Relevance

Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.  1 Corinthians 10:31

Whatever You Do – If you are not relevant to the Kingdom, you are not relevant at all.  That covers the whole of life.  Everything must be in the cross hairs of the Kingdom.  Paul punches home the point by picking those two things that are basic to life itself – eating and drinking.  If even these most basic acts must be focused on the glory of God, how can anything else be exempt?  It’s all captured under the Greek phrase eiti ti poieite.

None of us will disagree – especially among our fellow believers.  We know the game.  On Sunday, we espouse the formal stipulations of the faith.  Of course we live for Jesus.  That’s what we are expected to say.  But the truth comes forth on Monday.

On Monday, we will need to speak with the Kingdom crosshairs on our words.  Some choices of tone, vocabulary and content must be purged.  On Monday, we will need to have a Kingdom perspective about our work.  God arranges life, not us.  Complaints are voiced against Him, ultimately.  Don’t like your job?  Have you asked God to reveal to you your Kingdom role exactly where you are?  On Monday, you’ll get to decide what you allow into the visual and audio cortex, based on Kingdom concerns.  Garbage in – garbage out.  There are no exceptions, and, no, you are not so smart and so powerful that you can handle the exposure without effect.  On Monday, you’ll get to drive with Kingdom regard.  You might play a round of golf to God’s glory (wouldn’t that be different?).  You’ll interact with children and adults, and be asked to think of them as God does.  You’ll confront sorrow, need and pain – and you will remember that the Kingdom is for “the least of these.”  On Monday, what you said on Sunday will need to become the full reality of living, not the formal recital of the expected. 

Suppose Paul made his remark as a negative, rather than a positive, statement.  Suppose he said, “Whatever you do not do to the glory of God has no value in the Kingdom.”  If you eat without recognizing the provision of God, you sin.  If you drink without acknowledging the compassion of God, you sin.  Anything you do that does not display the character of the Creator is sin.  The Kingdom crosshairs focus on every act, every thought and every word in the life of the believer.  Nothing idle gets by. 

Now that you know, what will Monday be like?  Will the crosshairs reveal that whatever you do has God’s glory in mind?