There are a range of views on what are our priorities as Christians. I know many who agree that obviously God is the number one priority followed by family... er... then church etc. When such people actually outworked their lives it appeared that church was the first priority even though they paid lip service to what looked right. I was part of a church who said God / Family / Church can be flipped around according to what the Lord wants. Seems like a radical sermon until we find out what God has shown us in the Bible.
Firstly we will have a look at the 10 Commandments to find if there is a priority in loving and walking with God. When Israel were under Law we find:
- You shall have no other gods before Me.
- You shall not make idols.
- You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
- Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
- Honor your father and your mother.
- You shall not murder.
- You shall not commit adultery.
- You shall not steal.
- You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
- You shall not covet.
Structure wise I see 1-4 directly implicating a personal responsibility to God from me. Because the third commandment is about walking well with God and not about bad language, it is included in the personal responsibility to make God first. Number 5 sits with the family responsibilities but 6-10 all have ramifications in the community. So from the 10 commandments we can see that our devotion to God impacts our family then impacts the community. Now let's look at another list... The 'Beatitudes' starting Matthew 5.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Here it appears that Jesus is relaying a similar list to the 10 Commandments. However instead of these relating to Law, they begin with the core of the individual. Because the New Covenant gives Jesus access to the heart of Man, it begins with spiritual measurement. Properly measured against The Lord God, we are very lowly and wretched. This realization is the beginning of walking with God. We are dealing with structure here, not exegesis. The first four are internal processes that begin, as with the 10 Commandments with God. Then as a result of hunger and thirst for righteousness the person has 4 consequences that are externally outworked.
Because the Law was aimed at a nation it impacted the individual in behavior, then the family, then the community. The New Covenant would be to all people and involve actual internal transformation, not just behavioral adjustments. Nevertheless, they both display a distinct pattern: Both prioritize God as the first priority. Then, the individual having been calibrated to the Lord's will (be it external like the Law or internal like the Holy Spirit), the individual impacts the community.
To further example this observation about priorities we can examine the Lord's prayer.
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.Your kingdom come,your will be done,on earth, as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread,and forgive us our debts,as we also have forgiven our debtors.And lead us not into temptation,but deliver us from evil.
The first portion are all about the Father and his priorities. As with the Beatitudes the theme of hunger / daily bread arises again. The last portion has three consequences that can only occur as we walk it out in community. Forgiving people, because we have been forgiven, keeping our eyes on Jesus and Sanctification all have consequences in our communities / workplaces etc.
The pattern then is that God is always first followed by our impacted selves walking it out in the community. That community includes Church and other contexts where our lives are observed by the fallen world. So if we place God at the top we can easily prioritize our communities as family first then church. How?
In Ephesians 5:21-24 The author says each (Christian) should submit to one another (but) wives submit to your Husbands. Widely used as a control mechanism for domineering husbands, this has nothing to do with control. It is saying that everyone has a responsibility to submit to each other but as a subdivision of this, wives submit to what the head of the family unit says over the church people. So the church can decide 'abc' but it is the husband and wife who has to discern that 'abc' is what is good for that family unit.
This is a prioritizing in the church at Ephesus who met in homes (Acts 20:20). They met the issue of priorities head on. They met in someones house in which that household had a head and a family possibly. To not cause misunderstanding the prioritizing of Ephesians 5:21f was a point well made.
So there we have it 1. God 2. Family 3. Church 4. Community
Gary Ward
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