What Are The Important Things In Life?

What are the really important things in life?

God

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, He didn’t hesitate to say, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment” (Matt 22:37-38). Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 which says the very same thing. It is only after this first and greatest commandment that Jesus adds, “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt 22:39). How important are these two commandments to God? He says it is of such importance that “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt 22:40). Why does the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments? Because this is the very same message that the authors of the Old Testament brought; it is to love God above all and then loving our neighbor as ourselves. The whole Word is the whole message of loving God first and foremost and next, loving your neighbor in the same way you love yourself. Jesus said that we must seek the kingdom above all things (Matt 6:33) and not seek all things and then God. Those who seek the kingdom first are those who seek the King of that kingdom, Jesus Christ. They seek to obey His commandments and follow His revealed will, recorded in the Word of God, the Bible. He is not only the God of the Word but the very Word of God (John 1:1, 14).

Family

One wise old mentor of mine, a pastor who had retired due to health reasons, told me that my first ministry is not the church…it is your family and that stuck in my mind and has remained until today. He is right. What man can serve God that doesn’t serve and lead his family? Who is that man who devotes himself to the church but neglects his family? The Apostle Paul wrote that “if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1st Tim 5:8). I truly believe that the qualifications for a pastor should be the standard for all believers, particularly men in this case and “must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church” (1st Tim 3:4-5)? Clearly, the family must come before the church but not before God. Those are the priorities for the Christian; God, family, church, and the gospel. Everything else comes after that. You cannot serve God if you’re neglecting your family.

The Gospel

Jesus has saved us but not only for our own sake. It is for the sake of others. Jesus commissioned His disciples by first telling them “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt 28:17), “therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt 28:19-20). This doesn’t mean just bringing people to Christ as a means that God might save them. It begins with that, but it doesn’t end with that as the discipling is an ongoing process for all of us, including me. New believers must be taught the very same things that Jesus taught His disciples. Today we can find those teachings in the New Testament but of course, since the New Testament authors often quoted the Old Testament, Jesus’ teachings are also there. The Apostle Paul felt what we should all feel about proclaiming the gospel, as he wrote “For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel” (1st Cor 9:16)! He had no choice but to preach the gospel, for He was called for that very purpose (Acts 8; Rom 1:1, Gal 1:1, Eph 1:1, etc.).

Friends

The older I get, the more value I place on my friends…because I’m not getting any younger and neither are they! Wise King Solomon once wrote about the priceless relationship of a friend in Proverbs 17:17, saying “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” When Solomon wrote that a friend “loves at all times,” I believe he meant he loves his friend in the good times and in the bad. He asks for forgiveness from his friend but he also extends it. A friend, particularly a brother in Christ, was “born for adversity.” God sovereignly places people in our lives at just the right time, but also us for them. They were born for our times of adversity and we were for them. Maybe you’re passing through one now and need a friend. Call them right now. A joy shared is doubled but a burden shared is half the load. This is why we shouldn’t “forsake [our] friend and [our] father’s friend” (Prov 27:10a). Don’t have a friend? Then be a friend.

Conclusion

It is abundantly clear that God wants us to put Him first (Matt 6:33; Matt 22:37-38) and then put our families next in order, with the church and the gospel as our top three priorities but we mustn’t forget our friends. We need friends the older we grow and they are even better for us when they are also striving to live a holy life, for as the author of Hebrews wrote, “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:14). The only way to that required holiness is through Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12), as it was “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2nd Cor 5:21).

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.