Speaking to business owners around the country, we are in a work crisis. Finding individuals who will show up when scheduled and do the job the company hired them to do has become challenging. We are not even speaking about individuals who would go above and beyond in their work ethic. With this reality as a backdrop, what does it mean to glorify God in my work? To make God look as good as He is, we can examine and understand a couple of seemingly forgotten principles.

 

First, we should consider the principle in Ecclesiastes 9:10, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.” As a Christian worker, we should give our entire energy to our job when we are doing our job. There seems to be no place for the Christian worker who punches the time clock and steals from their boss through inefficient, lazy work. God is not lazy, so we should not be either.

 

Second, we should consider the principle found in Luke 16:1-13. In this parable, Jesus tells of a steward wasting his master’s possessions. When the master learned of this, he called him in to demote him and place another servant over his possessions. When the unfaithful steward knew he would be demoted, he worried about his future. Suddenly, he started to do his job and collect the back payments owed to his master. He would receive a cut of the payment, which assured him that he would be taken care of. The master commended the steward for collecting these debts and commented that this is what should have happened all along. Unfortunately, the steward (motivated only by selfishness) failed to do this until it would personally benefit him. Christ then comments that Christians should be faithful despite having little or much. In other words, Christians should be trusted to do their job. They should be faithful to accomplish what they are called to do.

 

These two principles show that the Christian worker glorifies God by working hard, efficiently, and faithfully. They accomplish what they are asked to do to the best of their ability. These are just two of many principles which you can take from Scripture and apply to your work. You need to ask, how can I make God look good doing this?

 

How do we glorify God in the church? Again, there are numerous principles. We must ask, what would make God look good here? When we do this, we discover the importance of edifying one another through speech and song (Psalm 148:14; Colossians 3:16). We find out the importance of seeking unity and not taking up offenses for others (Romans 12:3-8; Ephesians 4:1-3). We discover the importance of submitting to spiritual authority (Hebrews 13:17). In short, we glorify God in the church when we don’t make it about us but about God.

 

How do we glorify God in the home? We look at the family roles and structures in texts like Ephesians 5 and 1 Peter 3. These texts show the importance of loving one another as Christ loves us. We see the importance of submitting to one another and sacrificing for one another. We know the call to complete commitment that overlooks hurts. It changes everything when we seek to make God look good in how we interact as a family.

 

Hopefully, you see how glorifying God is to encompass every area of life. Glorifying God is not simply something we do in the Sunday service or our personal quiet time. Glorifying God is to become a lifestyle for the believer. Even in the areas we mentioned, the principles we examined are not exhaustive. Every thought, action, and reaction should point to the goodness of God. Your clothes, music, speech, and even your food should make God look as good as He is. Examining God’s Word, you should ask how those texts inform you to live for God’s glory.