Bible Text: Luke 10:38-42 | Preacher: G.F. | Series: The Believers Priority & Passion

The story of Mary & Martha highlights the importance of our love for God and His Word. It’s no accident Luke puts the story of Mary & Martha back-to-back with the story of the Good Samaritan. There are parallels between the two stories. In vs. 25-37, Jesus is questioned by a lawyer. He wants to know how to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him to love God and love his neighbour. This man was an intelligent student. He knew the truth. Trouble was he never acted on the truth that he knew, so Jesus tells him the story of the Good Samaritan. Since true belief always affects our behaviour, Jesus told the lawyer …”Go and do likewise”, he could not. The Good Samaritan story and the story of Martha’s busyness go together. To the lawyer, Jesus says, “…go and do”, but he praises Mary for sitting and listening. The life of a disciple requires both. The analysis of the account of Martha and Mary in Luke 10:38-42 teaches us about the priority of the word of God in the life of every believer.

What is your number one priority? Now if we were to ask the average person on the street that question, there might be a lot of different answers. But if I were to ask you to write down on a piece of paper, your number one priority, what would you write down?  What is the number one priority?  Not two, not three. You know, church and family and job and loving the Lord and witnessing. I’m not talking about priorities, I’m talking about priority, one and there is only one. What would it be?

There is only one thing necessary for every believer and that is the priority of the word of God. It is not what we do for God. That was Martha’s mistake. She thought that what was really important was her service to Jesus. Yet our service for God is never necessary in the absolute sense, because God does not need any one of us. As the apostle Paul said, God is not “served by human hands, as though he needed anything” (Acts 17:25). God does not need our service. But we desperately need him. What is necessary for every Martha or Mary is not to serve Jesus, but to be served by him.

The one thing that is necessary is the priority of the word of God in the life of every believer. It is by this word that God gives us the saving knowledge of Jesus, and it is by this word that God directs our service to him.