Today’s focus is “the peril of second best” yet different people have different ideas of what that is. From three passages, the author of my devotional concludes that prayer, studying and preaching the Word of God take first place. His conclusion is that everything else comes second. But does it?
The first passage cited happened very
soon after the formation of the church. Both Jews and Gentiles were coming to
faith. The church was taking care of their widows and some of the non-Jewish
believers felt that their widows were being neglected. To solve this problem, “the twelve summoned the full number of the
disciples and said, ‘It is not right that we should give up preaching the word
of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men
of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this
duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.’”
This pleased everyone, they choose seven
men and the apostles prayed and laid their hands on them. Then the Bible says
that “the word of God continued to
increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and
a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.” (Acts 6:1–7)
The devotional author attributes this
growth to the apostles who choose to do what they did best. I’m sure that was
important, but that growth also may have been because those godly seven men
stepped up and did what they could do. If Christians only prayed and studied Scripture
all day, preaching or teaching whenever possible, who would make meals and care
for their families? Isn’t there more to being a Christian than those important spiritual
disciplines? God does ask me to sit at His feet, but He also asks me to do
other things.
A well-known example is the second
passage. Jesus went to Martha’s house. She “had
a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching.
But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, ‘Lord,
do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to
help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and
troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the
good portion, which will not be taken away from her.’” (Luke 10:38–42)
Those Christians whose gifts are in
serving usually miss seeing that Jesus was gently rebuking Martha, but not for
serving. Note that she was distracted and anxious about it. This attitude is
not the first-best that Jesus gives His people.
I’ve been like Mary. Sitting at the feet
of Jesus is far more interesting than making lunch, but lunch has to be made and
Jesus often calls me to the kitchen. For Martha, it was not the serving that Jesus
rebuked, but that Martha was serving with a sinful attitude. She may have
wanted to be where Mary was, which was good, but she also resented Mary for
being there. She even began giving the Lord of Lords a rebuke when all she
needed was a few moments with Him to make serving others a joy and not a troublesome
task.
Serving Jesus and His disciples lunch is
not second-best, but serving with resentment, or doing anything without putting
Jesus as the cornerstone of my heart, is. Jesus calls me to serve Him with all
my heart, to do whatever I do (even eating and drinking) as unto Him, and by His
grace and in His strength. If I do things for myself, half-heartedly, and in my
own strength, and resent others who are not doing the hard work that I am doing
. . . then I’ve stepped into the realm
of second-best. Tasks done for the Lord are not graded by what the tasks are,
but by the attitude in which I do them.
Paul wrote to Timothy saying, “Share in suffering as a good soldier of
Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is
to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he
competes according to the rules . . . .” (2 Timothy 2:1–7)
Whatever I do can only be pleasing to God
when they are done “as unto the Lord” – rather than for sinful reasons and
motivations. Otherwise they are an entanglement. An athlete cannot be
victorious if he ignores the rules of his sport just as a Christian must not
ignore God’s guidance for our work.
Besides, with Jesus Christ as the
cornerstone, there is no ‘secular’ work. The sovereign power of God is able to use
all things to benefit and build His kingdom. Second-best happens only when I
leave Him out of it.
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