The glory of God is to be the primary motive and ultimate incentive behind everything we do in life. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Even the mundane details of our lives take on a whole new meaning when we do them with the glory of God in mind. If God’s glory is to be the motive of the smallest details of life, how much more should it be the motive behind those things which are most important? This is especially true for the Great Commission.
As a task-oriented person, I have found it much easier to focus on ‘what’ more so than ‘why.’ I even like to spend my time debating ‘how’ we go about doing the ‘what.’ And yet the thing that gets overlooked the quickest is the ‘why.’ Perhaps one of the reasons we fail to see our vital role in the Great Commission is because we have emphasized the ‘what’ over the ‘why.’ The ultimate motive behind our mission is not simply reaching more people. Now, I realize that my previous sentence is somewhat shocking. You say, “But isn’t the church supposed to reach people?” To which I say, “Yes, absolutely.” But why? The ultimate reason is not so that we can have a bigger church. The primary reason is that God is glorified through people coming to faith in Christ from every nation, tribe, and tongue. Jesus is the only hope of salvation for those who are lost. If simply ‘reaching people’ is the mission motive of the church, then how you go about doing it doesn’t really matter; the end justifies the means. That’s why a lot of pastors have abandoned Bible exposition from the pulpit because it is not ‘en vogue’ with today’s culture. Or, we end up spending more time focusing on our ‘set design’ than we do in personal prayer. But if God’s glory is our ultimate motivating factor, then we will operate with the right perspective. When the glory of God is the reason why you engage in personal evangelism, you will be much more inclined to consistently live it out through your daily routines.
Over the next couple of blog posts, I want to spend some time expanding this thought of God’s glory being our primary objective in gospel advancement.