--As we have noticed, we glorify God when we proclaim His deeds and when we embody His transformative power in our own lives.
--But this raises a rather devious possibility. Wouldn’t we do well to glorify God if we perhaps could exaggerate or even lie about good things He has done and if we could on our own power live lives even more exemplary than whatever He has empowered us to live?
--See, it’s all fine and well that God has done some good things, but maybe we should claim more than that as a way of making Him look even better? And it seems that God at least permits if not actively causes some bad things that don’t seem to glorify Him all that well, so shouldn’t we perhaps hide or pass over those? Especially the Bible, with all sorts of difficult things, invites us maybe to ignore or avoid such embarrassments.
--And if this is true of the things we tell others about God or His Book, isn’t it just as true in the way we live our lives? I mean it sounds nice to let God’s Spirit transform my heart and behavior, but who has time for that? In the meanwhile, people are looking at me and seeing that I don’t live up to my own standards. So perhaps I should step in and make up the difference by my own effort. And what about my residual sins and flaws? Shouldn’t I cover those over so that no one will see what a splotchy job God is doing to tidy me up? Wouldn’t that glorify God better?
--The same for my marriage. The same for my church. The same for my children. The same for my health and wealth and ideas and everything else. Don’t I best serve God by seeming to be the perfect advertisement? That’s very appealing to the lost, right?
--Well, obviously, there are three big problems with this all-too-common way of thinking. And I’ll explain about them tomorrow.
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