Yes, I know with a title like that, some of you are already screaming “heretic!”
I don’t blame you. Without context, saying something like, “stop putting God first,” sounds wrong. Hear me out though. As I read and study the scripture, I try my very best to teach and communicate from God’s word without adding my own fleshly thoughts. I don’t want to teach an opinion. I want to teach truth. I feel very strongly from the Spirit that this article is rooted in the truth of God’s word. The reality is, there is not one verse in the Bible that tells Christians explicitly to put God first. In fact, I will argue that you are doing a disservice to yourself as a Christian when you attempt to put God first. Let me explain.
In the New Testament letters written by apostles, we see lots of truth about the newness we have in Christ Jesus, but also the closeness and oneness we have with Him as well. The oneness is very important for believers to understand, especially in regards to the point that I’m trying to make with this blog post. Let’s look at some scripture that describes the closeness we have with God.
“But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.” 1 Corinthians 6:17
“In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” John 14:20
“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” 1 Corinthians 3:16
“For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” Galatians 3:27
“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things, for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God” Colossians 3:3
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” Ephesians 2:4-6
I want you to look closely at the verses. What do they communicate? I see phrases like, “Hidden with Christ,” “together with Christ,” Clothed yourselves with Christ,” as well as the word “in” and “one” to describe a union between us and God that takes place at salvation. What these passages communicate in a remarkably clear way is this: we have been joined as close to God as we can get. You can’t get closer than “one spirit with him!” Really understand that, because it is incredibly important, and sometimes I don’t think we as Christians really grasp what we have. We have an unbreakable union with God. A oneness with God. A closeness that lasts as long as Jesus lives (which is forever). What an incredible truth, and very important when understanding the rest of this post! Now that I have briefly highlighted the beautiful reality of the joining between us and God, I will dig into why “putting God first” can be a dangerous trap for Christians.
Simply put, when we use a phrase like, “I need to put God first,” we assume God is something we have to make time for, or that God is something we need to get to, and what happens is that we start looking at God as a priority in our lives that we need to make time for, which might not sound too bad at first glance. The problem is, when we do this, we reduce God to simply a checkmark on our chart of things to do in life, and as long as we are spending the majority of our time with him, we feel pretty good. But here’s where that starts to get hazy. How much time is enough time for God? Is the time you spend with him enough? Because this ends up being so subjective, you can give yourself a complex trying to figure out if you’ve made enough time for him, and let’s be honest, none of us feel like we have. This is a vicious cycle. It could be as simple as getting bogged down at work, and thinking to yourself, “Ah, I’m so busy at work, I’m not making enough time for God. I gotta try and put Him first again.” Again, sounds noble right? Think again. Just like that, you have separated God from your work, and compartmentalized him into a category of his own, separate from all the other aspects of your life. Have you forgotten the oneness you have with him? Have you forgotten that you are in Christ, and Christ is in you? Have you forgotten that you are God’s temple and one with his Spirit? If we forget the closeness we have with him, we will always end up trying to put him first in life, failing miserably, because we forget that he shouldn’t be first. He should be our life, and in fact, he is.
Understand that God is one with you, and that means that he is present when you work, when you play, when you’re with family, when you’re out at that concert or that movie, when you sleep, when you’re awake, wherever and whenever, God is present with you. You don’t need to try and put him first, when he is intimately involved with you every second of your life. Realize you don’t have to give God a time slot, when he is there 100% of the time. Trust me, you will never stop worrying that you’re not spending enough time with him if you keep trying to put him first, but if you are willing to let that idea go, and accept that God wants to be involved and is involved in every part of your life, your time spent with him will be so much more fulfilling. God doesn’t want to compete with your time, he wants you to recognize that he is your life. Understand that, and you will experience freedom and joy in a new way as you walk by the Spirit, and rest in the oneness that Jesus Christ has provided. You can’t break that bond!
In closing, I have been learning and growing so much in my understanding of who I am in Christ, and this might be one of the most profound truths I’ve been growing in lately. We live in a world that is almost robotic in how routine oriented everything is, and unfortunately that mentality sneaks into the church, which is why we have the idea of “putting God first” floating around. It sounds nice on the surface, but when you dissect it, you’ll find out its nothing but religious fluff. The most profound thing a Christian can know is that he is as close to God as he could ever be, and that through that, he is freed from the notion that God is there, begging us for more time. The truth is, we have a God that wants us to recognize his presence in everything we do, so we can enjoy an ongoing, eternal relationship with him. So if you’ve been busy lately, maybe you feel distant from God. Maybe its been a bit since you’ve had a “quiet time” with Him. Fear not. He’s not distant. He’s as close as he could be. He is in you and you are in him. Rest in that, and enjoy the new opportunity that lays before now. You get to relate with the God of all creation, ALWAYS.
Jonah Saller
Copyright 2020 Jonah Saller ©