The pastor of a church I attended in the past had a motto: “Keep the main thing the main thing.” Everything boiled down into that one simple motto endears it to my memory. This is the singular solution to everything in the universe, and it's so simple. Yet, it's so hard to do.

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Imagine yourself being born into a Jewish family in Rome seven years after the birth of Jesus. You're raised studying the Mosaic Law, AKA the Law of Moses. These laws, around 600 of them, were given to Moses by God Himself. Moses recorded these laws in the Pentateuch, which we know today as the first five books of the Bible. Two sections of these books, Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, established the food laws, i.e. what you could or could not eat. What you could eat was known as “clean.” What you could not eat was known as “unclean.” Thus, you became unclean if you ate something unclean. If you were unclean, worship and societal restrictions were placed on you until you made yourself clean again.

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Now, imagine yourself 50 years later. You've lived your life ingrained with the Mosaic Law, but you've heard through the grapevine that a teacher has taught something radical – something heretical, even: What you eat does not define you as clean or unclean. Would you believe it?

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In the present day, with the benefit of 2,000 years of hindsight, it's easy to answer “yes.” But this issue of being defiled by what you ate was tearing apart the early Christian church in Rome. So much so, that the Apostle Paul addresses this issue in the epistle he wrote to the Roman church in approximately 57 AD. We know this epistle as the book of Romans. In today's verses, Paul is essentially telling these early Christians, “Keep the main thing the main thing.” So, what is the “main thing?”

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The relationship between all fellow believers and Jesus is the single most unifying culmination of everything in the universe. Nothing else is more important. Without Jesus, nothing else bears any fruit. Jesus is the main thing.

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Jesus addressed what makes a person clean or unclean in Mark, chapter 7. He taught that what enters through the mouth does not go to the heart but to the stomach and out of the body. How then could food make someone clean or unclean? He goes on to say, what comes out of a “person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person” (Mark 7:20-23).

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Yet, despite that clear instruction, the early church in Rome was making food an issue of divisiveness. Don't be too hard on those early Christians. As we experienced in our trip back in time imagining life as a Jew in 57 AD, it must have been a major paradigm shift for their ingrained belief. And if we're honest, are we any better?

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I confess to having had evil thoughts like those mentioned above. There have been times when I've caused divisiveness over something that pales in significance to the main thing. I know what He wants. The problem is what He wants is not always what I want. My imaginary 50-year-old Jewish self, living in 57 AD, is focused on what you eat, not the main thing.

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And more so, Jesus gave His life for all of us (1 Tim. 2:6). Therefore, we should lay down our life if otherwise we'd create a “stumbling block” in the relationship between Jesus and any of our brothers or sisters. How I'd like that to be what I want, always. I'll keep trying. I hope you will, too.

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Jesus sums it all up in Matthew 22:37-40: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

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600+ Mosaic Laws condensed into two simple commandments. Or, even more simply: “Keep the main thing the main thing.”

Jesus, my relationship with you is the most important thing in my life. Forgive me when I don't remember that. In everything I do or think, please remind me that you gave your life for the least of us. Please Lord, don't let me cause others to stumble because of my pride. Help me to love others as myself. Jesus, I love you. I love you, I love you. Amen.