Martha, Martha, thou art anxious and troubled about many things:
but one thing is needful: for Mary hath chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her (Luke 10:38-42).
What a snare to our souls the cares of this world may be, if allowed to take up too much attention.It is plain from the tone of the passage before us, that Martha allowed her anxiety to provide a suitable entertainment for the Lord, to carry her away. Her excessive zeal for temporal provisions, made her forget, for a time, the things of her soul. “She was cumbered about much serving.” By and bye her conscience pierced her when she found herself alone serving tables, and saw her sister sitting at Jesus’ feet and hearing His word. Under the pressure of a conscience ill at ease, her temper became ruffled, and the ‘old Adam’ within broke out into open complaint. “Lord,” she said, “do not you care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me.”
In so saying, this holy woman sadly forgot what she was, and to whom she was speaking. She brought down on herself a solemn rebuke, and had to learn a lesson which probably made a lasting impression. Alas! “how great a matter a little fire kindles.” The beginning of all this was a little over-anxiety about the innocent household affairs of this world!
The fault of Martha should be a perpetual warning to all Christians. If we desire to grow in grace, and to enjoy soul-prosperity, we must beware of the cares of this world. Except we watch and pray, they will insensibly eat up our spirituality, and bring leanness on our souls. It is not open sin, or flagrant breaches of God’s commandments alone, which lead men to eternal ruin. It is far more frequently an excessive attention to things in themselves lawful, and the being “cumbered about much serving.” It seems so right to provide for our own! It seems so proper to attend to the duties of our station! It is just here that our danger lies. Our families, our business, our daily callings, our household affairs, our interaction with society, all, all may become snares to our hearts, and may draw us away from God. We may go down to the pit of hell from the very midst of lawful things.
Let us take heed to ourselves in this matter. Let us watch our habits of mind jealously, lest we fall into sin unawares. If we love life, we must hold the things of this world with a very loose hand, and beware of allowing anything to have the first place in our hearts, excepting God. Let us mentally write “poison” on all temporal good things. Used in moderation they are blessings, for which we ought to be thankful. Permitted to fill our minds, and trample upon holy things, they become an inevitable curse. Profits and pleasures are dearly purchased, if in order to obtain them we thrust aside eternity from our thoughts, abridge our Bible-reading, become careless hearers of the Gospel, and shorten our prayers. A little earth upon the fire within us will soon make that fire burn low.
Let us observe, for another thing, what a solemn rebuke our Lord Jesus Christ gave to His servant Martha. Like a wise physician He saw the disease which was preying upon her, and at once applied the remedy. Like a tender parent, He exposed the fault into which His erring child had fallen, and did not spare the chastening which was required. “Martha, Martha,” He said, “you are anxious and troubled about many things–but one thing is needful.” Faithful are the wounds of a friend! That little sentence was a precious balm indeed! It contained a volume of practical divinity in a few words.
“One thing is needful.” How true that saying! The longer we live in the world, the more true it will appear. The nearer we come to the grave, the more thoroughly we shall assent to it. Health, and money, and lands, and rank, and honors, and prosperity, are all well in their way. But they cannot be called needful. Without them thousands are happy in this world, and reach glory in the world to come. The “many things” which men and women are continually struggling for, are not really necessaries. The grace of God which brings salvation is the one thing needful.
Let this little sentence be continually before the eyes of our minds. Let it check us when we are ready to murmur at earthly trials. Let it strengthen us when we are tempted to deny our Master on account of persecution. Let it caution us when we begin to think too much of the things of this world. Let it quicken us when we are disposed to look back, like Lot’s wife. In all such seasons, let the words of our Lord ring in our ears like a trumpet, and bring us to a right mind. “One thing is needful.” If Christ is ours, we have all and abound.
-Excerpt from Expository Thoughts on the Gospels