The Sacrifice of Living

1 Corinthians 10:31
"Whatever you do, do for the glory of God."

In the ministry, I have seen a lot of people do some fairly strange things believing it glorified God. As a practice, even though I might not approve of something a brother or sister does, I do my best to leave it to God as to why they do it.
And sometimes that is very, very hard to do.
But I believe the Apostle Paul well states the commitment every Christian should make in living life to its fullest in obedience to God - whatever we do should be done for the glory of God.

Yet, the great hindrance to our constant praise and glory to God is the fact we live in two totally separate worlds which forever divide our lives - the Sacred and the Secular.
These two are morally and spiritually incompatible; or so we think.

Those of us who follow Christ know that we must be in two worlds at once.
As such, we have two separate lives and we try to compartmentalize each life.
One life is as a son of Adam or daughter of Eve - subject to the limitations of the flesh and its desires we inherited from so long ago.
The other life we lead is more spiritual and has a higher calling for we are children of God.

As a result, in the back of our minds that our two lives in our two worlds constantly struggle with one another.
We are constantly and continually engaging in two separate acts - one set is to always please Christ; these acts spring solely from our faith.
The other side is secular acts which seem to us to be ordinary, natural and repetitive. And we tire easily and get bored with these acts.

Have you ever wondered why there are so many divorces? 
Some stop seeing their marriage as an act of worship and it becomes an ordinary, repetitive thing they just 'do' in life.
We get bored with what we see as a secular act and we quickly have no time or energy for it.
But I digress.

The truth is that somewhere in the middle, the Christian somehow believes he is caught.
We tend to think the humdrum acts of life are a waste of time as we walk the tightrope of life.

But the problem with this dilemma we seem to have is the fact that the dilemma is not real at all.
There is no foundation of separating the sacred from the secular in the New Testament.
Once we belong to Christ, there is to be no such thing as a divided life.
Jesus' summary of deeds in life - 'I do always the things that please Him.'
That 'Him' is of course God the Father; we should do the same.

Now, this is not pious idealism; nor is it an unrealistic faith.
Jesus Christ never performed a non-sacred act in His entire life - now, let that sink in for a moment.
Jesus, the One who we say we follow, never once in His entire life from childhood through adolescence to adulthood and death, ever committed a non-sacred, non-holy act.

As an example, when Jesus sent the disciples for the donkey in the last week of His life, He commanded if anyone asked what they were doing, they were to say, 'The Lord has need of it...'
The same should be applied to us.
Every act should be considered a sacrificial, sacred act before God Himself with the purpose of worshipping Him.
The Lord has need of us and we should have an aggressive faith - offering all of our deeds to His glory and demonstrating His goodness through our lives.

This thought is demonstrated throughout the NT: an aggressive faith, a sacrificial faith, a living faith which glorifies the Lord at every turn.
And it is possible.

In Israel, the holy teachers would always teach principles and their subjects by starting at the beginning.
When Jesus appeared on the scene, He taught in this manner: 'You have heard it said....but I say to you...'
It didn't matter what the subject matter was, Jesus took the principle and made it into an act of the living; translation - it is great to talk about principles, but it is better to let people see the principle alive in you every day.
This is what glorifies God.
In  more practical terms - school is over, let real faith beget real living that praises God at every step.

In essence, all we do is to praise and glorify God; and all we do is the sacrifice of living.

The Apostle Paul taught us that everyday was to be treated as Holy, all meat was clean and that all acts are acceptable to God.
Now, this does not mean everything is of equal importance or of equal value before the Lord.
Paul's sewing of tents in the Mediterranean heat is not equal in importance to writing the Book of Romans, but both are accepted of God as true acts of worship and praise.

When it comes to Christians, all are to engage in the sacrifice of living because it is through this we can glorify God and praise Him in all that we do.
In Christ, our seemingly separate worlds have been joined for the purpose of the glory of God.

But it should also be said that while all men are created equally in the sight of God, not all men are equally as useful.
Yet, a 'layman' should not think of himself as being inferior to a 'minister.'
Serving God and glorifying Him is not just a minister's job, it is the privilege of every man or woman who has been called of the Holy Spirit to grace.
Every man is to serve where he is called and we are all called as His ministers with the purpose of serving, worshipping and glorifying Him.

It is not what the individual Christian  does that determines the sacred or the secular. 
It is Why He Does It!
When it comes to honor before Christ, motive of the heart is everything.

May we all have the right motives in our hearts with all that we do, so that God may be honored, praised and glorified in this sacrifice of living in which we engage in each day before Him.

Until next time, try to win one for the good guys.