The More Important Question
Christians are often faced with having to decide whether or not to engage in a particular activity or behaviour. Their decisions are often based on their answer to the question: “Can I do this and still be a good Christian?” That’s a fine question and it offers some help. Believers wouldn’t want to do something that was clearly sinful. As followers of the One who did everything to please His Father, we wouldn’t want to find ourselves in a position where we displease God. If you pay close attention to the previous sentence, you will notice that I changed expressions from positive to negative in midstream. I indicated that Jesus always wanted to please God, but that often Christians are more concerned with not wanting to displease God.
While variations of the question, “Can I do this and not offend God?” offer some help as we determine what activities or behaviours we should engage in, it is limited because, in effect, the question could be stated more bluntly: “Can I get away with this?” This is not a question Jesus ever asked. His question, and the more important one for us, is: “Does this glorify God?” When we ask that question, a different set of answers emerges. It’s not enough to be neutral, merely engaging in behaviours that don’t displease God. As followers of Jesus, decisions should be made in the light of what pleases and glorifies God. For a Christian to live merely to not offend God falls far short of the mark of God’s stated intention for us: to conform us to the likeness of His Son. If the special person in your life were to act toward you strictly in ways that didn’t displease you, it wouldn’t be very pleasant, would it? Yet somehow Christians have picked up the idea that God is satisfied by our living this kind of milquetoast existence which, though not displeasing Him, is not pleasing to Him either. I think this is what Jesus was driving at, in his message to the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3, when he addressed the issue of their lukewarmness.
We are believers enough to not want to displease God, but we are not passionate enough about the relationship to want to glorify Him in everything we do. We want to reserve areas of our life, be they small or large, to be under our own control. We want to be able to pursue some of our own goals and do things that are pleasing or meaningful to us. Not that these things are necessarily wicked or overtly sinful, it’s just that they are motivated by a desire for our short-term benefit, rather than for God’s long-term glory.
Of course, this can be trickier than we might like to think at first. Meet Jordan, a student who has a looming deadline on a project as a Christian he wants to glorify God with His work and to do that, he needs to spend some time on it. While he’s thinking about this, some friends invite him out to socialize with them. He now has a decision. If he only asks himself if this will “displease God,” he will conclude that he may as well go because his being with his friends would not displease God.
However if he asks himself, “which of the two options is most glorifying to God, he may decide he should do his schoolwork – after all, whatever his hand finds to do he should do with all his might. The project is a single item that has a deadline attached to it. By putting it off, he gets a lower mark and thus dishonours God who desires excellence in all things. On the other hand, his friendships are continuing. He can be with them at another time to sustain those relationships. He doesn’t dishonour God, though he may displease his friends.
This becomes a little more complicated if the friends happen to be in significant spiritual need - perhaps unbelievers who need guidance toward developing a relationship with God, or Christians struggling in one way or another in an area of faith, where Jordan could be of assistance. Weighing this in the balance, he may answer the question differently and decide that being with his friends is in fact more glorifying to God than doing the school assignment.
I’m not proposing that there is always one single right answer. I’m not setting myself up as judge, jury and executioner. I merely promote the idea that, as Christians, we don’t limit ourselves to the common question, “Would this displease God?” Rather, as followers of Jesus, we should guide our behaviour with the far more important question. “Does this glorify God?” If we challenge ourselves with this, we will always get the right answer for the situation at hand. If we don’t ask this question, we will always come up with an inferior answer.
Ron Hughes
© February 2007
