Whom do You Serve as NUMBER ONE?

© 2021 by Tom Boynton (editing by Kathy Boynton)

Many years ago, a fellow military officer told me, “number one must come first!”  He was committed to prioritizing his own interests above all others.

Since then, I’ve repeatedly noticed that, all too often, I, myself, have operated in this same, very selfish mode.  I’ve become painfully aware that the origin of this philosophy is Satan himself.  Years ago, Satan mocked God’s prohibition against eating a forbidden fruit.  God had warned Adam that disobedience would initiate death.  However, Satan deceived Adam’s wife, Eve, with the following lie.

“… Ye shall not surely die:  For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5)

“Ye shall be as gods!”?  Satan tempted Eve to prioritize her own desires over God’s command.  He deceived her into trying to usurp God’s position as “number one.”  She and Adam, not God, would “be as gods.”  After Satan deceived Eve into eating the fruit, she gave some to Adam, who knew better, but ate it anyway.  Unsaved mankind has been spiritually dead ever since.

When God the Son, Jesus Christ, began His public ministry, Satan tried to get Christ to worship him.  Christ responded with the following statement which declared God’s rightful position as “number one.”

“Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” (Matthew 4:10)

God, alone, is to be recognized and served as supreme.  Jesus Christ, the Savior, sacrificed his life, on a cruel cross, to “save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).  As God in the flesh, He paid the righteous penalty, established by God, who is “number one.”  Scripture tells us to follow Christ’s example.

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:  Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.  Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:  That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;  And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  (Philippians 2:5-11)

Have you asked Christ to save you from your own sinful pretense of being “number one”?

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