What is Most Important

“I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.”

~ 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 New Living Translation (NLT)

      Have you ever felt that our faith in Christ gets more complicated the more people you talk to? I know I have. There are so many questions and what-ifs in the world today that it is easy for us to get distracted by things that really don't matter. Indeed, hardly a day goes by without someone bringing up an obscure peripheral theology or hypothetical quandary aimed at derailing our faith in Jesus. But all of these things are a bit pointless in the grand scheme of things.

     Don't get me wrong; I love discussing peripheral things. I find them fascinating. But that's all they are to me: fascinating topics of discussion. They don't change my faith in Christ. And they certainly aren't the foundation of my relationship with him. If my hope were built on anything other than the promises of God and what Jesus has done for me personally, then my hope would not have a very strong foundation. The same goes for anyone who believes. If Jesus is not the center of your faith, then you are on very shaky ground. He alone is the Rock of our salvation—the cornerstone of the Church. Anything else is unstable and will eventually fail.

     Furthermore, if we allow ourselves to be distracted by theoretical theology and what-if questions, we are effectively putting spiritual blinders on ourselves. We get “tunnel-vision” and can't see past whatever peripheral topic we've decided to fix our eyes on. When in reality, the only thing we should fix our eyes on is Jesus Christ. After all, how can we tell people what Jesus has done in our lives when we're focused on other things instead? 

    Jesus is what is most important—Jesus and our relationship with him.

    Do you believe that Jesus was God the Son, sent to die in your place on the cross? Do you believe that he was buried for three days and that he rose again in a physical body so that anyone who believes in him can have eternal life; and that he has promised to return for us some day?

    If your answer is yes, then that is all that really matters. You are a brother or sister in Christ. Everything else is peripheral and really isn't worth obsessing over or arguing about. 

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne."

~ Hebrews 12:1-2 New Living Translation (NLT)