Let’s Be Preoccupied

Neal Pollard

Being engrossed in thought or distracted can be a bad thing, when you are driving, operating heavy equipment, or conversing with your spouse. But if you are preoccupied with those tasks, you should be commended. There is a word found a handful of times in the New Testament which conveys a powerful thought. The word is προσκαρτερέω (prostartereo). Depending on context and whether it is connected with a person or an object, it is translated “stand ready” (Mark 3:9), “devoting” (Acts 1:14; 2:42; 6:4; Rom. 12:12; 13:6; Col. 4:2), “continuing” (Acts 2:46; 8:13), and “personal attendants” (Acts 10:7, noun form). Two of the passages speak of physical laborers who were focused on a task for one who had the right or power to command them (Mark 3:9; Acts 10:7; the Greek Old Testament uses this word in Numbers 13:21 when Moses tells the spies to “make an effort then to get some of the fruit of the land”). One speaks of how earthly rulers are servants of God, devoted to their rule). The other passages refer to actions Christians took the initiative to do.

What preoccupied the time, thoughts, and energies of the early saints?

• Prayer (Acts 1:14; 2:42; 6:4; Col. 4:2).
• The Apostles’ Teaching (Acts 2:42).
• Fellowship (Acts 2:42).
• The Lord’s Supper (Acts 2:42).
• The Ministry Of The Word (Acts 6:4).

It’s not a long and complicated list. They were engrossed in the public and private practice of prayer. They were riveted on studying and knowing and sharing the Word. They were dialed in to spending time with each other (and welcoming others to become part of them). They were obsessed with coming together to praise and adore God in worship. It affected their whole lives all the time.

The word carries the idea “of decisive or unflinching perseverance” and “emphasizes the persistent and submissive perseverance and tenaciousness of a self-enclosed group collectively oriented toward specific goals” (EDNT, 172). As you evaluate your life, what are your preoccupations? Your obsessions? What are you constantly driven to think, say, and do? Does it reflect the undivided attention of the early Christians, who by such preoccupation took the gospel to the whole world (Col. 1:23) and turned it upside down (Acts 17:6)? Devoutness to exclusively the things that will be destroyed when Christ returns is a tragic distraction! Let’s boil life down to the irreducible imperatives, “the good part, which shall not be taken away from…” us (Luke 10:42).