We can see our “main thing” from different angles:
To the elders of Acts 6, “Prayer, and the ministry of the word” is the main thing. This is because PRAYER, the WORD and our FELLOWSHIP are means TO the main thing: the receiving of grace, the undeserved GIFT of God, that is IN Christ Jesus. THAT’S the main thing, as Paul says in 2 Tim. 2.
But wait a second, you say. I thought glorifying God is the main thing?! Yes, yes it is. And we don’t have time now, but if we looked at Ephesians 1, we would see that the WAY that God glorifies Himself is BY giving us grace – the grace that is IN Christ Jesus. God glorifies Himself by being an infinitely generous GIVER. So generous, so gracious, that He gives us Himself – IN Christ Jesus.
So the main thing is prayer, and the ministry of the Word, in fellowship, because those are means to the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the main thing is, at the same time, to glorify God, and the way God glorifies Himself is through giving grace, the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
But then one other angle. The grace that is in Christ Jesus, it produces in us two things:
– First JOY, joy IN God. By this God is glorified. And then secondly,
– We want to multiply this joy in others – in the person sitting next to you, and the person across the street, or around the world. As this happens, His glory actually grows – imagine that – there is a sense in which His glory cannot grow, but another sense in which it does – AS He becomes the object of the joy of more and more people.
So we could say these two things, like two sides of the same coin, are the main thing: a passion for the glory of God, and therefore for joy in God, shared together, and then a passion for that joy to be multiplied in our world. We could call THIS passion the main thing, even our mission. And it’s a mission stoked and fired by His grace, IN Christ Jesus.
That grace finds us, through means, through prayer, Word and people. And then God means for US to become His means of grace, to others. We are found people, finding people.
We are to make the main thing the main thing, and keep it that way. And then pass it on. The gospel about Jesus, producing joy in us, and in our world.
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