Living for the Glory of God

The Apostle Paul calls the church to live all of life coram Deo, before the face of God, so that whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, we do all to the glory of God. Against the temptation to retreat from a culture marked by the degradation of Romans 1, the ordinary Christian calling is to remain where God has planted us and make His glory visible. That life begins in true worship, public and private, offered in spirit and in truth, with reverence, joy, order, and faith. It continues at the table: food and drink are gifts of the Creator who owns the earth and has given it to the children of men, to be received with thanksgiving, enjoyed with mirth, and kept within the fences He has set, neither despised as common nor abused in gluttony or drunkenness. From that foundation the text opens onto the whole of life—good works that shine before men, fruit that remains, bodies treated as purchased by Christ, Sabbath rest that confesses God as our sustainer, and the receiving of one another for His sake. Ordinary faithfulness at table, work, speech, and neighborly love is how the church displays the holiness, generosity, and lordship of God.