Ordering Glory

Have you ever been able to fool a child with the whole, “I’ll give you a nickel for your dime” or “I’ll trade you three nickels for only one quarter?” Why does this trick work? They don’t yet truly understand value…a nickel is bigger than a dime, so it has to be better, right? Or, three is more than one, so that’s a good deal!

There is a constant test for us to choose that which is of the greatest value.

Ex.20:1-3 “Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. Do not have other gods besides me.”

God commands us to have no gods before Him in part to let us know that our hearts will be tempted to worship any and everything other than Him! We are constantly trading that which is most valuable for that which is of no value.

Augustine thought about a things value essentially on a scale stretching between earthly realities all the way to heavenly realities. Every thing that exists has its place on this scale…God, angels, humans, sparrows, rocks, squash, mullet, etc. The value of the thing, its place in the hierarchy, that’s unchangeable, as is the kind of satisfaction it can give you when related to it through love. Even though each thing that God made is good, a source of some satisfaction actually, we cannot “expect more from it that its unique nature can provide.” Our love for things must be apportioned according to their worth. Hence…ordering glory.

The greater the glory of an object, the great the joy we will get from loving it. For instance, it’s one thing to gaze at a crack in a sidewalk, but when you see the crack in the earth called the Grand Canyon, that’s an entirely other thing altogether.

Here is where our sinful nature tricks us and simultaneously proves its existence — “our affections ten to be disproportionate to the object loved.” It should…and does break our heart…like in the instance of the alcoholic who uncontrollably loves the drink and the bar more than his kid’s birthday party. And, we see it in ourselves when we love self more than God.

In the hierarchy of realities, at the top, uncontested and unrivaled, is God and God alone. We don’t always treat it that way, but that is THE reality. This is why we note constantly that in order to have a life that is full (John 10:10 “A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.”), we must have as our chief affection Christ Himself. Our love must be proportionate to the worth/glory of the thing receiving it. And, we cannot look to something to provide satisfaction that “its unique nature cannot provide.”

Consider how this truth might be fleshed out practically. How often do parents seek too much soul satisfaction from their kids, be it the dad who relives the high school sports glory days through his child’s performance on the ball field, or the success-driven parent that crushes her child under the weight of constant educational pressure. What ultimately ends up happening, far more often than not, is that the child is crushed under the weight of the unreasonable expectations of a disordered love. The same can be said for any relationship/friendship — we ruin the joy of genuine fellowship that God intends us to have when “we expect a measure of joy that the essential nature of the relationship cannot provide.”

When our name and reputation (for good or evil!) is of greater concern to us than God’s glory and fame, we love ourselves more than God. Our joy, we think, will be found in self, not in God.

How do think this “self love” obsession affects peoples lives (i.e., is it responsible for the depression and constant searching for human embrace/sexual satisfaction that runs rampant in our world)? Is there a correlation between what seems to be a rise in these things and a simultaneous rise in the rejection of a Judeo-Christian worldview?

As a way of thinking about some of this worth-ordering, what would we say is maybe the top 10 of most valuable things from a biblical standpoint?