ARE YOUR PRIORITIES PHYSICAL OR SPIRITUAL New

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 2025

The Call to Kingdom-Focused Living

BIBLICAL FOUNDATION:

ARE YOUR PRIORITIES PHYSICAL OR SPIRITUAL

• TEXT: John 4:27-38 (NIV)

27: Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”28: Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people,29: “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”30: They came out of the town and made their way toward him.31: Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”32: But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”33: Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”34: “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.35: Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.36: Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.37: Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true.38: I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

MESSAGE:The Clash of Priorities: Physical vs. Spiritual

ARE YOUR PRIORITIES PHYSICAL OR SPIRITUAL?

A person’s priorities define their life. They are a compass that directs our thoughts, actions, and energy. At the core of every person’s being, there is a fundamental choice: a person’s top priority can either be God or money, physical or spiritual, temporal or eternal, but it cannot be both. The gospel of Jesus Christ demands a radical reorientation of our priorities, a shift from the earthly to the divine.

In our text, we see a powerful illustration of this clash. The disciples, returning from the town with food, find Jesus engaged in conversation with a Samaritan woman. They are surprised by this interaction, but they say nothing. Their primary concern is immediate and physical: their Rabbi is tired and hungry. They urge him, “Rabbi, eat something.” Their priority is physical nourishment.

Jesus, however, has a completely different focus. He had just finished a profound and life-changing conversation with the Samaritan woman, revealing Himself as the living water. He was so consumed by the spiritual work he had just done that He had forgotten His physical hunger and thirst. When His disciples offered Him food, He said, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” Confused, the disciples began to wonder if someone had secretly brought Him food.

Jesus’ Kingdom-First Mandate

Jesus used their confusion as a teaching moment to reveal His own core priority. He said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” (John 4:34). This is the key to understanding Jesus’ ministry and the call He places on our lives. For Jesus, His deepest satisfaction and sustenance did not come from a physical meal but from fulfilling His Father’s will. The will of God was His nourishment, His drive, and His purpose.

This teaching stands in stark contrast to the human tendency to focus on the physical and the material. Nicodemus, in a previous chapter, could only think of a physical birth when Jesus spoke of being born again. The Samaritan woman initially only saw the physical water from Jacob’s well. And here, the disciples are fixated on physical food. These examples highlight a common human limitation: our minds often default to the tangible, the immediate, and the visible.

Jesus challenges us to “open our eyes” and see beyond the physical. He points to the fields of Samaria, a land his disciples would have seen as a place to be avoided, a place of spiritual barrenness. But Jesus saw it differently. He saw a harvest of souls ready for the picking. “I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” (John 4:35).

This metaphor of the harvest is powerful. Jesus saw the Samaritan town, with all its social and moral baggage, not as a place to be shunned but as a field ripe for spiritual transformation. The woman at the well, with her questionable past, became the first evangelist to her people, bringing the entire town out to see Jesus.

The Danger of Misplaced Priorities

The world today, and even parts of the modern church, often fall into the same trap as the disciples. Many leaders and believers are so focused on the physical—on money, buildings, power, and prestige—that they have lost sight of the spiritual harvest. They see people not as souls to be saved but as “ATM machines” to fund extravagant lifestyles.

In many places, including regions in Africa, the two most successful industries are politics and religion. Sadly, in both of these sectors, the people are often treated as commodities to be exploited. This is a tragic and dangerous departure from the example of Jesus. He saw every person as a valuable soul for whom He would ultimately lay down His life. He never used people for His own gain; He served them for their eternal benefit.

The disciples’ experience at the well is a lesson for all of us. We are called to be sowers and reapers of the eternal harvest. We are to join in the work of the Kingdom, a work that is so satisfying that it becomes our very food. We are called to labor for a crop that yields eternal life, not temporary gain.

A Call to Kingdom Living

The ultimate question posed by this passage is: Are your priorities God’s kingdom and His righteousness? (Matthew 6:33).

• Is your primary focus on accumulating wealth and physical possessions, or is it on building God’s Kingdom and storing up treasures in heaven?
• Do you see people as a means to an end, or do you see them as precious souls in need of a Savior?
• Do you find your deepest satisfaction in a paycheck, a new car, or a comfortable lifestyle, or is it in doing the will of Him who sent you and finishing His work?

The path to an abundant life is not found in pursuing our own selfish desires but in making God’s priorities our own. When we align our lives with His will, everything else falls into place. The physical needs will be met, but our focus will be on the eternal.

Let us pray for a radical shift in our priorities. Let us ask God to open our eyes to the spiritual harvest around us and to fill us with the same zeal that compelled Jesus to say, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”

PRAYER:

Have mercy, O Lord, for our priorities are no longer in tandem with Your priorities. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit, and give us the grace to seek first Your Kingdom and Your righteousness, in Jesus’ name. Amen.