It is an amazing thing to me, sometimes, to read Untwisting. It is a marvel - not because of how wrong or right it is; but rather how convoluted the understanding of Scripture and Biblical teaching is. And I don't place this misunderstanding on Lalaith or Threnody or the unsaved in general alone. There is an overall tendency in the conservative Church to misunderstand the priorities things are to have and to take good things to extremes. This brings about so much confusion and it's being taught throughout the Church.
Lalaith wrote this post, which basically boils down to her story of rearranging priorities.
Priorities are difficult things; they're slippery and they don't like to stay. Reorganizing them is one of those things that seems to always be necessary. At the very least, checking up on them is, making sure that they are in the proper order. As with everything though, we have a perfect example in our Lord Jesus and we are told to follow in His steps (I Peter 2:21).
For the sake of clarity, I want to make a distinct separation between the priority itself and the action that flows out of it. Christ's purpose, His first priority, was always to bring glory to the Father; but this highest of priorities showed itself in a myriad of ways. It came out through mercy (John 8:1-11), anger (Matt. 21:12), judgment (Matt. 21:18-19), love (Matt. 20:32-34), etc. etc. Jesus never once lost His focus on doing the Father's will and bringing glory to God.
Christ also had the purpose of bringing sinners to Himself. This was another priority, but lesser. Because it was in line with God's will though, the actions that Christ took to save sinners were the same actions that He took to glorify the Father. This is the beauty of proper priorities: they work together seamlessly.
So when we look at that children's lesson of JOY - Jesus, Others, You - we have to keep in mind the end result. Putting others first doesn't mean that you send all your money to the poor, so much that you die of starvation. Because Jesus comes before Others, you seek the will of God first. And sometimes, the will of God is that you get away for an evening and spend it in prayer (Matt. 14:22-23). Jesus took time to sleep, even though He knew that the disciples were going to need His help in the middle of it (Mark 4:38).
Taking care of yourself is not necessarily putting yourself before others. It can be, but it doesn't HAVE to be. There are times when it is better for us NOT to do everything that we can.
I have never heard that the reason we are to put others first is because we're so selfish that we'll take care of ourselves anyway. I don't know anyone who would say that. The reason we're to put others first is that because even when I make sure that I get enough sleep at night, it's to be so that I can glorify God better tomorrow, so that I'll be more useful to people in the morning, so that I'm not exhausting myself to the detriment of my baby. It's because it's not to be FOR ME that I take care of myself, but so that I have more to give for others.
We are definitely supposed to care for ourselves - but only for the sake of optimizing how much we can give back. That is the priority, the focus. When God's glory comes first, helping others will automatically come second, and taking care of ourselves will often be the wisest choice, lest we lose our usefulness.
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