Guard Your Glory

In
the days of Jeremiah the prophet, the Lord called His people Israel to
account because they did not “guard their glory.” Although they started
out devoted to the Lord, they turned away from Him and began to follow
other gods. God spoke to them about this through Jeremiah. “I
remember concerning you the devotion of your youth, the love of your
betrothals, your following after Me in the wilderness, through a land
not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the first of His harvest” (Jer.
2:2-3, NASB).

Clearly, God
was pleased with Israel’s initial condition. But then something
happened. He said: “‘What injustice did your fathers find in Me, that
they went far from Me and walked after emptiness and became empty?…Has
a nation changed gods, when they were not gods? But My people have
changed their glory for that which does not profit'” (Jer. 2:5,11).

God did not say the people changed His glory for that which does not profit—He said their glory. There’s a difference.

He
goes on to say that His people committed two evils: “‘They have
forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves broken
cisterns that can hold no water'” (Jer. 2: 13). In other words, they
turned away from God to follow false gods that could not give them life.

God voiced a similar
complaint to Moses when his brother Aaron decided Moses had been up on
the mountain too long. Possibly fearing that Moses had died, Aaron
ordered God’s people to fashion a golden calf to worship.

King
David recounts the story: “They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped a
molten image. Thus they exchanged their glory for the image of an ox
that eats grass” (Ps. 106:19-20).

Once again, the Word speaks of their glory.

The Hebrew Old Testament word for “glory” (kabod) carries the idea of “weighty,” meaning “impressive.”

Similarly,
the New Testament Greek word for “glory” (doxa) derives from the verb
dokeo, meaning to mentally estimate or value. Doxa, then, is an
estimation, a valuation. Glory is the value we place on something. If I
lose my own glory, other people put a low estimate or value on me.

God’s
glory is different because it’s His unchganging essence—it’s an object,
it’s “out there” whether people value Him or not. To give proper glory
to God is to ascribe infinite value to Him, to value Him as worthy of
infinite praise because He glorifies Himself (see Ezek. 39:13).

The
glory of man is the original condition in which God created him. And
what is that? Genesis 1:26 says God made man (both male and female) in
His own image. In our original condition, we reflected God’s image. If
anyone wanted to see God on earth, he could look at another person. Paul
says, “[Man]…is the image and glory of God” (1 Cor. 11:7).

FALLING SHORT OF THE GLORY
We
lost this image and glory in the fall, but Jesus recovered both for us
when He died for our sins and rose for our justification (see Rom.
4:25). Over the course of our new life in Christ we are transformed into
Jesus’ perfect image (see Rom. 8:29; Col. 3:10) and glory (see 2 Cor.
3:18). Guarding my glory means I guard the image of Christ—the perfect
image of God (2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15)— inside me.

In
summary, our original glory was our original creation. We distorted
that beautiful, radiant image and glory when we sinned. God graciously
recreates that image and glory when He rebirths us. Then as we guard our
glory by walking in obedience to God and His Word, we’re transformed
more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ.

Romans 3:23 tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” To one degree or another, we all fall short.

In
my own life, I fell very, very short. I was an immoral woman. I was
raised in the church, but on my honeymoon, my husband took me aside and
told me all the things he didn’t like about me that he wanted changed.
He was bipolar, and our marriage was very strained because he was up and
down so much.

Six years
after the wedding, I left him on the advice of two ministers. When our
marriage ended, I walked away from everything I knew. I stood and shook
my fist in the face of God and said, “I’ll find someone to love me.”

I
didn’t care about guarding my glory; all I cared about was securing my
own happiness. It wasn’t until the age of 29 that I came to know Jesus
Christ personally and began to care about living in ways that please Him
and reflect His image.

God
has a remedy for those who aren’t walking close to Him, who aren’t
guarding their glory. The Bible tells us that He loved the world so much
that He sent His Son to save us (see John 3:16-17). Jesus, the Word,
“became flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).

Something
very significant happened when He did this, something profoundly
meaningful during this time of the year. “We beheld His glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (v. 14,
NKJV).

REFLECTING GOD’S GLORY
Jesus
guarded His glory—He was a perfect representation not only of His
perfect Father in heaven but also of perfect (ideal) man here on earth.
This comes out so clearly in His response to the disciples after Philip
says “‘Show us the Father'”-250 (John 14:8, NASB). Jesus replied: “‘Have
I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip?
He who has seen Me has seen the Father'” (v.9).

Jesus’
obedience to the Father’s will was so complete that He was also able to
truthfully say that He did and said only what He first saw the Father
do and say (see John 5:19,30; 8:26,28).

How
could Jesus say that? Because He guarded His glory. Hebrews 2:10 says,
“It was fitting for [the Father], for whom are all things, and through
whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the
author of their salvation through sufferings.” The Father had to perfect
Jesus through suffering so that He could bring us, the sons of God, to
glory. Jesus was willing to endure this suffering because He wanted to
guard His own glory by doing not His will, but the Father’s.

The
Bible tells us that Jesus is a high priest who was tempted in all
points as we are and yet was without sin (see Heb. 4:15). He learned
obedience through the things He suffered (see Heb. 5:8). The prime
example of this was when He willingly drank the cup His Father gave Him
to drink, enduring the agony of crucifixion to bring sinners into a
righteousness and glory they could never attain on their own.

That’s
why we have to guard our glory in every situation of life by
continually saying to God, as Jesus did, “‘Not my will, but Thine, be
done'” (Luke 22:42, KJV). Hebrews 1:3 says Jesus is “the radiance of
[God’s] glory and the exact representation of His nature” (NASB). That’s
what you want to be.

How do
we become the representation of God’s nature? We look at Christ! Second
Corinthians 4:6 tells us, “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of
darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”

I
can look at Christ and see what I should be—perfect man: the image and
glory of God! That’s why Paul wrote, “Be imitators of me, just as I also
am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). As God’s children, we are to live, behave,
react and order our lives in such a way that we can say, “Imitate me to
the extent that I imitate Christ.” We are to reflect His glory.

Shortly
before He was crucified, Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “‘I
glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have
given Me to do'” (John 17:4). He brought glory to His Father by
completing all the assignments God gave Him.

If we want to be able to say the same thing at the ends of our lives, then we must guard our glory. How do we do this?

BEHOLDING THE GLORY
In
2 Corinthians 3:18, Paul tells us one of the ways. He says, “We all,
with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are
being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from
the Lord, the Spirit.” In other words, we have to gaze at the glory of
the Lord so we can see what we are supposed to look like. We do this in
part by reading and studying the Bible.

I
think the greatest need in the world is for Christians to return to the
Word of God. We’re reading too many books by people and not reading the
book, the only book by God. When you and I open this book, we are
opening the very words of God, the treasures that unlock the meaning to
this life and the hope of eternal life.

The
Bible is not just a textbook; it contains eternal food and nourishment.
Jesus said, “‘It is written: “Man does not live on bread alone, but on
every word that comes from the mouth of God”‘”(Matt. 4:4, NIV).

So
how do I live by His “every word”? I receive Jesus Christ as my Lord
and Savior so that the Spirit of God— a very personal, resident
tutor—comes to live inside me to teach me and explain to me the things
that belong to God, things only He knows and can reveal (see 1 Cor.
2:10-15).

As I go into the
Word of God, the Spirit of God helps me to discover what He is saying,
what He means and how I can live in such a way as to be changed into the
perfect image and glory of God.

When
I behold as in a mirror Jesus’ glory, I see my spots and my blemishes,
and I also see where I’m supposed to be. I see who He is, and I look at
Him and say: “I will guard the glory You gave me (see John 17:22). I
will not take Your glory and exchange it for an image made of man. I
will not turn to broken cisterns that can’t hold water. I will stay at
the fountain of living waters, and I will drink deeply of my Lord and my
God.”

It’s time for us to
return to the Word of God. It’s time for us to esteem His words more
precious than our physical food. It’s time for us to be able to say with
the psalmist, “I have not turned aside from Your ordinances, for You
Yourself have taught me” (Ps. 119:102, NASB).

When
you open the Word of God, it transforms you. It puts everything into
eternal perspective and places eternity itself before your eyes (see 2
Cor. 4:18). God’s eternal plan is this: the whole earth, someday,
“filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord” (Hab. 2:14).

I want this to begin now…in me. You know you do, too!

ARE YOU GUARDING YOUR GLORY?
I
have to be careful to guard my glory in every area of my life. When I
get dressed I have to ask myself, “Does my outfit glorify God?”

My
heart breaks for the churches. I grieve over the low necklines. I
grieve over the slits up the sides. I grieve over the short skirts that
cause men to battle against the lust of the eyes and the flesh.

Does
your dress glorify the Lord, or have you exchanged your glory for “the
image of the earthy” (1 Cor. 15:49) and “the spirit of the world” (1
Cor. 2:12)? You must be the example. You must remember that your body is
the temple of the Holy Spirit and that you are to glorify God in your
body, which belongs to Him (see 1 Cor. 6:13,20).

And
how about the way you deal with people? Do you treat them in ways that
guard your glory? Do you respond to them as Christ would respond? You
should speak His words—kind, gentle words seasoned with grace—not your
own, not words filled passion, anger, resentment or cruelty.

Are
you guarding your glory by the way you speak? By the way you behave? By
the way you spend your money and possess your possessions? By the way
you invest your time, your energies, your talents and your gifts?

We
don’t retire from God’s business! How do I know that? From the Word
that says, “He who began a good work in [me] will perfect it until the
day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6).

I
want to be everything God wants me to be. Even if that means I have to
stand and confess my sin when I have done wrong, I will do it…because I
want to guard my glory.

What is my glory? It’s that change from image to image to image to image into the likeness of Jesus Christ.

Are
you more like Jesus than you were a year ago? Are you more like Him
than you were when you were saved? Are you being changed? Are you
guarding His glory?

A line
from the film Amazing Grace says that William Wilberforce lived his life
“in the eloquence of the gospel.” May you and I in every situation stop
and ask ourselves, “Am I living my life in the eloquence of the
gospel?”

“Christ in you, the
hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). I promise if you will live this way, one
day you will be able to turn to those in your church who have imitated
you as you imitated Christ and say to them: “For who is [my] hope or joy
or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord
Jesus at His coming? For you are [my] glory and joy” (see 1 Thess.
2:19-20).

Read a companion devotional.

Kay Arthur is an award-winning author and internationally known Bible teacher. She and her husband, Jack, founded Precept Ministries International in 1970 with the vision to establish people in God’s Word. She has authored more than 100 books and bible studies and is the teacher and host of the Precepts for Life radio program.