In His “intercessory prayer” to the Father, Jesus prayed, “I have brought You glory on earth by completing the work that You gave Me to do,” John 17, verse 4. If Jesus glorified God by doing the work which God had given HIM to do, then most assuredly that is how we glorify God as well! In fact, let me suggest to you that it’s ONLY by acknowledging who God is, and by seeking to do His Will and by completing the work which He has given us that we DO glorify Him.

Let’s spend just a few moments and examine some ways that we can glorify Him. First, we glorify God by being in His family. One vital truth which the world needs to learn is that one cannot glorify God without being in His family. Think about it this way: The things that MY child does reflect on MY name, but not your name. And the same thing is true in reverse: The things that YOUR child does reflect on YOUR name, and not on my name or someone else’s name. Some actions or traits which my child might do that will honor or glorify my name are: good manners, respect, hard work, intellect, and the like. Some actions or traits which my child might do that will dishonor or bring disrespect to my name are: disrespect itself, being ill mannered, criminal activity, and the like.

Using this same rationale, God has no children outside His family, and therefore, ONLY the things done by His CHILDREN reflect to His glory…, or to His dishonor. There are many people in this world who are attempting to glorify God and be saved on the basis of morality, fraternalism or civic righteousness.

Morality alone will not save anyone. Morality is of man, but salvation is of GOD! Man cannot save himself. The prophet of God, Jeremiah, said in the long ago, “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in a man that walketh to direct his own footsteps,” Jeremiah 10:23. In Acts, the 10th chapter, Luke introduces us to a moral and upright man named Cornelius. Verse 2 of Acts, chapter 10, says that Cornelius was a “devout man” and a man that “feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always.” But his morality, per se, could not SAVE him, for he was instructed to “send to the city of Joppa for one called Simon Peter…,” who would tell him “…words whereby he and his house could be saved,” Acts 11, verse 14.

High morals are certainly necessary to the Christian walk. Fraternalism may be enjoyable and rewarding to a person’s secular existence. BUT our morality, fraternalism or civic righteousness alone will NOT save us and will NOT bring GLORY to God! We MUST BE IN GOD’S FAMILY!

Second: We glorify God by being in His church. To the Ephesian Christians, Paul wrote, “Unto Him be glory in the CHURCH by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end,” Ephesians, chapter 3, verse 21. What church was that, Paul? What denomination did you mention? Could you say that again, Paul? What were you talking about? And Paul will say, “the CHURCH by Christ Jesus.” If it is “IN the CHURCH by Christ Jesus” that we glorify God, then surely it must be the church of Jesus Christ, the church which Jesus established, and which is referred to in Matthew 16, verse 18, when He said, “Upon this rock I will build My church.” There shouldn’t be any doubt in the mind of any believer of God’s Word that Jesus DID establish His church. This great church had its beginning on the first Pentecost following the resurrection of Jesus. [Pentecost: The 50th day after the Passover, counting from the second day of the feast. The Passover began on a Saturday. Count 50 days from the next day, Sunday, and that was Pentecost (also called the Feast of Weeks), and it fell on a SUNDAY, the day the Lord’s church was established, in Jerusalem—Acts, chapter 2.]

Could you, therefore, glorify God in any other name? What about all of these religious groups which are in existence today? Well, we know their history and their origin. It was only a few hundred years after that first Pentecost when the church was established when the great apostasy [to renounce, deny, abandon, leave, stray away from a former loyalty, like loyalty to a religion—in this case to stray away from the church that Jesus Christ Himself established] occurred. The apostasy led to the establishing of the Roman Catholic church, and from that it led to the “Dark Ages,” and the “Dark Ages” led to the “Reformation,” from which numerous man-made denominations came forth. And that’s the way it is in the religious world, even today.

We hear much today about “this church” and “that church,” “your church,” “my church,” “my wife’s church,” “my husband’s church,” “my parent’s church,” etc. Could you properly glorify God in ANY of these? The Psalmist said in Psalm 127, verse 1, “Except the LORD BUILD THE HOUSE, they labor in vain that build.” Isn’t it about time for the world to learn that Jesus Himself ESTABLISHED a church? There exist today literally hundreds and hundreds of religious bodies in this country, and all around the world. They began at different times and places, they wear different names, they teach and practice different doctrines, they have different forms of government, they engage in different types of worship. Is it little wonder, then, that the world has all but lost sight of the ORIGINAL church, the TRUE church, the ONE church which JESUS built almost two thousand years ago, and the one and only church which bears HIS name, which is distinctive in its worship, is distinctive in its doctrine, is distinctive in its government and practice?

Also, there’s a popular theory abroad today that one can be saved outside of the church, as well as in it. Those who talk about “salvation outside the church” are ignorant about what the church IS. Acts 2, verse 47, tells us that “the Lord added those who were being saved to the CHURCH.”The church, therefore, constitutes the SAVED! In the church, and ONLY in the church, to we glorify God.