Dear Family and Friends,

What are your first thoughts when you read the following verse?

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”  ‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭10‬:‭31‬ NIV

The first thing that came to mind was – how are we to do that? How are we supposed to give glory to God in everything we do?

Let’s start with a definition. To glorify God means to acknowledge how great He is and give Him honor.

In short, today’s verse means to make God the intent of our actions, the reason for doing all that we do.

If we were to look within, my guess is that much of our daily activities are centered on ourselves, for our benefit or pleasure. God’s not in the picture.

We tell ourselves, “God is not in this picture because I have to do this to earn a living, or fulfill this responsibility, or unwind, or…”

Before we go much further, let me warn us against turning Christianity into a set of rules to live by. When reading lists like that found in Romans 12‬:‭10‬-‭21, sometimes all we see are rules to follow:

Love each other like brothers and sisters.
Give each other more honor than you want for yourselves.
Do not be lazy but work hard, serving the Lord with all your heart.
Be joyful because you have hope.
Be patient when trouble comes.
Pray at all times.
Share with God’s people who need help.
Bring strangers in need into your homes.
Wish good for those who harm you; wish them well and do not curse them.
Be happy with those who are happy.
Be sad with those who are sad.
Live in peace with each other.
Do not be proud.
Make friends with those who seem unimportant.
Do not think how smart you are.
If someone does wrong to you, do not pay him back by doing wrong to him.
Try to do what everyone thinks is right.
Do your best to live in peace with everyone.
Do not try to punish others when they wrong you, wait for God to punish them with his anger.
If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink.
Do not let evil defeat you, but defeat evil by doing good.

Do you find this exhausting? If so, there may be an easier way. 

During our visit to Israel, we met one of the sweetest persons ever. His name was Amer. He was more than the driver of our bus; our group adopted him as our son.

Amer was not Jewish, perhaps Palestinian. He was not Christian, he was Muslim. When serious, he looked intimidating. 

But to us, it didn’t matter. From day one, everyone treated him as a friend. We wanted to get to know him. We hugged or fist bumped when we got off the bus and got back on. We showered him with gifts to take home to his wife. We cheered him on as he drove through seemingly impossible situations.

Then on our last day, although he struggled speaking in English, he stood before us and told us how much he loved us and how we became family to him. He even invited us to stay at his house the next time we came. His love filled our hearts. 

I’m not sure if everyone on the bus caught the significance of what Amer was telling us.

In his society, family follows only their faith in importance. Family is the foundation of their society; providing food, shelter, protection, income, reputation and honor.

We were that important to him. Apparently, we weren’t the only one’s transformed during that trip.

So, what happened? We didn’t follow any rules.

What we did was love him. And by doing so, we glorified God. 

This is what our Lord is asking of us. That we love Him with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our minds (see Matthew 22:37) in everything that we do. And one of the best ways to show our love and glorify Him is by loving others in the same way.

As for the list from Romans 12 above, view them not as rules. They are merely ways to love. 

In love always,