The Altogether Lovely One I: Keeping the Focus

Those of you who have followed Media Gratiae for a time will know Jordan Thomas. He is a contributor to both Behold Your God studies and has a study of his own produced by Media Gratiae. Released earlier this year, Christ Our Treasure: Enjoying the Preeminence of Jesus in the Local Church, is an 8-week study examining how the local church body is to enjoy and treasure our Savior.

In this new series of episodes, Dr. John Snyder and Jordan discuss not just the development of the study, but the heart behind it. Churches choose many things to focus on. It may be mercy ministries, confessional statements, clarity of doctrine, etc. All these are good and worthwhile, but Scripture makes it clear that only one thing is ultimately needful—a clear, consistent, persistent, undistracted view of Christ. Everything else will fall into place if we truly seek first the kingdom of God. Confessional statements are wonderful tools (and we at Media Gratiae use them), but we must not allow them to take preeminence in our hearts.

And notice the plural use of “our” hearts. The commands to treasure Christ are not just given to individual Christians. They are given to bodies of Christians. We cannot truly obey Christ without the element of the local expression of his bride. We hope this episode is a blessing to you, and we will see you next week when John and Jordan continue their discussion.

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The Whole CounselSarah Snyder