure would last for a long, long time. God refers to such a man as “you fool” (Luke 12:21) for focusing on the temporal and failing to prepare for our eternal destiny. Sin is no doubt enticing, appealing (James 1:14), and very deceptive. There is indeed a “glitter of sin” and an appealing nature to it that we must be cautious of and learn to always ask the question, is it worth the cost of losing our soul for a fleeting moment of fleshly pleasure? Jesus asked in Mark 8:36-37, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Have we counted the cost of focusing on the temporal rather than the eternal? Paul wrote in II Corinthians 4:17-18, “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” The cost of only seeing the here and now is more expensive than we can possibly know.

God’s word is replete with examples of those who failed to count the cost. We begin in the beginning when Adam and Eve didn’t count the cost when they partook of the forbidden fruit. The cost was death (Genesis 2:16-17; 3:3ff; Romans 6:23) and curses (Genesis 3:16-19) and being cast out of the garden. Satan failed to explain to Adam and Eve what their choice would cost in the end. Whenever someone buys a home today and takes out a mortgage, it is required that the lender explain to the borrower what the total cost of that decision will be. Satan is not so up front about his temptations. It’s up to each one of us to make ourselves aware of what a choice to give in to sin will cost. The cost of all sin is spiritual death and eternal separation from our heavenly Father (Romans 6:23; 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9). Do we count the cost when temptation comes our way?

Then there’s Cain who in anger killed his brother Abel (Genesis 4:1-8) because God had accepted Abel’s sacrifice but rejected Cain’s since it was not offered by faith (Hebrews 11:4). Anytime we retaliate in anger, it may feel “good” for the moment, but it will always cost you. For Cain, the cost of his sin is recorded in verses 11-12, “Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.” Cain’s response was “my punishment is too great to bear! Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me” (Genesis 4:13-14). Cain had counted the cost of his anger and vengeance – it cost him more than he ever thought. The price of the loss of fellowship with God now haunted Cain (“from your face I will be hidden”).

There’s the ten spies who gave the negative report that they couldn’t take possession of the promised land as God had promised (Numbers 13:31-14:4). Their lack of faith indeed had a significant cost as every Israelite twenty years and older would end up dying in the wilderness (Numbers 14:26-29). The cost was in their inability to enter the “exceedingly good land” (Numbers 14:7) that God had promised to them. Did they count the cost? They realized too late when they later desired to inherit the land and were told “do not go up, or you will be struck down before your enemies, for the Lord is not among you” (Numbers 14:42). Like Esau who didn’t realize the true cost of selling his birthright (Genesis 25:27-34; Hebrews 12:15-17), you don’t get out of paying the cost when you finally realize what the price really is.

There’s David who allowed his wandering eyes to lead him into the sin of lust, then adultery, then lying, and eventually murder (II Samuel 11). David had his moment of sinful pleasure, but what did it cost him? First, his child through Bathsheba died. Also, Nathan the prophet told David that “the sword shall never depart from your house,” meaning that he and his family would deal with violence and death all the days of his life. It was further explained to David, “Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household; I will even take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your companion, and he shall lie with your wives in broad daylight. Indeed you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and under the sun” (II Samuel 12:11-12). The cost included rape and murder within his family (II Samuel 13) and in the end, it cost him his beloved son Absalom (II Samuel 18). If David had thought about all that it would eventually cost him when he first gazed on Bathsheba while she bathed, would he in his right mind have continued to go down that path?

The prodigal son in Luke 15 no doubt saw the glittering appeal of the “riotous” (ASV) or “loose” (NASV) living available to him in that distant country. What he failed to see was that it wouldn’t last. He failed to see himself wasting everything he had and so in need that he longed for the pods he was feeding to the swine. He was willing to trade his inheritance and all that he had “for a moment of joy at the most.” He simply didn’t count the cost.

Time and space do not allow us to speak of all the men in the Bible who failed to count the cost. Unfortunately, countless lives today have failed to learn and apply the same lesson. This song is to help teach us to make our decisions carefully with a view towards eternity rather than just the here and now. God pleads with us to stop and count the cost. The chorus of this song reads; “Have you counted the cost, if your soul should be lost, though you gain the whole world for your own? Even now it may be, that the line you have crossed, have you counted, have you counted the cost?”