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The unbelieving religious leaders of Jesus’ day asked Him what was the greatest commandment in the law, and He said, love the Lord thy God, first, and, second, love thy neighbor as thyself. Jesus wasn’t saying that no other commands or teachings mattered. There were prohibitions punishable by death in God’s law. Those were serious. When Nadab and Abhi offered strange fire unto the Lord, they were both killed. You can’t get all of the commandments, words, and sayings obeyed, if you won’t start with at least minimum objectives. I hesitate anymore to talk about minimum objectives, because someone might think it is permissible to do only the minimum. I’m saying the minimum is a benchmark. My wife and I know that we have certain benchmarks in our marriage. If I didn’t do those things, I would assess myself as failing at loving my wife. For awhile, I’ve listed minimum objectives as Bible study, prayer, evangelism, and faithful church attendance. Do those every week.
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Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:19-20, “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.” If you are breathing, you have noticed an extreme uptick in the United States in severe, radical, crude, loud, threatening, violent, and dangerous behavior as protest and opposition. Why? These are discontent people, who can’t be happy, without a standard or means of civility. If they don’t get their way, they feel justified to throw a fit like they are. You see this portrayed in 2 Peter 2, a lot of the description there a perfect explanation of what we see in our culture. They must have their way and without condemnation or opposition. They don’t want opposition even spoken, warning of punishment for that. This is the trend we see today, growing like it hasn’t in decades. “Be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled,” 1 Peter 3:14.
Is God doing great things today? Should we expect more from God than what Christians expect from Him? I’m not sure what was the context of his quote, but the famous British Baptist missionary to India, William Carey, said, “Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.” I don’t know what Carey meant by “great things,” but people often quote Carey in this instance like his quote was some type of equivalent to scripture. The idea or thought here seems to be, if you aren’t expecting “great things” and you aren’t attempting “great things” then you are disobedient to God. If great things are just obedience to scripture, then those applications of the Word of God are great enough. God is doing great enough things. He never stops doing them. People very often so much want to report that they saw something of a supernatural nature that they start seeking these types of events. God wants you to enjoy and thank Him for the great things that He already does on an every day basis.
Perhaps you’ve said the words, “It’s not worth my time,” demeaning whatever toward which someone points those words. Maybe we can turn the question around and ask then, “What is worth your time?” The question speaks to what is valuable. We look to God for those priorities, because God tells us what is the most value. On the top of that list is God Himself, because God Himself is most valuable. If you don’t put your time into God, then your values are out of whack. If you don’t value what is most valuable, you can’t look at anything in the right way. You won’t use your time properly because you will be spending it on something of lesser value. Your time becomes of less value. By its nature, what is most valuable is most worth your time. Having God of the greatest value to you and your life doesn’t mean that you won’t do any other kind of work. You’ll think about your work, however, as it relates to God. You do it for God. God is pleased by this.
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