Martha or Mary, and the Church of Ephesus

 

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Love only, and forget the works?

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Why?

Faith without works is dead. James 2:14-26

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Martha and Mary – Martha does all the work, Mary does not help her, Jesus chooses Mary’s actions over Martha’s

Luke 10:38-42

38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.

39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the LORD’s feet listening to what he said.

40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “LORD, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

41 “Martha, Martha,” the LORD answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,

42 but few things are needed-or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

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To the Church in Ephesus – hard work and perseverance, faithful, tested with hardships, but considered not as loving as they used to be???

Revelation 2

2 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.

2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.

3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.

5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

7 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

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Both Martha and Mary loved Jesus, but Mary was preferred, as she made her sister do all the work, and stayed with Jesus.

This seemed unfair to Martha, who, if she could have gotten some help, would then be able to stay with Jesus also.

Martha was seen as less loving.

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The Church of Ephesus was like Martha, working hard for the Lord, hating evil and faithfully enduring hardships, but was described as unloving as well.

It seems like they were wasting their time doing anything to serve the Lord.

I can see people becoming out of balance by focusing on works only, but enduring hardships and testing indicates love is really there.

Otherwise, they would just give up and walk away.

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Love or Serve?

So should we sit in our ivory towers, let others do all the teaching, preaching, building, witnessing, writing, and leading?

Let others go through persecution, torture, hardships and death.

That way, we can focus on just loving the Lord, and get our reward in heaven?

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This baffles me.

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Why can’t there be a balance?

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How do we know when we are serving the Lord too much and should be loving him more?

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How do we know when we are loving the Lord, but not serving Him enough?

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The answer for one person may differ from what may be the answer for another person.

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For me, I serve the Lord because I do love Him, and His Word and Presence is my main priority, so this answer is not that clear to me.

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Pray for me that I find the right balance.

I do not want my lampstand to be taken from me.

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