It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glorious to seek one’s own glory.
Proverbs 25:27 ESV
As the ESV note will tell you, the Hebrew is rather difficult. But taking this translation at face value, it warns you to act like the true and living God rather than as some false god. God doesn’t seek his own glory and nether should any man or woman because all of us are created in the image of God and designed to reflect his character.
But in some Christian traditions that is hard to accept. Some emphasize that God does all things for his own glory. Some think that is the meaning of the Westminster Catechisms.
Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
Westminster Shorter Catechism
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.
Q. 1. What is the chief and highest end of man?
Westminster Larger Catechism
A. Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him for ever.
But that is not a necessary inference. In fact, the Westminster Confession is quite clear that God cannot derive glory from the actions of any creature:
God hath all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of himself; and is alone in and unto himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which he hath made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting his own glory in, by, unto, and upon them…
Westminster Confession, chapter 2, paragraph 2.
Some things to keep in mind:
- God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and they explicitly “glorify” one another. So rather than an alone Being who is eternally self-exalting, like various unitarian false views of God, God is a community of love. Imitating the true God means living according to that Trinitarian model.
- When we read passages about God exalting himself, we need to realize that God has decided he actually cares what we think of him. The infinite God wants our good opinion (and also wants us to know the truth, which is the same thing). If he were self-glorifying in the way he is often described, that wouldn’t be the case. God’s concern for his glory is arguably evidence of his humility.
- Related to this, God’s opposition to idolatry is often expressed with a concern that idols demean and degrade the worshipper. God’s concern that He alone be “glorified” is also a concern that he shares his glory with humans made in his image.
- It is misleading to use the abstract term glory as an explanation of God’s character. The key question isn’t whether God reveals his glory (“glorifies himself”) but rather in what his glory consists, or how he glorifies himself. Saying God does all things “for his own glory” is so abstract it virtually reduces to saying he does what he wants to do. That tells us little about God unless we learn what He wants to do and why.
Obviously, Proverbs does not encourage us to discount our glory. Rather, we are encouraged to find it in the right places:
- “In a multitude of people is the glory of a king, but without people a prince is ruined” (14:28)
- “Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life” (16:31).
- “Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers” (17:6).
- “Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense” (19:11).
- “The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair” (20:29).
- “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out” (25:2).
So gaining or preserving glory isn’t disparaged. Proverbs is concerned rather with how you define glory and how you reach for it.
The advice in Proverbs about glory-seeking is similar to how it treats the pursuit of wealth. Proverbs presents wisdom as the key to real wealth (3:16; 8:18). But it warns about exalting the pursuit of riches:
- “Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it” (13:11).
- “Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven” (23:4–5).
- “A stingy man hastens after wealth and does not know that poverty will come upon him” (28:22).
As with riches, so with glory. We find real glory through a patient faith in the one who promises to give us that glory.
I will end this post with a quotation from poem. In this scene, Satan is tempting Jesus in the wilderness:
To whom the Tempter, murmuring, thus replied:—
John Milton, Paradise Regained.
“Think not so slight of glory, therein least
Resembling thy great Father. He seeks glory, 110
And for his glory all things made, all things
Orders and governs; nor content in Heaven,
By all his Angels glorified, requires
Glory from men, from all men, good or bad,
Wise or unwise, no difference, no exemption.
Above all sacrifice, or hallowed gift,
Glory he requires, and glory he receives,
Promiscuous from all nations, Jew, or Greek,
Or Barbarous, nor exception hath declared;
From us, his foes pronounced, glory he exacts.” 120
To whom our Saviour fervently replied:
“And reason; since his Word all things produced,
Though chiefly not for glory as prime end,
But to shew forth his goodness, and impart
His good communicable to every soul
Freely; of whom what could He less expect
Than glory and benediction—that is, thanks—
The slightest, easiest, readiest recompense
From them who could return him nothing else,
And, not returning that, would likeliest render 130
Contempt instead, dishonour, obloquy?
Hard recompense, unsuitable return
For so much good, so much beneficience!
But why should man seek glory, who of his own
Hath nothing, and to whom nothing belongs
But condemnation, ignominy, and shame—
Who, for so many benefits received,
Turned recreant to God, ingrate and false,
And so of all true good himself despoiled;
Yet, sacrilegious, to himself would take 140
That which to God alone of right belongs?
Yet so much bounty is in God, such grace,
That who advances his glory, not their own,
Them he himself to glory will advance.”
So spake the Son of God; and here again
Satan had not to answer, but stood struck
With guilt of his own sin—for he himself,
Insatiable of glory, had lost all