1/3/12- Physically Glorifying God

¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. ¹⁹ Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body. (1 Cor. 6:18-20) ³¹ So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (1 Cor. 10:31). 

Thoughts: Christians are called to reflect Christ's glory.  But how is this done?  Some think this is done solely by mystical meditation and worshipful acts.  But the message of the prophets (and echoed in Jesus) is "These people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me"  (Is. 29:13; Mt. 15:8).  Isaiah speaks of people fasting and worshiping but not listening or behaving in godly ways.  We cannot seek to glorify God with our soul and spirit but not glorify God with our physical actions.  We do not simply love God with heart soul and mind but also not physical strength.  Jesus said "If anyone loves me they will listen to what I say" (Jn. 14:10).  To leave worship and meditation out of our love for God is wrong.  But to also leave out listening to Him and obedience means we are going our own way, setting out for our own glory and honor and pleasure instead of His.  So Paul says how we do the most important and regular physical things- eating, drinking, sexual acts are ways we glorify God.  We have been bought by Christ- body and soul- therefore we seek His will above our own pleasure.  This may mean pushing back from the table of sexual immorality, or back from the table of over-indulgence and gluttony.  Glorifying God is not done in a vacuum but in the context and actions of real time and space.  

Prayer: May my actions or refusal of certain actions glorify you, O Lord, this day.  

The great purpose toward which each human life is drawn is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.  Each member of the church glorifies God by recognizing and naming His
glory, which is the manifestation and revelation of His own  nature.  Each member of the church enjoys God by being so united with Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit as to
become a participant in that divine nature, transformed from one degree of glory to another and escorted by Christ into the loving communion of the Trinity.  So we confess our faith not
as a matter of dispassionate intellectual assent, but rather as an act by which we give God glory and announce our membership in the body of Christ. We trust that when God’s glory is so lifted up and when His nature is thus made manifest in the life of the body, the church will be a light that draws people from every tribe and tongue and nation to be reconciled to God.  (Essentials, Fellowrhip of Presbyterians)