Isaiah 42:8 (ESV)

I am the LORD; that is My name; My glory I give to no other, nor My praise to carved idols.

Isaiah 48:11 (ESV)

For My own sake, for My own sake, I do it, for how should My name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.

Have you ever thought about what is most important to God? I don’t guess I really thought about it for a long time. I suppose that was because I was so focused on myself. But we need to think about what is most important to God, because what is most important to God needs to be most important to us. We have to get this right!

God’s glory is most important to God.  That’s it. I would challenge you to think hard about this reality of God. This is the one reality that can change everything for us. John Piper, in Desiring God, helped me to see this truth. Let me share what He writes,

My conclusion is that God’s own glory is uppermost in His own affections. In everything He does, His purpose is to preserve and display that glory. To say that His glory is uppermost in His own affections means that He puts a greater value on it than on anything else.

God’s ultimate goal therefore is to preserve and display His infinite and awesome greatness and worth, that is, His glory.

God has many other goals in what He does. But none of them is more ultimate that this. They are all subordinate. God’s overwhelming passion is to exalt the value of His glory. To that end He seeks to display it, to oppose those who belittle it, and to vindicate it from all contempt. It is clearly the uppermost reality in His affections. He loves His glory infinitely.

This is the same as saying: He loves Himself infinitely. Or: He Himself is uppermost in His own affections. A moment’s reflection reveals the inexorable justice of this fact. God would be unrighteous (just as we would) if He valued anything more than what is supremely valuable. But He Himself is supremely valuable. If He did not take infinite delight in the worth of His glory He would be unrighteous. For it is right to take delight in a person in proportion to the excellence of that person’s glory. (Piper, 43)

Think Harder

• What is God’s glory? (We’ll look further in the next post, but begin to think about it.)
• Look through your Bible and get an idea of how much is written about God’s glory.

REFERENCE LIST

Piper, John. 1996. Desiring God. Sisters, OR: Multnomah Books.