Do you remember this scene from the 1991 film, City Slickers? Urban cowboy-for-a-week Mitch has a chat with true horseman Curly, and the dialog goes like this (pardon the expletive deleted):
Curly: You know what the secret of life is?
Mitch: No, what?
Curly: This. (holds up one finger)
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that, and everything else don't mean ****.
Mitch: That's great, but ... what's the one thing?
Curly: That's what you've got to figure out.
Mitch: No, what?
Curly: This. (holds up one finger)
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that, and everything else don't mean ****.
Mitch: That's great, but ... what's the one thing?
Curly: That's what you've got to figure out.
Curly’s mighty wise for a cowpoke. And with the help of God’s Word and Spirit, we’ve got it figured out. David requests in the 86th Psalm, “give me an undivided heart…” Give me a heart for just one thing.
Through the prophet Ezekiel, God responds --
“I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.” Sensitized to the one thing.
And ultimately, Paul describes to the Philippians the One Thing: “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”
Knowing Christ is the One Thing! Not just head knowledge, but that great full meaning of the word ‘know’ like the Hebrews used it. Knowledge by intimate experience. Knowing Christ by touch and sound and smell. By being in Christ and having Christ in me. This comes not by reading or even deep study, but by devotion and surrender and unwavering obedience. Nothing comes close to the surpassing greatness of this. In fact, Paul’s contrast words – ‘loss’ and ‘rubbish’ come pretty close to the meaning of Curly’s deleted expletive!
What does this have to do with today’s reading? This half of chapter 7 is Paul’s treatise on the value of singleness. Paul has acknowledged marriage as a gift from God, but man, he really prefers the single life! In Paul’s opinion, a spouse is a distraction. Here’s the heart of the matter for him – “I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord.”
For Paul, life is all about “undivided devotion.” An undivided heart. The secret of life is to commit yourself completely to the one thing. And the One Thing is knowing Jesus Christ. See if you can be and do all that you are as a function of knowing Christ.
Pray: Matchless Lord, Lover of my soul, I pray the prayer of David -- "Give me an undivided heart." If I love anything as much or more than you, dissolve that affection and turn it to you. I want to know you in every way more and more each day.
Pray: Matchless Lord, Lover of my soul, I pray the prayer of David -- "Give me an undivided heart." If I love anything as much or more than you, dissolve that affection and turn it to you. I want to know you in every way more and more each day.
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