Of First Importance

The “About” section of this blog explains three things that are important to me and which also, to a great extent, drive the content of my posts:

• Italy and anything pertaining to the Italian language and culture
• Conservative politics and commentary
• Christian theology and apologetics.
  

With all the rage going on lately with the health care debate and many of the other outrageous things that have been going on in our country, I perhaps have been devoting way too much space to matters political. But whether I am talking about politics, Italy, theology, family and friends or other musings, I view these as all secondary. There is something else that is of first importance: the Gospel.

I recently stumbled onto a blog that is aptly titled Of First Importance . It’s format is usually a daily quote, sort of an inspirational “thought for the day”. But this is not your typical kumbaya, “Chicken Soup for the Soul” type of inspiration. Each day brings a very pithy, meaningful message not from some pop psychologist or modern day inspirational speaker, but from giants of the faith of ages past and present. The messages simply remind us of the Gospel and encourage us to live each day in the good of the Gospel, and all of its far reaching implications in our lives.

The phrase “of first importance” actually comes from a verse of Scripture. In his first letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul was writing to a group of Christians who had spent way too much time majoring on minors and had forgotten the essence of the Gospel. They had forgotten the main event that defined who they were: that Jesus Christ had died for their sins and rose again:

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” [I Corinthians 15:3-4)

If we can lay hold of this glorious truth--or rather let this glorious truth take hold of us, then everything else that we deem so important will fall into its rightful place.