“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
The Work
Paul does not restrict this instruction to obviously spiritual or significant activities. He includes eating and drinking, the most ordinary, repeated, unremarkable acts of daily life, and applies the same standard to them: do all to the glory of God. There is no category of activity, including your most mundane work, exempted from this scope.
This is the theological floor everything this movement has been building toward. Excellence in work is not ultimately about impressing supervisors, outperforming competitors, or even personal satisfaction, though those may be real byproducts. The actual, final aim is that the quality and character of your labor reflects well on the God you belong to.
This reframes what excellence is actually for. Not primarily your advancement, though that may follow. Not primarily others’ approval, though that too may follow. The aim is glory to God, work done in a way that, when observed closely, points toward the character and worth of the one you serve, in ordinary labor as much as in explicit worship.
As this second movement closes, carry this as the summary standard for everything you have practiced this week: diligence, integrity, attentiveness, all of it aimed, finally, not at your own reputation, but at the glory of the God whose work you are doing.
Do the Work
- Name one ordinary task today, as mundane as eating or drinking, done for God’s glory.
- Consider what your work, observed closely, currently communicates about God.
- Do all of today’s work, ordinary and significant alike, with this single aim.
Prayer
Lord, let all of today’s work, ordinary and significant, be done to your glory. Not my reputation, not merely others’ approval, but you, seen clearly in the quality of my labor. Amen.
Carry this today
No task is too small to be done to the glory of God.