Articles
What Comes Before First?
Some years ago I heard a maxim by Steven Covey that’s worth repeating:
“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”
We who are Christians need to be reminded of this every once in a while. It’s not that we don’t know what the main thing is, but it’s just so easy to let the most important be preempted by something else that is not the most important. Before we realize it, we have allowed Christ and His church to be crowded out by matters that don’t matter nearly so much as we had thought.
This was Martha’s problem (Luke 10:38-42). She was so caught up with incidentals that she even got upset with her sister for choosing to listen to Jesus teach instead of helping her prepare the meal.
In a much more serious way this was also the problem of the church at Ephesus. They had left their first love, and Jesus challenged them to repent (Revelation 2:1-7).
Jesus also rebuked the Pharisees for misplaced priorities: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others” (Matthew 23:23 NASB).
Another man with misplaced priorities told Jesus, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.” Jesus replied, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:61-62).
Our schedules and our budgets will reflect whether or not we are keeping the main thing as the main thing. We can either allow the pressures of secondary concerns to sidetrack us from our goal, or we can “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33).
It isn’t always easy to keep the main thing the main thing, but it’s the only way we’ll ever experience the tremendous blessings promised to those who allow nothing to come before First.
