Yesterday I interacted with Kathryn Wright and Ken Yates on Zoom regarding the account of Mary and Martha as found in Luke 10:38-42.

You probably know what happened. The Lord Jesus went into a village. There, Martha greeted Him and “welcomed Him into her house” (v 38). Martha’s sister, Mary, was home. She sat at Jesus’ feet and soaked up His teaching. Martha then “approached Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me’” (v 40).

The Lord’s answer is surprising: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good [or best] part, which will not be taken away from her” (vv 41-42).

Was Martha wrong in serving the Lord Jesus Christ? Isn’t that what we are supposed to do?

Jesus’ great commandments were to the love the Lord and to love your neighbor as yourself. Martha was doing both here.

I think we get clues from the Lord’s response. She was “worried and troubled about many things.” We are not told what those things were, but we can guess. She was probably concerned with making sure everything she served was fit for the King.

The Lord said that Mary chose “that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” Those last words appear in a number of Jesus’ parables. In the application of the Parable of the Four Soils in Luke, the Lord said, “Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him” (Luke 8:18, emphasis added). Compare John 2:24-25, “But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.” John tells us that these were new believers (John 2:23). Yet the Lord did not “commit Himself to them.” That is, He did not entrust further discipleship truth to them. Only those willing to confess Him, which these new believers were not, would be given more (Luke 8:18).

In other words, Mary was advancing in discipleship, and that would not be taken from her.

In The Grace New Testament Commentary, Al Valdés makes this excellent observation about Luke 10:41-42:

He explains, Mary perfectly reflects the Father’s instruction at the Mount of Transfiguration: “This is My Beloved Son” [sit down at His feet in recognition of His kingship], “Listen to Him” [hear His Word] (pp. 281-82).

Green comments,

“[Mary] is fixed on the guest, Jesus, and his word; she heeds the one whose presence is commensurate with the coming of the kingdom of God” (Luke, p. 437).

Fitzmyer suggests something that is found in many translations:

“the best part. Lit. ‘the good part.’ The positive degree of the adjective is often used in Hellenistic Greek for either the superlative [best] or comparative [better], both of which were on the wane” (Luke X-XXIV, p. 894).

In other words, what Martha was doing was not bad. It was good. But it was not the best she could do. She should have been sitting with her sister, soaking up Jesus’ teaching until He asked her to serve the group some food. He would be with them for only three years. She should learn from Him while she could.

There is danger, of course, in misapplying what the Lord said.

Here are three faulty applications:

1. Spend all your waking hours in church hearing God’s Word taught.
2. Make reading two or more chapters of the Bible your highest priority each day.
3. Go into full-time Christian ministry, not doing secular work or being a housewife.

Application one is clearly wrong. While we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves with other believers (Heb 10:23-25), that was a once-a-week meeting of about three hours in the first few centuries. It was not 24/7/365.

The second application sounds good, but is legalistic and potentially dangerous. The typical believer did not have a Bible, or even a NT, in his home until the invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century. Churches had the entire NT and possibly the entire OT. But the individuals in the church did not.

Of course, since today we do have the Bible in our language, it makes sense that we should read it. But nowhere does the Bible say that we should read so many chapters––or even verses––a day.

Dr. Art Farstad was one of the great Bible teachers of the twentieth century. He was the lead editor for the New King James Version. He published a Greek testament with Zane Hodges. He taught at Dallas Seminary. Art had a small Plymouth Brethren church of about twenty people that met in his home. One Sunday while preaching, he noticed that a young man was not listening to him. Instead, he was intently reading his Bible. This went on Sunday after Sunday.

Art asked him why he was reading and not listening. He said that he was a follower of Bill Gothard and that he was required to read ten chapters of the Bible each day: five psalms, one chapter of Proverbs, two other chapters in the OT, and two chapters in the NT. He was a slow reader, so it took him a lot of time to read and grasp ten chapters. He simply needed the time in church to read. But he did not want to skip church either.

That young man missed the spiritual feasts that Art had prepared. Instead, he was worried and troubled about many things, and he was missing the best thing he should have been doing.

Application three might sound good. The Body of Christ need pastors (or elders), youth pastors, women’s leaders, missionaries, and college and seminary Bible teachers.

The Bible does not command anyone to be in full-time ministry. The apostles were exceptions, and the apostle Paul often worked as a tentmaker in addition to his ministry. Elders in the local church had full-time jobs.

Of course, the laborer is worthy of his hire. So, people are free to go into pastorates, missions, and teaching and to seek to make a living. But there are a limited number of positions available.

For every one hundred believers, maybe a handful can be in full-time ministry. The rest are needed to support the Christian workers.

The Lord was not telling Martha to go into full-time ministry. He was telling her to listen to Him when He was teaching.

Here is what I’d say are the top three applications:

1. Make it your priority to regularly attend a solid Bible-teaching church. Nice buildings, fancy youth programs, and excellent worship teams are no substitute for solid teaching.
2. Come to church “longing for the pure milk of the word” (1 Pet 2:2). Be rested and fed. Be alert. Have ears to hear.
3. When you read God’s Word, be prayerful and seek to understand. Do not look for a feeling as you read. Do not think that God will give you some special meaning of the words. (This is what the verse means to me.) Seek to find the meaning God put in His Word for all who ask to receive, all who seek to find, and to all who knock to have the door of understanding opened (cf. Matt 7:7-11; Luke 24:45; Heb 11:6).

Keep grace in focus, and you will choose the best part.