1 Corinthians 15:58
Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
What does it mean to pursue excellence in everything that we do? What does it mean to do things to the best of your ability to glorify God? Most of the time when we have an urge to pursue excellence at something we tend to do it to better ourselves, or maybe impress others or maybe see how good we can become at a task? So what does it mean to be excellent? What is God trying to say to us by telling us to be excellent?
What is excellence? We must first understand the word before we can apply it to our lives or speaking about the excellence we must have in our work. We must have a working definition of excellence in a way that God defines it.
In 2 Peter 1:3 we will read a catch phrase that says God has called us to His glory and His excellence. This kind of excellence is the excellence of God’s character or His moral perfection. We are called to be moral perfect. There is no greater question than this. How can we be excellent in God’s sight? God desires us to mirror His excellence. We must be imitators of God.
Eph 5:1-Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children
Being like Him is our goal as Christian in our walk with Jesus. So being excellent before Him would mean being perfect like Him? It is a mirroring of His attributes and character.
Excellence inspires people.
When Solomon built God's temple with excellence, he wanted to attract people to his God. He wanted their hearts to skip a beat. He wanted them to do a cartwheel and go crazy . He wanted them to taste something of God's greatness and excellence.
when it comes to the church, non-Christians have a whole different idea on how things are done in the church, they have a completely different idea to what we know, some might think that we are lazy and have things handed to us on a silver platter e.g (salvation might give that idea) But when we value excellence, as Solomon did, it makes a statement about the kind of God we worship. It makes a statement about the commitment we have to our excellent God. it shows that we care how things are ran and that we pursue excellence and that we are hardworking, that is one of our Gods attributes, so therefore it shows what we aspire to be which inspires.
The pursuit of excellence should be 27/8
Many people will do a job to the best of their ability but then when is come to us having to do another job on top of that job that you have worked so hard you just give up and work in a messy fashion or play your guitar in a lazy fashion. God demands our full attention no matter where we are or how busy we are, we are talking about the god who put the stars in the sky and the hairs on you legs, he deserves all the attention we can possible give.
God demands excellence in worship
God had demanded excellence in the Israelites worship
And so in Malachi, God responds in different ways. First, in Malachi 1:6 (NIV), God quizzes them. "Am I not worthy of excellence?" In this passage God says, "A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?"
Second, in Malachi 1:8 (NIV), God basically tells them straight out "No one wants your rubbish. Try giving your rubbish to anyone and see what they say!" The verse reads, "When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?"
Third, in Malachi 1:10 (NIV), God pleads with them. "Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you." God is saying, "You might as well have stayed at home rather than coming here to offer me anything short of your very best. I'm not a donation box, I deserve more than your hand me downs!"
Lastly, in Malachi 1:14 (NIV), God says a curse. "Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king, says the Lord Almighty, and my name is to be feared among the nations."
Excellence honors God. Our very best honors God. "Good enough" is just not good enough when it comes to glorifying God. Excellence honors God, but excellence does something else as well.
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