Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing
THE MAIN THING
But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
- II Corinthians 11:3
Stephen Covey, an educator, author and motivational speaker, coined the phrase, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” It is a catchy phrase but so true in many areas of life. When a magician does a trick, the secret is to somehow get you to focus on something other than the main thing, while the magician secretly changes the main thing. And the audience seems to fall for it every time. It is called deception and it has been around since the original fall of man. The Apostle Paul made it clear in II Corinthians 11:3 that the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness and led her astray from the main thing in life which was the devotion, fellowship and enjoyment of her creator in the garden of Eden. And the deceiver has been doing it ever since. You see, the Gospel is simple. The picture we have talked about in this book is that of a son, who realizes he is lost, destitute and without hope, standing before his Father who is the King of all Kings. The Father has His arms outstretched, offering this undeserving son the free gift of life, forgiveness, acceptance, joy, and hope for all eternity. This is the Gospel. This is the good news. Never forget that picture. Ask God to burn it in your mind. It is the main thing. Then, after the son accepts that wonderful gift, the Father says, “You are my son/ daughter in whom I am well pleased. In whom I WILL ALWAYS BE well pleased. Freely you have received this gift from me, now go and freely give this unconditional love and acceptance and forgiveness to others.” Never forget those words specifically from Him to you. Hide them in your heart. It is also the main thing. And always keep the main things the main things.
One day Jesus was asked by a religious leader, an expert in the law, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:36-40 NIV)
Life can really get complicated at times. People are selfish and mean, things are not fair, relationships are broken, we are misunderstood, dreams are crushed, loved ones die. During those times we all hear the magician telling us we are failures, we are not worthy of forgiveness, God has abandoned us, there is no hope. Don’t listen to his deception. Focus on the picture of your heavenly Father with His arms outstretched to you. Hear His voice. Believe His promises. Choose to forgive. Choose to accept. Choose to love. Choose to keep the main things the main things.
In Revelation 2:2-5, 7 Jesus said to the Church at Ephesus, “I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. Whoever has ears, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
Jesus congratulates the church at Ephesus on the good things they are doing, their hard work, their perseverance, their enduring of hardships, their discernment. If He had stopped there, the church would be expecting to receive a special crown or maybe a plaque for their wall. But He goes on to tell them that, in spite of all the good stuff they had done, they had left their first love. They had strayed from the purity and simplicity of devotion to Christ and the love and forgiveness and acceptance of their neighbor, and because of this, they were in danger of losing the anointing of God and the joy and peace of His presence.
One morning I was reading my Bible, just about to finish the book of John, and I paused for a few minutes thinking about what I had just read. Jesus had been tortured and crucified. Dead. His family and friends were devastated. But then on Sunday morning, the disciples had found the empty tomb. Then, supernaturally, miraculously, Jesus had physically appeared to them in the upper room. They were elated, overjoyed. He had even breathed on them and they had received the Holy Spirit. The man who they had followed, learned from and lived with for three years, who they believed was the messiah, had risen from the dead and had just proved himself to be who He said He was, the Son of the Eternal God. And what do you think the disciples did when He left them? They went fishing! Can you believe that? They went stinking fishing! The more I thought about it, the more incensed I got. How could they? And then I heard that gentle voice. Convicting but yet not condemning. Deep down in my heart. “Jack, what you been doing lately?” Oh, how that hurt. What a self-righteous fool I am. I was judging these disciples because I didn’t think they were keeping the main thing the main thing without once considering my own heart. But it gets worse. I start back where I left off in the last chapter of John. So, the dead, now risen, Jesus shows up on the beach while they are fishing, miraculously gives them a huge haul of fish, and cooks them some lunch. Then John 21:15 says, “When they had finished eating Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, do you love me more than these?’ These are the verses that God spoke to me when I was laying in a hospital bed some years earlier with heart issues. The words that changed my life forever. The night I told Him I loved Him more than anything else in my life. Now, just a few years later He was saying to me, “Jack, you have turned your focus away from your first love. That night back in the hospital I asked you if you loved me more than everything and you said yes. You are doing a lot of good stuff, teaching Bible studies, helping ministries, serving on a bunch of committees, but you are straying away from the purity and simplicity of devotion to me.” The main thing is always to keep the main thing the main thing.
It is very tempting to try to make Church fun and exciting for the Sunday church goer and the secular community on the outside and water the Gospel down so its tasteful and politically correct and comfortable. Pastors and church leaders unintentionally do it all the time. We want more people to get involved, to give more, to serve more, to commit more so our numbers will grow and we can do a bunch of good things for a lot of folks. The rationale sounds good, but it is not the main thing. When this is where our energy is spent, we have left our first love. People looking for entertainment and a tasteful Gospel are not who Jesus came for. Jesus said He came to proclaim the good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom to the captive and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (see Luke 4) The only thing that will give life and faith and hope and healing and purpose to that group, is the purity and simplicity of devotion to Christ. That must always be our message. Folks must get the revelation of the love and forgiveness and acceptance of their heavenly Father and fall in love with His son Jesus who made that all possible. And when they do, the captive is set free, the spiritually blind can see, and the destitute prodigal son receives and embraces his heavenly father, the king of kings.