The Path of Least Resistance
Scripture: Second Timothy 1:1-7; 4:2-4; First Samuel 15:1-3; 24
The title of my message this morning is “The Path of Least Resistance.”
The path of least resistance is “the physical or symbolic pathway that provides the least resistance to forward motion by a given object or entity, among a set of alternative paths.” That was a lot of words so let me simplify or take the path of least resistance to aid your understanding of the phrase. The path of least resistance is simply “choosing an option which involves the least difficulty or unpleasantness; the easiest course of action.” People in general look for the easiest way to do things and, in some cases, it makes sense. When I was in graduate school, one of my courses focused on different processes, or different ways of producing something, and how to eliminate unnecessary steps in the process that would enable the organization to get to the end result faster. If you’re in the business of manufacturing a product, eliminating wasteful steps is important to maximizing profits, so the path of least resistance would be beneficial to them. However, for the average person, the path of least resistance means getting the most with the least amount of effort. And for some, it means modifying their goals if they are not willing to do what is required to achieve that goal.
Robert Fritz, who was a renowned ceramics and glass artist in the mid-20th century studio glass movement and, later a professor at San Jose State University in California, wrote a book titled, “The Path of Least Resistance”. When discussing why athletes and musicians put in so much time practicing, Fritz wrote: “Athletes and musicians may not enjoy practicing long hours, but they do so just the same; not out of duty, obligation, or any other form of self-manipulation, but because they are making secondary choices consistent with their primary choice to be able to perform music or excel at sports. Secondary choices are always subordinate to a primary choice. Often there is no reason to make such choices outside of the context of the primary choice that calls for them.” Here’s what the author is saying: because the athlete and musician made the primary choice to excel and be the best, their secondary choices will not allow them to take the path of least resistance. Their secondary choices must contribute to the achievement of the primary choice. As a matter of fact, choices that are not aligned to the primary decision are quickly dismissed. I want you to remember this as you will hear in this message through the examples discussed because without a concrete primary choice, the path of least resistance, in most cases, will be the chosen option. However, when there is a concrete primary choice, the path of least resistance is never an option.
Let me give you two somewhat familiar examples. Have you ever heard someone use the phrase “it just sour grapes”? This term “sour grapes” stems from a myth about a fox that sees grapes that are out of reach so he assumes they are sour. This term is used to refer to an attitude in which it is easier to reduce our expectations than to achieve what we really want if we must work hard to achieve it. In this example, the fox never made the primary choice of getting the grapes because if he had he would not have defaulted to not wanting them because they were probably sour. He chose not to even try to get them because it would be too hard. We also see an example of this with the twelve spies that Moses had sent out to see the Promise Land. Ten of the spies returned and gave a bad report to Moses and the people. Numbers 13:32 records, “And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, ‘The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.’” (Numbers 13:32) This is an example of sour grapes. This is an example of people choosing to reject the primary choice – the Promised Land. Because the ten spies had not chosen first that they would take the land regardless of what they saw, they became afraid of what they saw and chose not to even try when it would be God Who would be doing the heavy lifting. Had they gone to spy the land with a primary choice to take it already being made in their hearts, they would have been like Joshua and Caleb, fired up and ready to go in! Sour grapes is a form of taking the path of least resistance when a concrete primary choice has not been made, and in this case, rejected.
A second example of taking the path of least resistance is when we “lower the bar.” This term refers to lowering the expectations so that it is easier for someone to achieve their goal. This is one area that is a struggle for the Church. The Church is experiencing a time when we are lowering the bar as it relates to what God expects of us. There was a time when Christians were expected to be holy and live a certain way. There was a time when Christians would listen to the Word and then go back and evaluate what they heard compared to what the Word actually says. This is why Paul told Timothy to “(2) Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. (3) For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; (4) and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” (Second Timothy 4:2-4) When pastors, teachers and preachers begin to preach and teach a version of the Word that tickles the people’s ears (makes them happy), they are lowering the bar and will ultimately be responsible for some people ending up in hell – right alongside of them. God takes His word seriously, so it is to all of our benefit that we attempt to handle it the right way, both in our personal lives and what we share with others. If we are lowering the bar as it relates to God’s expectations of us, we have not made the primary choice to walk with God according to His standards and, therefore we have given ourselves options (paths of least resistance) of what we believe is acceptable to God. New Light, we are not allowed to take the path of least resistance when it comes to how we view what God has said in His Word. When we make the primary choice all secondary choices will be made in support of the primary choice or the choice will not be made at all.
In First Samuel chapter fifteen, the story is the record of how Saul lost his kingdom. Remember what I said about once a primary choice is made all secondary choices that are made will support it or the choice will not be selected at all? In First Samuel 15 Saul lost his kingdom because of a primary choice I believe he had made prior to going into battle. Because of his primary choice and the secondary choice that followed, God rejected Saul from being King over His people. When you read First Samuel 15, God is ready to fulfill what He had told Moses He would do to Amalek because he had attacked the Children of Israel when He brought them out of Egypt. Exodus 17:14 records the following; “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.” Now, some 500 years later, God is ready to fulfill His word. He sent Samuel to Saul with this message; “(1)…..The LORD sent me to anoint you king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore, heed the voice of the words of the LORD. (2) Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. (3) Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’” (First Samuel 15:1-3) Saul was given very clear instructions to go and destroy the Amalekites. The words utterly destroy mean “to ban or devote” to the Lord and signified that nothing could be taken as spoil. The Lord’s instructions to Saul were clear: if it breathes, it dies. Saul attacked the Amalekites, but he did not do exactly what God told him to do. Instead of utterly destroying everything, Saul didn’t kill Agag, the king, and he only destroyed the animals that were not worth keeping alive. Because he disobeyed, God became very angry with him and regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel. When God sent Samuel to inform Saul that He had sinned and God was rejecting him, Saul gave this reason for not obeying God: “Then Saul said to Samuel, ‘I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.” (First Samuel 15:24) Now I want you to consider something. The people wanted the spoils; they could not have cared less about the King Agag being kept alive. The fact that King Agag was kept alive tells me that Saul had made a primary choice from the beginning to save Agag alive. Now why would he make this choice? In those days, a conquering king would enjoy the glory of displaying the defeated king and the most valuable portions of the spoils walking slowing behind him with his head bowed. If Saul had made up his mind that he wanted to enter the city as a conquering king to cheers of the people, then Agag had to be marched behind him so the people could see. This primary choice opened the door for the secondary choice to allow the people to take the spoils because he had no grounds to deny them when he was doing something similar. Also, having the best of the spoils paraded through the city with the king further solidified his standing as a conquering king. Do you understand what happened here? Saul could have chosen to stand before them and command that they do exactly what God had ordered, but he became afraid of their response, possibly because of what he was doing with the King Agag, and took the path of least resistance and allowed the people to take spoils. Taking the path of least resistance cost Saul his kingdom and ensured that none of his descendants would be king of Israel.
Turn with me to Second Timothy chapter one. Let’s begin reading at verse one. “(1) Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, (2) To Timothy, a beloved son: grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. (3) I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, (4) greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, (5) when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. (6) Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.” (Second Timothy 1:1-6)
Timothy was the child of a mixed marriage, his mother being Jewish and his father being Greek. He met Paul when Paul traveled to his hometown and it was probably then that he converted to Christianity (after his grandmother and mother had already been converted). Paul took Timothy with him as he traveled and this led to Timothy being a constant, loyal and trusted companion of Paul. Timothy often acted as Paul’s envoy (representative) to the local churches. At the time that Paul wrote this letter to Timothy he was in prison expecting to be executed. In this letter Paul encouraged Timothy to stand strong. We do not know the extent of what Timothy was dealing with, but we do know that one of the issues was that some of the elders of the church did not respect him because of his youth. This is recorded in First Timothy 4:12. “Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.” We also see another hint of this in First Timothy 5:1. “Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers.” When Paul wrote this second letter to Timothy, he wanted to encourage him because he was in danger of weakening spiritually due to this and everything else he was facing. This would have caused Paul grave concerns as Timothy was needed to carry on Paul’s work. In verse six Paul encourages Timothy to “stir up the gift…” This seems to indicate that the fire initially present within Timothy was dimming. To stir up is a term used to stir the ashes within a fire to get them heated – to keep the fire alive. Paul was reminding Timothy that, as a steward of his God, he could not allow his gift to go unused for whatever reason and this brings us to verse seven and why Christians are not allowed to take the path of least resistance.
Paul told Timothy in verse seven, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (Second Timothy 1:7) Paul told Timothy that God had not given him a spirit of fear – a spirit of timidity. Timothy’s approach to his ministry had changed and Paul was attempting to get him back on track. In addition to what he was dealing with in the church, perhaps the threat of Roman persecutions also caused him to take a step back. After all, Paul was in prison and expecting to be executed for the same type of things he was doing. And then, as I said earlier, there was the hostility he faced within the Ephesian Church itself because some felt he was too young to lead the church. Finally he would have been overwhelmed by the false teachers who had infiltrated the Church with a counter message verses the Word Timothy was delivering. Based on what we see in Scripture, these things converged on Timothy at the same time and caused him to back down, become fearful, timid and take the path of least resistance. Paul was commanding him to get back on track. Let’s examine for a moment the one thing Paul told Timothy that God had not given him and the three things that He had.
The first thing Paul tells Timothy is that God had not given him a “spirit of fear” – of being timid or a coward. Fear, timidity and/or cowardice will lead us down the path of least resistance. Fear causes a person to seek out ways to not be afraid and, if that means not doing something that will cause others to resist us, then so be it. Whatever behavior he saw or heard about with Timothy; Paul knew it was not of God. So Paul told Timothy that the way he was acting had not been given to him or approved of by God. Now if fear leads us down the path of least resistance, what doesn’t lead us down this path? Courage! Remember what God told Joshua when He appointed Joshua to take over after Moses died? He told Joshua, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9) God told Joshua to be strong and of good courage. What is the opposite of Fear? Courage! God has called us to be courageous in every situation and in doing so we cannot take the path of least resistance – the path that makes everyone happy with us. No, we have to choose the path that pleases God. Fear is easy because for many fear allows them to choose a path that will most certainly keep their lives simple. I fear losing my job so I go along with whatever comes down. I fear upsetting my family so I will let them do whatever they want. I fear losing my friends so I will go with the flow. I fear offending people so when they ask me what I believe I will sugar coat it so as not to offend them. Fear chooses the path of least resistance and that is not our path. Paul told Timothy that the path of least resistance (how he was becoming fearful and timid in his ministry) was not of God and he had to change path. Then Paul told him how to do it based on what God had given him.
He said God had given him spirit of power. The word “power” is du-na-mis and means “the ability, the force, the might to do something.” Walking in the power of God – in the ability, force and might He has given to us – takes us off the path of least resistance. If there is no resistance then we need no power to get us through. Think about it like this. If you are walking down the sidewalk in Kansas and the wind is blowing in your face, you have to power through because you are walking against the wind. It takes more energy and power to walk against the wind than when the wind is not blowing at all. God has given us power so that, when we are facing all types of resistance, we can power through versus looking for the less resistant route. Now please hear me on this: when you are walking against the wind and you are forcing yourself forward, you will get to your destination, but it might take longer because the wind is resisting you. However, if you choose to stop, turn around and go back the way you came, the wind will push you and you will actually arrive back to your starting point faster than when you left. This same principle applies spiritually; it takes less energy and time to reverse course and return to a worldly lifestyle and way of thinking than the time and effort you spent studying the Word to walk as a child of God on this earth. God gave us power. The opposite of power is weakness. Weakness is easy. Power is hard. We must choose the hard path.
Paul also told Timothy that God also gave us a spirit of love. Why is love so important when it comes to the path of least resistance? Because sometimes loving others can be a challenge. We know that hating others is sometimes very easy, depending on what they have done to us. The path of least resistance when it comes to ministry work and doing things for others is actually unloving – it’s hate. If you think of the things Timothy was dealing with, especially within the four walls of the Church, it would have been easy for his love to start running cold. It would have been easy to stop fighting for the truth when his flock so easily embraced a lie. It would have been easy to stop praying for folks who intentionally got themselves in trouble for believing the false teachers. But Paul told Timothy that God had not placed him on the path of least resistance. You see if Timothy had gone along with the people, he would have been a great pastor in their eyes and his life would have been easier, but he would have been in rebellion to God. He took the abuse, the backstabbing, and mistreatment because he had selected the hard path and he was growing weary. So Paul encouraged him to rekindle his fire and get back on track. Paul was telling him that God had given him a spirit of love – and that love would enable him to walk the hard path.
Finally Paul told Timothy that God had given him a spirit of a sound mind. What is the opposite of a sound mind? The answer is a confused mind. A confused mind always seeks the path of least resistance because it never reaches a point of making a concrete primary choice. Without a concrete primary choice, a mind will accept whatever is presented to it as a choice option. It will not discern because to discern requires work. It will not question, because to question requires work. God has given us a spirit of a sound mind. In other words, we have access to understanding. We have access to judgment (discernment). We have access to truth. To choose to have understanding, judgment and truth is to choose the hard path. It is the choice we make to do something in order to have the knowledge we need to make the appropriate decisions in this world. This is what God has given us. He does not want us confused about His word or who we are in Him. Confusion is easy. Understanding and judgment are hard. One takes work. The other does not; two different and very separate paths.
Paul wrote to Timothy while he was in prison awaiting execution to encourage him to rekindle his fire. He encouraged him to not to take the path of least resistance – to be timid with his ministry and allow the people to believe whatever they want. In verses five and six Paul reminds Timothy of his primary choice. He said, “(5).….I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. (6) Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.” Timothy’s primary choice was to accept Christ by faith. His secondary choices were made in support of his primary choice, entering into ministry with Paul and pastoring the church in Ephesus. Paul, in reminding Timothy of his primary choice, allowed him to see how his current choices were not in alignment with that choice and therefore needed to be set aside. Timothy needed to get back to his primary choice so that every choice, every decision he made from that day forward was in support of his primary choice of accepting Christ.
I told you at the beginning that author Robert Fritz wrote in his book “The Path of Least Resistance” that, “Secondary choices are always subordinate to a primary choice. Often there is no reason to make such choices outside of the context of the primary choice that calls for them.” As a Christian, what is our primary choice? Our primary choice was to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. That primary choice removes all secondary choices that are not in alignment with this one, concrete primary choice. As a Christian, there are no choices when it comes to decisions that are not aligned to our primary decision – Christ! The path of least resistance is not a path we are allowed to take. When we accepted Christ as our personal Savior, that decision became our primary decision. Every decision(s) that we make after that decision is a secondary decision and should be aligned with the primary decision. In your heart of hearts, have you made Christ your primary choice (decision)?
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
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