| SEPTEMBER 1, 2023 -- He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8
We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 We sometimes think that, since God is omnipotent, meaning he can
do anything and everything, we humans are unnecessary to do God’s work. So why did God create us, and then give us the ability (sometimes called “free will”) to mess up what He had made? A related question might be why people get married and have kids, knowing full well that kids are likely to not be perfect, and sometimes mess things up.
Perhaps God was “lonely”, and thought that having created the world, it would be a good thing to have humans to keep him company and to help care for the world He had made. I’m not a professional theologian, so I’m not sure whether or not this is theologically sound reasoning. But scripture seems to say that Man was created to “Glorify God”. I’m not quite sure what that means either (but see the next paragraph). However, as the two scripture quotes that begin this article indicate, Man was also created to do good works, which is to be primarily directed in good works towards our fellow human beings, but also towards the rest of God’s creation.
In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (chapter 10), he tells us “ So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” We can read this as saying that we “glorify” or honor God in all that we do, by dedicating our life to God’s work. Much of this appears in the Master’s Charge at the end of every Grange meeting: “Let us add dignity to labor, and in our dealings with our fellowmen be honest, be Just, and fear not. We must avoid intemperance in eating, drinking and language; also, in work and recreation, and whatever we do, strive to do well. Let us be quiet, peaceful citizens, feeding the hungry, helping the fatherless and the widows, and keeping ourselves unspotted from the world.”
|
