Reflections – 2022.02

Glorifying God: Drawing Others to Him

“The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”

– Westminster Shorter Catechism

“We should be both diamonds and magnets; diamonds for the luster of grace, and magnets for attractive virtue in drawing others to Christ.

– Thomas Watson, from A Body of Divinity

When I was in high school, the movie Rocky III came out in the theatre.  It was, for a high schooler at that time, an energetic, inspiring movie.  Friends came out of the theatre throwing their best punches in the air and singing “Eye of the Tiger.”  Boxing was ‘in’ for a little while.  The story of the underdog winning the victory against a bully – who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?

There is an aspect of being a Christian that in some ways ought to be like that movie.  Our lives and our words ought to be such that others would see Christ in us and would want to know what it is that makes us tick, what the Christian life is, and maybe what it would be like to become a part of that story.   Diamonds and magnets, Watson says.   These are two great pictures for our reflection.  Is my life like a diamond?  Is it attractive?  inspiring? beautiful?  Is my life like a magnet? Does it draw others to want to know Christ? 

Life of course is not a movie and there is no dramatic music in the background to help with this – the question is what our life is like, what our character is like, how we treat others and so on.   Paul writes to the Colossians about this: “conduct yourselves with wisdom towards outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person.”  John, in his first letter, writes, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and truth.”  Are your actions full of love, grace, wisdom, truth?  Do they match the profession you have made as a Christian or are we living lives that are less about Jesus and more about getting what we want?Are our lives diamonds and magnets?

Maybe there are people you have read about who you think of as a diamond or magnet – Martin Luther or John Calvin or Richard Wurmbrand or Corrie Ten Boom or Joni Eareckson Tada or any of the other saints whose lives we have had the blessing of knowing a little about.  My guess, though, is that the real diamonds and magnets are a bit closer to home – a friend, a family member, a neighbor, another member of the congregation, who is genuinely inspiring to you, whose life points you to Christ.  Most of our salvation stories include such people.  People whose lives and words made the Christian life attractive, beautiful, something worth your consideration.  And then the Holy Spirit did His work … and now you are reading this article.  

Watson’s encouragement (and mine) is that each of us would be that person to someone else … or maybe multiple “someone else”s … a diamond, a magnet – that God might be glorified.