We live to bring glory to God . . .

As we share those first words of our church mission statement each Sunday morning, we declare our reason for existence. What does it mean to “bring glory to God?”

In Jesus’ prayer for His followers just before His betrayal, we overhear Him making this request:

“Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those You have given Him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.” (John 17:1-3, NIV)

Jesus goes on to pray, “I have given them the glory that You gave Me” (v. 22) for this purpose: “to let the world know that You sent Me . . ..” (v. 23).

“Glory” is a bright, shining word that describes the essence of God’s being. Does that help define it? Here’s another source that may “shed some light:”

“Fadir, the our cometh; claifie this one, that this one clarifie thee; as thou hast yovun to hym power on ech fleische, that l thing that thour hast yovun to hym, he gyve to hem everlastynge liif. And this is everlastynge liif, that thei knowe thee very God alone, and whom thour has sent, Jesu Christ.”

That is John Wycliffe’s translation of John 17:1-3 from Latin into the English of 1388. How does that “shed light” on the meaning of God’s glory? Compare the two translations. Find the word “glorify” in the NIV (modern English) and note the parallel word in Wycliffe’s day: “clarifie.” To glorify God is indeed to “clarify” Him - to make Him clear, to make Him known, to remove anything that might cloud or complicate or confuse our knowledge of Him.

Jesus “clarified” God by being “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being,” according to Hebrews 1:3. We are called to do the same! Does your life make Him clear or complicated? Do your words bring clarity or confusion?

Let’s live to make God clear to those who haven’t seen His glory or heard His Name. Let’s love God, serve others, share Jesus.

Jerry