Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'" – Luke 4:8

 Today's Scripture Reading (December 5, 2023): Luke 4

One of the maxims of business is that it is essential to make decisions in a timely manner. A proper decision is only correct if it is made within the allowable time frame. It is a surprising fact that many leaders fail to understand. A correct decision made too slowly is always wrong. A wrong decision, made in the proper time frame, is often better than the right decision made too late. But the problem we face is that deciding what action is right is always hard. Part of the problem is that we seldom have to choose between good and bad alternatives. Those decisions are usually relatively easy to make. But our decision is more likely to be between what is good or what is better, or between something terrible or something even worse, and these decisions are always more challenging to make.

Satan makes Jesus three offers during this time of testing. When he was hungry, Satan offered him bread, and there was nothing evil about bread; we need it to survive. Then, in a time of peril, Satan offered Jesus the protection of heaven, which again is something that sounds so good to our ears. We want to know that angels watch over us every moment of our day and are ready and willing to help us. Finally, Satan offers Jesus wealth and power, which is something after which we still chase. None of these things seem inherently evil. Given the various moments of our lives, these are things that we still ask from God.

We are often invited to chase after many good things during this life. Feeding people experiencing poverty, being an agent of justice in our world, or being ecologically concerned are all good things to which we are invited to dedicate our lives. Feeding ourselves and being able to provide for our future is also good. But what each of these good things holds in common is that they are terrible objects to which we might entrust our worship. Yet, that is often what we make them: objects of our worship. We worship our careers or efforts to provide for justice and feed the hungry, and then wonder why we feel so unfulfilled.

The biblical principle has always been that the beginning place of our worship always starts with God. And that is the point where what is good becomes possible. When we get our worship right, a lot of good things follow. It was a truth that Jesus understood. And nothing that Satan could offer him was worthy of his worship. Jesus knew that his worship belonged to God and to God alone.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Luke 5

See Also Matthew 4:10