Glory of God: The Weight of Glory

Revelation 14:6-7

And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory…” (v. 7)

Starting next week, we’ll look at fourteen specific examples of how we can glorify God in all of life. But first we need to ask more generally, what do “glory” and “glorify” mean? Kabod is the Hebrew word for glory; it literally means “weight.” The glory of God is the weight of all that God is, the fullness of his understanding, virtue, and happiness, as Jonathan Edwards put it.

We glorify God when we throw a spotlight on how great God is. To glorify God is to make much of him–as a mother makes much of her daughter when she fusses and frets over her. To glorify God is to magnify the greatness of his character–not as a microscope magnifies by making small objects look large, but as a telescope magnifies by giving us a glimpse of things that are unimaginably big. To glorify God is to honor his worth–just as I honor my wife by taking her out on an anniversary date when I could be watching the Chicago Bears, demonstrating that she is more valuable and desirable than football.

God’s perfect love, power, wisdom, sovereignty, and grace make him glorious. Pointing others to the majesty of God and being satisfied with the worth and weight of this majesty make us God-glorifiers.