Our Passion and Pursuit

In which direction do you think the Scripture places the greatest emphasis? Is it ministry to God or to people? What is most striking in Scripture is that the major thrust, our first priority, our passion is to be our ministry to God, rather than people.

Both are vitally important, but our major focus of ministry is to be first God-ward and then man-ward. Paul asked the right question of Christ on the road to Damascus – "Who art you, Lord", and then "What do you want me to do?"

The horizontal aspect of ministry to people should always be the result or overflow of our ministry to God. This order is trumpeted all through Scripture. In John 15 we are to "abide in Christ" and then He will bear fruit through us. In the Great Commandment we are to love the Lord first with all our heart and mind, and then love our neighbor as ourselves. 1 Timothy 4:16 says to take heed to yourself first and then to your teaching or ministry. Acts 20:28 indicates the same Greek order of words: take care of yourselves and then to the flock of God. 1 John 1:1-9 says, "Walk in the light - in unbroken fellowship with Christ - and then you will walk in fellowship with one another. In John 20:15-18, Jesus asked Peter three times, "Do you love me"? Out of that love, Peter was to be a servant shepherd to care and feed God's sheep. Worship always precedes service in Scripture. We are to serve God and only then people.

Something else notable in Scripture is that the words describing "passion" ("he sought the Lord" or "wholeheartedly followed the Lord" in the Old Testament or "love Him with all your heart, soul, and mind" in the New Testament) are reserved only for our God -ward relationship. The word "passion" is never related to our ministry to people. Paul uses "passion" only to describe his desire to know Christ (Philippians 3:10).

The words "compassion," "burden," "concern" always describes our ministry to people. Compassion means "with passion" or love with fire that is the result of our passion for God. Compassion is pictured in Scripture as thread wound around the shuttle of our heart. This thread spins out in love to pull people in. The greater the size of our heart, the greater our capacity to reach out to people. The greater our passion for God, the greater will be our compassion for people. Paul chose his words carefully in Romans 10:1, saying that his burden (not his passion) for Israel was that they might be saved.

We often ask people what their passion in ministry is. In doing so we are asking a wrong question and teaching a wrong principle. Christ's compassion for the multitude is evident through the Gospels (Matthew 15:32, 20:34; Mark 1:41; Luke 7:13, 10:33, 15:20), and always directed to people. His passion was reserved only for His Father.

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