It has been a week since you graduated from the Honor Academy. This may have been the least eventful week you have had in a long time. Home is not the same as it once was. Searching for jobs, enrolling in school, trying to find your place in the world you left never to return the same. I had the privilege of watching each one of you graduate, and also to hear Mr. Luce implore you to strive after honor. This is a noble goal, but I would like to encourage you to strive for something slightly different. Obtaining honor is not the chief goal of man, striving to glorify God is.
“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV
So what is glorifying to God? Well that I believe is simple “Love the LORD your God” (Deut. 6:5). John tells us how to love God.
“And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.” 2 John 1:6 NIV
Obedience! At its root the thing that glorifies God is obedience to his commands. His chief command was to love, and the way to love God is through obedience. Mr. Luce talked about the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel. The words these men replied to king Nebuchadnezzar were not words seeking honor but rather were words striving to glorify God. Nebuchadnezzar asked “who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands?” and these three men replied:
"O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O kin. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up." Daniel 3:16b-18
Our God whom we serve, the one we obey, that is who will deliver us. These men did not seek their own honor but the glorification of God.
What about David? This man had his faults. Yes. But he spared Saul’s life twice (1 Samuel 24, 1 Samuel 26) because he desired to obey God. Also, when Nathan confronted David he repented (2 Samuel 12) and recognized that he did not disobey any man but rather he disobeyed God. David a man after God’s own heart glorified God. David did not seek honor, but he got it.
Mr. Luce has it right, to desire the acclaim of honor is good, but do not do it by your own bidding. Therefore, I implore you, seek first the kingdom, seek first to give glory to God, preach the Gospel, love him, obey his commands, and honor will surely fall upon you. Not an honor you can wear as a badge but an eternal one that will stand in the sight of God.
“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” Romans 11:36 ESV
Philemon 1:3,
Ryan Mark
