Focus: Only Good On Paper!

Text: Jh.17:24

"That they may BEHOLD my glory."

In the country where I reside, we often hear the economy is looking up, but the generality of the populace knows that the economy is good only on paper. The people are not feeling or seeing the effect of it in their own lives.

We often see a lack of oneness between the ideal and the real, between the objective and the subjective, between belief and behavior, between orthodoxy and doxology, between heaven and earth, and between theory and experience. Sadly, there is often no correspondence or alignment between these realities.

God wants closed up in your life these unnecessary gaps existing between theory and experience. Whatever is good on paper, as far as the Scripture is concerned, should also in actuality be reflected in your personal life. God doesn't want to exist only as theory in your life. He wants you to experience His reality in every facet of your life.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus Christ prayed to His Father, asking Hhim to let His disciples be where He is, and as His reason for the petition, He said, "That they may BEHOLD my glory." It is by being where Jesus Christ is that you can truly behold His glory. You cannot see the true glory of Christ by being where He is not. Spiritual distance from Christ dims His glory to you. The closer you are to Christ, the clearer you will see His glory. Christ's glory shines brighter from the place of proximity and intimacy. 

Every individual who encountered God in the Old Testament did so from a close range. God appeared to each person personally. He appeared to Abraham, and became the God of Abraham. He appeared to Isaac, and became the God of Isaac. He appeared to Jacob, and became the God of Jacob. He appeared to Moses in a burning bush, and as Moses drew closer to see things for himself, he heard the voice of God. He saw the invisible and heard the inaudible, and was empowered to achieve the incredible.

God always came down to the earth to reveal Himself to men. In the New Testament we read of the ultimate unveiling of God to man. John writes, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we BEHELD his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" (Jh.1:14). The word 'beheld' is 'theaomai' in the Greek. The word 'theater' or 'theatrical' is derived from it. Theater is the place where performances or motion-pictures are presented and people sit to watch. John and his fellow apostles beheld the glory of Christ. They saw His glory in different ways, in different places and at different times. The Mount of Transfiguration was one of them. That Mount was the theater where Christ unveiled His glory, and the audience of three watched and encountered His majesty.

The word 'behold' in our text is theōreō, and the word 'theory' stems from it. We read in Hebrews, "Now CONSIDER how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils" (Heb.7:4). The word 'consider' is the same as 'behold' in the Greek. What this means is that God is more than a theory. 

He is a person to be experienced and related with, not just a theory to carry in the head.

It is the God you see that forms your theory of Him. How you view God determines how you value Him. As a matter of fact, the word 'glory' is kâbôd in the Hebrew, and doxa in the Greek. The interesting thing is that in Hebrew it is a substance, and in Greek it is a concept. In Hebrew glory is something concrete, but in Greek it is something abstract. In Hebrew it is a value, and in Greek it is a view. One relates to the tangible, and the other relates to the intangible. One is matter; the other is mind. In the Christian faith the two dimensions of glory come together. They are like the two sides of a coin. They belong together. You can't have one without the other.

God is not only good on paper, but He is also good in actuality. God is real, not only in theory but also in practice or personal experience. God wants to reveal Himself to you and to others through you. Whoever God is in theory, He wants to be in your life. The glory of God you see shapes your theory of God. It is what you behold that you can lay hold of. The theory of God is forged or formed at the shrine of personal encounter with Christ. God is more than good on paper; He can be absolutely good in your life.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter