Uncompetitive Glory

Personal Matters

We are all competitive by nature. This came home to me with particular power the other day when Donna was playing the card game “Snap” with our 3 year old granddaughter. Donna managed to call out “Snap” first and the little one spontaneously ran to her room howling in tears – because she had been beaten. When I was young I could never stand losing, in my serious table tennis playing days I regularly smashed bats[1]. Competitiveness is not the sole property of the immature young; it can be just as common among the chronologically mature. It’s not so long ago when I would go to a pastors’ conference and meet someone new and I could infallibly predict he[2] would always ask within a few minutes, “How big is yours?” They were of course inquiring about the size of “my” church, but Freud would categorize this as a classic case of penis envy. Pathetic and juvenile but immensely tragic. In recent days I believe I have been given clearer insight into the way out of this competitive spirit; the discernment of God’s glory in others.

Jesus’ Glory

Jesus’ great prayer for Christian unity is preceded by a marvellous statement of his awareness of the Father’s presence; ““I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”” (John 17:4-5 ESV). Christ is fully conscious that everything the Father has to give of himself lives in him. This will come out repeatedly in his prayers for us; “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us” (John 17:21)[3]. Jesus continues in prayer opening up glory as the heart of unity, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”(John 17:22-23 ESV). The insight of the Son into the glory of the Father in him, and vice versa, is the substance of their oneness and so that of the unity of the Church. The Father and Son could never compete for glory because the glory of the one was the glory of the other. Glory is essentially uncompetitive. The cross, which at first sight appears to be a one-sided affair of cost to the Son and benefit to the Father, establishes the full mutuality of the Persons of Godhead. For it is only through death-and-resurrection the Word made flesh can be restored to the glory he shared with the Father in eternity (Rom 6:4; Phil 2:9-11). This talk of glory applies to us.

Touch of Glory

The inspiration for the positive side of this article flows from a prayer time with a group of mainly younger pastors and leaders last week. The Spirit gave me an unusual sense that each of them had been given by Jesus a distinct aspect of the fullness of the glory of God. Some had dimensions of apostolic glory, others prophetic, evangelistic, teaching, pastoral and so on. All Christians share in the glory of sonship as well as having glorious gifts from the Lord (Rom 8:14-17; 1 Cor 12:1-11). When I have a revelation that all of these gifts we see in others are given by Jesus for the glory of the Father I can no longer measure or compare myself to my brother/sister[4]. Spiritual insight into the glory given to another believer necessarily draws out the following response.

I desire with my whole being to see the gifting I discern in my brother/sister go forward and increase for God’s glory in Christ. Mutual awareness of glory is essentially non-competitive and other affirming. This insight is at the godly heart of all genuine spiritual fathering, mothering and mentoring in the Church. The still divided state of the Church leads us to the tragic conclusion that we lack insight into such glory[5]. Yet the Lord has more to say.

Move with the Wind

So far I have omitted to mention of the dynamic of glory and its unity, the Holy Spirit. The glory of God was visible only in Jesus’ active witness to the Father in the power of the Spirit (Matt 12:28; Luke 3:21-22; 4:18 etc.). An illustration may give us clarity as to how the work of the Spirit manifests glory-unity in the Church.

Some gardens near my place have little plastic windmills with blades made up of all the colours of the rainbow. When there is no wind each blade is separate from the others and all their colours are distinct. When however the wind blows hard the windmill becomes to the naked eye one solid looking white mass. The unified white colour cannot exist without the dynamic interplay of all the colours of the spectrum. In many languages the words for “spirit” and “wind” are the same. When the Spirit of God moves the people of God with all their diverse gifts of glory to cooperate together in joint prayer and mission the glory of God will be visibly manifested in the Church.

Conclusion

Once upon a time we used to sing this line in church; “I can see in you the glory of my King and I love you with the love of the Lord”. These words are untellably profound for they sum up the prayers of Jesus and the purpose of his sacrifice, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them….that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:22, 26). Nothing is deeper than this in heaven or on earth.

Prophetically I see that the Lord is on moving today to create a family that will love one another with unlimited devotion. This love will be activated by a revelation of the glory of the Lord in each other; it is upon this family that Jesus will pour out his Spirit with signs, miracles and wondrous healings of body and soul following. Seeing the glory>loving-unity>power is the order of Father, Son and Spirit which alone can restore the Church and touch our land.

“I can see in you the glory of my King”. Is this your testimony about how you see every brother/sister in Christ? Do you want this to be your testimony? If you desire this then the Lord will grant your request and your life will be filled with forwarding and increasing the glory of God in Christ in others. Your life will no longer be your own.