“I will not give My glory unto another” Isa 48:11
We heartily thank God for every politician, athlete, actor or even criminal who comes to know Christ as Savior. But conversion alone does not qualify one for a place of prominence in Christian service. This, especially in Paul’s epistles, is reserved for mature believers, wholly separated to God and established in the truth (See especially II Tim. 2:21).
When hearts beat faster because of the presence of some glamorous personality on the Christian platform; when such personalities receive adulation which belongs rather to the Christ who died for them, God is dishonored and displeased.
True, the motive in procuring such “crowd-getters” may have been to reach greater numbers for Christ, just as some of our spiritual leaders become yoked together with apostate unbelievers in evangelistic endeavors in order to reach souls for Christ, but the end does not justify the means. It is never right to do wrong to accomplish some good end.
Have we forgotten that God’s Word says: “I the Lord thy God am a jealous God” (Ex 20:5) and “I will not give My glory unto another” (Isa 48:11)? True we quote here from the Ten Commandments, but remember, Paul in his epistles quotes all the Ten Commandments except one (re the sabbath). The covenant of the Law has been done away but not the moral law itself, and God is the only Being who has legitimate and urgent reason to be jealous of His glory. Christian leaders are playing a dangerous game when they give glory due to God alone to prominent personalities so as to swell their audiences.
It is time for the Church to realize that salvation is the work of God and that true and lasting results will follow only when we conduct His work in His way.
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam / Two Minutes with the Bible
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