“It was Aunt Mary’s practicing!”

Some Christians believe that following Christ involves being devoted to a hierarchy of priorities. In other words, Christians should put Christ first, their marriage and family second, their church third, others fourth, and so on. The priorities become far less specific and ordered after number two or three, but you get the basic idea. God and family are at the top. Your job is never higher than one through four.

This hierarchy of priorities does have some value, but it is not taught in the Bible, nor is it an adequate model for the Christian life. Its value lies in its usefulness for tradeoffs. For example, if your choice is between achieving a major career success and losing your family in the process, then biblically you should put success in your career aside and give priority to maintaining a healthy family. The hierarchy does have some value.

The New Testament, however, does not teach that Jesus is the first in a series of priorities; it teaches that He is to be the Lord of all of our priorities – our family responsibilities, our jobs, our friendships and relationships with others, our play, our hobbies, our public life and private life, our sex lives, our conflicts, our politics, our financial decisions – everything!

The picture that is painted in the New Testament is not a segmented life of minimal requirements, but a comprehensive view of life in which everything affects everything else. Such a view of life is more true to life than any hierarchy. Think about it. A man is not a father one day, a salesman the next, a church member the next, and a husband the next. No, he is a father-salesman-church member-husband-consumer-golfer-commuter-voter-neighbor all at the same time every hour of every day. And Christ is to be Lord of it all.

Apostle Paul in Romans (chapters 12-14), Galatians (chapters 5-6), Ephesians (chapters 4-6), and Colossians (chapters 3-4) addresses life in terms of five major categories: (1) your personal life, including your relationship with God, your emotions, and any other private, individual areas; (2) your family, including your marriage, your children, and your relationship to your parents and any dependents; (3) your church life, including both your local church and Christians everywhere; (4) your work – what you do, how you do it, and how you relate to your employer and those with whom you work; and (5) your community life.

Here are five diverse categories and God says that we should honor Him in all five. And because they all impact each other, we cannot arrange them into a hierarchy. The New Testament does not do that, and if we do it, it will actually hinder us from being faithful in all five areas. Instead, we need to strike a realistic balance among these areas, each of which presents us with lots of demands that compete for our time.

The problem that most of us have is how to balance these five areas. You begin by making an unalterable commitment to the goal of letting Christ be Lord in every area of life. Organize your prayer life around the five major categories mentioned above that call for your time and energy. You consider the impact on your family, and guard your use of emotional energy. You evaluate your life regularly and prayerfully, making certain that Christ is Lord in every part of your life. It is the best way we can bear witness to the world.

George Mueller told the story of a young girl who was asked: “Whose preaching brought you to Christ?” She replied, “It wasn’t anybody’s preaching; it was Aunt Mary’s practicing.” Jesus Christ was the Lord of Aunt Mary’s life – every phase of it. She didn’t just say she was a Christian; she proved it by the way she lived.

Preaching receives a lot of emphasis in our churches today, as indeed it should. God honors preaching, but it needs to be supported by a healthy amount of practicing. Otherwise, it is just a lot of words that, as a colloquial expression states it, “do not amount to a hill of beans.”

 

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