first sectionWe see that God created us for His glory.
We see that Jesus Christ lived to glorify God. We want to be like Jesus, so we should also live in such a way that our lives glorify God. We can correctly conclude that the purpose for our existence is to GLORIFY GOD. One might ask, "How do I glorify God?"
Jesus makes it clear that His purpose for being on the earth was to do the will of God. If we want to find the happiness that Jesus our Savior had, then we, too, must be committed to doing the will of God. God was glorified when Jesus obeyed the will of God. God is glorified when we do His will.
Some people will not allow themselves to be placed under the control of God or anyone else. God knows what is best for us and we should submit to His will. He created us; He knows what we need. We must not merely live the way we WANT. God is glorified when we live the way we SHOULD. God teaches us through the Bible the way we SHOULD live. He wants us to do His will, knowing that we will only find true happiness by serving Him.
We can please God only by discovering through His Word what HE wants us to do and what He wants us to be. To please God and have a meaningful and happy life, we must live to serve God through doing His will to accomplish the purpose for our existence.
Some people serve God only out of fear. We must learn to WANT to serve God because of our love for Him. After we learn how to love, then we will WANT to do what we OUGHT to do in spite of our failures.
I love God because He first loved me. He has not merely claimed to love us, but He has PROVED His love for us. When I recognize the love God has for me, I can only respond with love in return.
The Bible teaches that we demonstrate our love for God when we obey His commands. We demonstrate our love for God by serving Him. According to the Bible, we are serving God when we are serving others. If you love God, you WILL BE serving others. If you love God, you will love others.
We must love unconditionally if we are going to show others how God loves them. We must have AGAPE love -- sacrificial love, self-denying love, submissive love, yielding love. This will truly allow people to see Christ living in us.
All God's commands are fulfilled by love.
God created you to honor and glorify Him. He created you to love and serve Him. He created you to love and serve other people.
When we love God and others we are bringing glory to Him. When we serve God and others we are glorifying Him.
If you are married, then the most important person that God has placed in your life for you to love and serve is your spouse. The husband and wife must serve and love each other in order for God to be glorified by their marriage. When the marriage is not following God's rules, then the family is not honoring God. We must bring glory to God, who is the Creator of marriage.
All nations throughout history have had laws about marriage. The nations have known that stronger marriages build stronger countries. Stronger families build stronger churches.
We want your country to be a stronger nation. We want your neighborhood to be a community of happier people. We want the church to have better families. We can build stronger families only by starting with husbands and wives who are striving to serve God and each other.
Good Christian families serve as examples for other families. Husbands and wives who treat each other with kindness and respect are good role models for others. When people see how happy a Christian couple is, they are eager to learn what it is that causes this great happiness. This gives the Christian couple an opportunity to tell others about Jesus Christ. The couple can tell how God's love for them and their love for God helps them to love each other more.
A husband and wife are sexually attracted to each other. This is God's design. This permits them to enjoy each other physically. This also causes the world to continue to be populated as children are born to married people. Romantic and sexual love for each other is not the kind of sacrificial love that the New Testament commands.
The husband is commanded to love his wife and the wife is commanded to love her husband. We can learn from the different Greek words used in the New Testament for love that God commands couples to have Christian love for each other. They are to love each other with agape love. This kind of love puts self last and provides for the happiness of the other before seeking happiness for self. This kind of love is willing to sacrifice. The husband and wife may sacrifice time, material things, or just their own desires in order to provide for the comfort and needs of the other spouse.
Consider the wife who is going about the village complaining about a husband who is full of anger and selfishness. Or she is complaining that he is too harsh, domineering, inconsiderate, arrogant, or withdrawn. Her marriage is not pleasing to God and God is not glorified. If the woman is a Christian who is complaining about her husband, then the church is actually being damaged. If a husband is going about complaining of his wife's sinful behavior, then people will criticize the church and its members. This will cause non-Christians to ridicule God instead of praise Him.
When the children of Christian parents run around telling the neighbors that their parents are unkind to each other, then God is not glorified. The children need to see Christ living in each of their parents. The children need to see how Christianity makes their home different and better than the homes of their non-Christian friends.
It was God's design that children come from two people who love each other and are married. Too many babies are born to women who are not married. Too many people ignore the relationships that God intended. God is not glorified when children are born to parents who are not married to each other.
A wise man once told me that the most important thing a man can do for his children is to love their mother.
Children learn to treat their parents the way they see the parents treat each other. They develop attitudes about service and love from their parents. A boy learns how he will eventually treat his own wife by the example set in the home by his father. A girl learns how she will eventually respect her own husband by the way her mother shows respect for her father.
God is glorified when homes are formed by a man and woman getting married according to the laws of the country in which they live. God is glorified when this husband and wife become spiritually united through their love for and commitment to Jesus Christ. God is glorified when children are born to families in which both the mother and father are physically and spiritually present in the home. God is glorified when the children are encouraged to serve God through the examples set by their parents. Such Christian parents give their children hope that they, too, can live happy Christian lives dedicated to God.
We all make mistakes. All men and women sin and fall short of the glory of God. God can forget our mistakes by his grace and love. Our love for our spouses should be great enough to allow us to forgive their mistakes. Those who seek with all their hearts to follow God's design will have much healthier and happier marriages.
first section
Comments may be directed to
MColeMD@theColeFamily.com
Link to West-Ark's
Online Library
