Love and Salvation: Love God (Luke 10:38-42)

Luke carries on in the vein of loving the way the law requires and looks at an event that illustrates the way we should love God. Jesus is visiting his friends, sisters Mary and Martha. While he is visiting them, Martha is scurrying around, trying to serve Jesus and His disciples and prepare a meal. Meanwhile, Mary is just sitting at Jesus’s feet, listening to His every word.

Martha finally has enough and complains to Jesus, “Aren’t you going to tell my sister to help?”

Jesus’s response is surprising. Martha is concerned and preoccupied with serving Jesus. However, Mary has chosen better by deciding to merely spend time with Jesus and learn from Him. Loving God is not about all the things we do for Him. It is about the relationship. It is about the time we spend with Him and the way we allow Him to teach us. Sure, we will serve Him. However, we need to be careful that our service for God never takes the place of our listening to Him.

People these days who emphasize “obedience based discipleship” would do well to remind themselves of this story from time to time.