ONLY ONE THING IS NEEDED

            As you start out on your new life as a Christian, you may find yourself wondering: “What does a Christian do exactly?” You will hear many answers to this question. They will come from your Bible, from services you attend at a local church fellowship, from books you read, and from other Christians. You may find that you end up with a list of things you think you ought to be doing (or not doing) that just grows and grows until you are overwhelmed with all there is to do. Sadly, burnout is a condition you’ll find among Christians as well as non-Christians. Which is surprising, given that we worship the One who said: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

Jesus must have known that we might end up confused about what we should be doing because He also said “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed” (Luke 10:41b-42a). Or, as one wise man has said it: “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” So, before you start your list of do’s and don’ts, let’s look at the main thing so you can be sure it is always Number “1” on your list.

            As we begin to look at the one thing that is needed, let’s look at why God saved us in the first place. What moved Him to create us, then die for us, then make a place for us where we could live with Him forever? Surely if we know that, we’ll have an idea of what He wants in this relationship with us, which is likely the main thing.

            The Bible tells us that we are Christians because God chose us to be part of His family (Ephesians 1): 

4  For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love
5  he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will--
6  to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 

Having chosen us, He then pursued some of us for a very long time before we said “yes” to Him. But He never gave up until we were finally safe in His family.

            Why, though? Why did He want us so badly? Let’s see if the following verses can help us to answer that: 

John 1:12 “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God …” 

John 17:3 “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” 

John 6:29 “Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.’” 

Galatians 5:6b “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” 

Romans 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 John 14:8 “Philip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.’” 

            These Scriptures, all together, talk about a love relationship with the Father - being His child (John 1:12) and knowing Him intimately (John 17:3) so that we believe in Him and trust Him (John 6:29; Galatians 5:6b). In this relationship, Father and child - God and us - are so in love that nothing can break that bond (Romans 8:38-39), and the relationship is so satisfying that it is all we need (John 14:8). In other words, our heavenly Father adopted us for the same reason an earthly parent adopts - to have a child to love and to cherish, and to watch that child learn to love in return.

That’s it. Only this is needed, as Jesus said one day during a visit with His friends, Mary and Martha. Martha was busy, busy, busy with all the preparations she thought needed to be made for Jesus’ visit. Mary just sat with Jesus and enjoyed fellowship with Him. After a while, Martha decided that this was an unfair arrangement - she doing all the work and Mary just sitting with Jesus. Finally, she’d had enough. She went to Jesus and hotly stated (Luke 10:40b): “Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” At which point, Jesus showed His heart and what He valued most (Luke 10): 

41  “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,
42  but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” 

In other words, the main and first thing on Jesus’ “to do” list is for us to spend time with Him, getting to know Him and, through Him, the Father (John 14:9a).[1]

            Let’s look at one more Scripture that tends to be very familiar to Christians - John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” According to this verse, God saved us so we could have eternal life. But how does He define eternal life? The Bible says (John 17:3): “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” So we’re back to the heart of God that first and foremost yearns to love and be loved.

            Don’t Christians do other things? Of course. They worship, pray, serve, witness, read their Bible, etc. Again, they are like children who are adopted by earthly parents. Those children go to school, do chores around the house, read, play, eat meals with the family, etc. But those things, while important, are not the main thing. The main thing is love. If a natural child does all he’s asked to do but shows constant disrespect to his parents, do you think those parents will be happy with their child? It’s doubtful. Parents want their children to be obedient, but they want something even more than that - their children’s love. It’s the same with God. He highly, highly values obedience, but above all things, He wants our love. And so Jesus told a story one day about two brothers. The first was disobedient to his father, demanded that his father give him his inheritance early, then went off and spent all that he was given living a lifestyle that brought shame to his family. But that son smartened up, came home, and made peace with his father. The other son, according to his own words (and his father didn’t disagree), never disobeyed his father (Luke 16:29).[2] But by the end of the story it was clear that, while the father loved both his sons, the one who delighted his heart was the son who had disobeyed but, through it all, learned to love his father. The father was so overjoyed with that son that he threw a big party to celebrate. The other son, while obedient, admitted to feeling more like his father’s slave than his son (Luke 15:29).[3] And so there was no celebration for that son.

            The main thing in God’s family is love. Again, Jesus said that if you take all your “to do” lists and put them together, you could boil them all down to two “to do’s” (Matthew 22:37): “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

            So, if you find yourself too busy for your own good health, or overwhelmed with life’s demands, or confused about everything everyone is telling you you should do and you shouldn’t do, remember - the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. If push comes to shove and you can’t do it all, spending time with God and getting to know Him takes precedence. If it’s been a hard week because the kids were all sick at once and you’ve been nursing them through, better to stay home from prayer meeting and spend some time with God, sitting and enjoying His presence and reconnecting with Him. If your schedule is becoming too demanding on an ongoing basis, so that even God is getting squeezed out, you are well advised to cut back so that you can have daily quality time with God. If someone suggests you spend way too much time just sitting with God when you could be out serving or witnessing but you believe you are being faithful to all that God asks you to do, remember Mary and Martha and never let go of the one thing that’s needed.