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This injunction is abused by those who pay no attention to it at all, and by those who, by giving it the most literal and matter-of-fact interpretation, worry themselves over every little detail of conduct.

I. WHAT IS MEANT BY, AND WHEN IS A THING DONE FOR, THE GLORY OF GOD?

1. No deeds of ours add to or detract from God's glory. He is Himself the source of His own glory. When we do anything for the glory of God, it is to bring His glory out. A man who acts worthily, as God enjoins, causes men to acknowledge the source and origin of his worthiness. Thus the mother is honoured when her son is honoured; so, too, her virtue shines again in the virtue of her daughter.

2. This definition does away with that objective obedience to our text upon which so many insist, and substitutes a subjective form of obedience. Take a business man, as he sits in his office, or pushes past you on the streets. Of what is he thinking? Is it of wife and children? Not at all. In thought he is making a bargain. Yet he is a father and a husband as truly as if he had his boy on his knee, and his wife by his side. A carriage-maker does not make a wheel all at once, but spoke by spoke; and, when he is shaping a spoke or a felly, he is thinking about that, and not of the entire wheel. The highest motive is not always necessary or proper. A butcher is doing his duty; but it would be nonsense to ask him if he used his knife for the glory of God. A Christian has no right to vulgarise his religion by such forced interpretations.

3. The passage, then, is to be taken in its large, general sense. It has no application to pudding and pies, playing chess, etc. It is intended to cover the main tendency of a life, and not particular acts and transient states of feeling. It is globular, and not atomic. It is vast as the earth, and not minute and special as a grain of sand.

II. THE APPLICATION. It is an exhortation to all men, and especially to all Christitus —

1. To give in all their doings a due recognition of God. By nature man is his own god. Self-love rules. But Christians are people whose nature has been renewed. Still, we are not immaculate. We are pushed against and soiled. Even the best forces of our nature lead us astray. Economy, unless watched, becomes sordidness; ambition, unscrupulousness; pride, arrogance; self-esteem, vanity. The goal is lost sight of in the dust of the course, and, owing to the multitude and rush of the runners, we get excited, lose control, and, like a vicious or frenzied horse, when in the very home-stretch — bolt. This text, therefore, exhorts us to recognise God in all our plans and purposes — His authority over us, His ownership in us, His gracious love for us. Put this recognition of God as a pilot at the helm of your life, and your soul will come to the conclusion of its voyage as a rich-freighted ship. Even trouble will be to you, in your relation to God, what night is to the sky above your head. Its shadows are, indeed, sombre and oppressive; but without its darkness you would never have known the stars.

2. To a wise gravity. I fear that half the lives lived are frivolous lives. Not a few are living without an object. How dare you live in idleness (you call it leisure) when the best voices of the world are calling for help? How dare you fritter away your time in self-amusement? Help some one; lift some one.Conclusion:

1. The first thing for one to do who would live for the glory of God is to live without sin. He who sins cannot glorify God. It is in virtue and personal holiness that man most glorifies his Maker.

2. If he would glorify God, the average state of a Christian's soul should be a happy one. Christians should sing while they work, as birds while building their nests and gathering food for their young.

(W. H. H. Murray.)

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KJV: Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

WEB: Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.