The To Do List

Every day I have a to do list.

Sometimes that list is really long and other days it is relatively short.

I’m guessing you have one too.

My to do list often drives my actions. 

I consult it and derive great satisfaction when I cross items off my list.

Perhaps you can you relate?

And I think Jesus may have had a to do list too, and I base that on

Mark 1:35 which says:

35 Now in the morning,

having risen a long while before daylight,

He went out and departed to a solitary place;

and there He prayed.

What Jesus was praying about we are not told, but my guess would be He asked the Father what was to be on His “to do” list. I also believe there was a lot of affirmation and love expressed during those precious prayer hours. Jesus came to serve and to sacrifice yet all of His actions were based on His love. He had love for God and His love for humanity.  

The example Jesus sets for us in Mark 1:35 is an important one for us to follow as we too serve and sacrifice in Christ’s name. We need to be in prayer to deepen our relationship with God and to gain a greater understand as to what should be on our “to do” list.

In Mark 12:28-31, a man asked Jesus what should be on His to do list. And it went like this:

Then one of the scribes came and

having heard them reasoning together

perceiving that He had answered them well asked Him,

“Which is the first commandment?”

 Jesus answered him, 

“The first of all the commandments is:

 ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 

 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your

 heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’

This is the first commandment. 

 And the second, like it, is this: 

‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

There is no other commandment greater than these.”

The first commandment or our first priority should be:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

Love Him with everything you’ve got!

The second commandment or priority should be:

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

In everything else you do (after loving God) should be loving others the way you want to be loved.

Jesus gave this Scribe and each of us what should be our #1 and #2 for our “to do” list.  Love God, Love others. Do it in that order. 

Just as Christ gave Himself to us in love we are also to give back to Him our love and then allow that to flow to others.  Love for God never should stop on the vertical plane.  It should have an immediate carryover to the horizontal to all our human relationships (our neighbors). And when we seek Him first, that’s a whole lot easier to do.

You see if I study the Bible, go to church, memorize scripture, know theology and run a ministry but my heart is far away from God, then the things I do are vain and meaningless. If my private love for God and fellowship with Him isn’t what fuels my public actions, then my “to do list” will be purely done for selfish reasons like gaining praise, power, applause, identity or feeling good about myself. 

And I absolutely cannot love others without God’s love pouring though me. The vitality of my relationship with Christ will then extend outward to those around me.  As we know and love God (the first command) we are then able to fulfill the second commandment. 

All scripture revolves around these two responsibilities.  I read a quote on this topic which says this,

“The rest of scripture provides us with the means, manner, motive and method for loving God and others. Because when we obey God’s word, we are either loving God or loving people or both!”   

So, no matter what portion of scripture we are reading from Genesis to Revelation we still need to follow these two commands, in this order!  

 Paul wrote about love in 1 Corinthians 13. Notice verses 1-3 tell us what is looks like to act without love saying this:

13 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 

2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 

3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

So, this is what we are without Christ’s love: 

My actions profit me nothing. 

But if we love Him first and our actions flow out of that love, we

can love like He loves which is described for us in verses 4-8.

4 Love suffers long and is kind;

 love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;

 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, 

thinks no evil;

 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 

7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never fails. 

This is a description of God’s perfect love.  And the more we encounter it, the more we can express it to others through the power of the Holy Spirit.

So, what’s been on our to do list?

Is it time to reorder some of the list?

I know for myself; it is not easy to carve out time to spend with God.  Oh, yes, I want to, no doubt! But I get distracted just going downstairs to get a cup of coffee!  But are we willing to push through and create the time so that we can sound less like a clanging cymbal and  then serve for the right reasons with His love flowing through us? 

So, my challenge is this, when we create our lists of things we have to do let’s be sure #1 and #2 are where they belong, before we try to tackle the rest of the list.