What is more important?

When I was about 13 years old I owned a motorcycle. One day I was returning home from shooting basketball in the park. I was on my motorcycle with my basketball between my knees. As I rounded a corner coming into my subdivision, I spotted a slow moving tractor about halfway down the street. In my infinite wisdom, I decided to pass the tractor before it reached the end of the street. I showered down on the throttle and shot down the street. As I passed the tractor, I faced a 90 degree turn to the left. Unfortunately there was gravel and slag on the road and as I tried to maneuver the turn, the motorcycle laid down on its side and slid for about 25 yards. (I was underneath it in Bermuda shorts and a tee shirt.) I was laying under the motorcycle bleeding. Gravel was embedded in my skin from head to toe. The back wheel was still turning eating a hole in my leg. I struggled to reach the switch and shut the thing off. The man on the tractor was a big help, he jumped off his tractor and went running down the street after my basketball. I finally got out from under the motorcycle and just then the tractor driver walked up and handed me my basketball. I thanked him.

This incident reminds me of some Christians. Often we fail to minister to the most urgent needs of those around us, and instead, zero in on less important issues. I have seen many who are so hung up on legalism that they remind me of modern day Pharisees as they “rail” about every deficiency of those around them. Although I strongly believe the Bible is the unerring word of God and is law, and that we should do our utmost to follow every jot and tittle, I also remember Jesus stating that He did not come to condemn the world rather to save it. Many a person who might otherwise have been saved has been permanently turned off by organized religion’s impossible hypocritical demands for perfection. If we could have met perfection on our own, there would have been no reason for Jesus to have made the sacrifice that He freely did, in order that we may see eternal salvation. I believe that particularly with non-Christians and infant Christians that we should concentrate on the more important issue of salvation, and delay laying out the law.
Remember the basketball.

_____________________

Romans 3:23
For all have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God,
being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus…

———————————-