Kingdom Passion (1)

¹³ Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do,forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, ¹⁴ I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3.13, 14

Make it simple, please!
I do not enjoy assembling things.

Opening a folder of instructions makes me sweat. While you might think that simple step-by-step directions would be easy enough to follow, they almost invariably throw me into confusion. Why can’t things come ready-to-use? Or, at least, with just one simple thing required of me?

If I’m not mistaken, many of you are like this as well. “Keep it simple, stupid” is our mantra in life. Life is complicated enough as it is; the more we can simplify and cut to the chase, the easier and more agreeable any task will be.

Give me just one thing to do, and tie everything else into it, and I’ll be fine.

A focus for our passion
This is what Paul is doing in our text. He was trying to simplify the Christian life for his readers, so that they could follow his own example and know more of the joy, peace, and power which are the rightful possession of all who believe in Jesus Christ. He wanted to give us one thing to concentrate on, to devote our passion to with all our heart.

When Paul says, “But one thing I do,” believe me, I’m listening!

But hold on a minute. Even as I’m ready to jump in on Paul’s “this one thing,” I start hearing the echoes of other “one things” from elsewhere in Scripture.

In Psalm 27.4, for example, David prayed, “One thing I have desired of the LORD…” Surely that “one thing” is at least as important as what Paul commends?

Again, I hear the words of Jesus, “But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness…” (Matt. 6.33). According to Jesus, nothing is more important than that we passionately desire the Kingdom and righteousness of God. Does that put him in conflict with David and Paul? Should we take Jesus’ instruction as the key to pure and undefiled religion, and set David and Paul aside?

But then along comes James, Jesus’ half-brother – who therefore ought to know about such matters – and says, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this…” (Jms. 1.27). Uh oh, are we about to get yet another “this one thing” to add to the “one things” we’ve already considered? Are unbelievers right when they insist that Christianity is so full of contradictions that no one can really know what it means?

Then, as if to make matters even more complicated, I recall Jesus’ words to Martha in Luke 10.42: “But one thing is needed…” And what He recommends here isn’t the same as what He commands in Matthew 6:33!

And, still later in His ministry, when Jesus explains that all the Bible boils down to loving God and loving our neighbors, has He come up with yet another “this one thing” for us to pursue (Matt. 22.34-40)? Can’t even Jesus get it straight about the “one thing” we most need to concentrate on as His followers and disciples?

One thing? Really?
This is going to take a while. All these competing instructions, these various “one things”, are starting to make my head spin. Is it really possible to reduce the Christian faith to “one thing” as the most important among the many “other things” that go with believing in Jesus? One thing to devote ourselves to above all else in this life?

Can we assemble the life of faith in one step?

And if so, then how shall we do it? And how shall we overcome the appearance – if that’s what it is – of contradiction and inconsistency in what it means to follow Jesus Christ?

That’s what we’re going to try to sort out in this series. Christianity is not a complicated religion. It doesn’t divide our affections between competing interests. One overarching passion must guide all those who have made the Kingdom turn. Following Jesus boils down to one thing, around which all other things in the life of faith orbit, from which they all derive their significance, and of which they all partake.

Next steps: Suppose someone asked you to summarize the Christian faith in a single sentence. What would you say? Ask a few of your Christian friends about this.

T. M. Moore

Additional Resources

This week’s study, Kingdom Passion, is the third of an eight-part series on The Kingdom Turn, and is available as a free download. T. M. has written two books to complement this eight-part series. You can order The Kingship of Jesus by clicking here, and The Gospel of the Kingdom by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.