Answer: By loving him and doing what he commands.
We saw in Question 3 of the Children's Catechism that the glory of God is the public display of His greatness, His character, His presence, and His power. We saw that God made all things for His glory: everything that exists - including you and me! - exists to show what He is like. Because that is true, the ultimate purpose for our lives - the reason we are here - is to glorify God. But what does it mean to glorify God? We can't make God greater than He already is; He's already wonderfully perfect. To glorify God isn't to add anything to Him; rather, to glorify God means that we notice how good and holy and strong He is, we love Him for it, and we show our love for Him by what we say, what we love, and how we obey Him. 1 Corinthians 10.31 sums it up this way: 'Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.' Glorifying God isn't adding extra religious activity on top of ordinary life; it is the very reason ordinary life exists!
Remember that God's glory is the public display of who He is. To glorify God, then, is to publicly show how good God is by the way that we live. The Catechism tells us how to do this: by loving Him and doing what He commands. That isn't a children's slogan you outgrow; it's the whole life of a Christian in one sentence!
What does it mean to love God? It is more than a feeling. Jesus said that the greatest commandment is this: 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' (Matthew 22.37). God gets the first claim on our attention, our affections, and our loyalty. The Catechism links loving God and obeying Him; if you don't obey Him, then you don't love Him. If you love Him, then you will obey Him. If a dad loves his daughter, will he hurt his daughter every time he gets home from work? No! If a dad did that, you wouldn't say he loves his daughter. However, if a dad hugs and kisses his daughter when he gets home from work, and he smiles when she greets him, then you'd probably think he really does love her! That's because our actions show what's going on in our hearts. In the same way, if we love God in our hearts, then that love will show itself in a real desire and effort to obey Him the best we can.
When Jesus said that we are to love God with our heart and soul and mind, he was echoing God's law from the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 6.5 states, 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.' A few chapters later, in Deuteronomy 11.1, it says, 'You shall therefore love the Lord your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always.' Even in the Old Testament loving God is connected to obeying Him. In the New Testament, Jesus makes it clear over and over that loving God and obeying God are two sides of the same coin:
'If you love me, you will keep my commandments.' (John 14.15)'Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.' (John 14.21)'If anyone loves me, he will keep my word... Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.' (John 14.23-24)
To keep Jesus' words is to obey him. Jesus is saying that true love for God shows itself in obeying God's rules. He goes so far as to say that those who do not keep God's rules do not obey him. One of Jesus' best friends, the Apostle John, said the same thing in different ways:
'For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.' (1 John 5.3)'And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.' (1 John 2.3-5)
Loving God doesn't always mean that we will have warm, fuzzy feelings when we think about Him. The Bible is full of stories about men and women who loved God but sometimes didn't 'feel' that love in the way we think they should. What matters is what we do. Where is our loyalty? Where is our devotion? That is the root of love. Mommy and Daddy love each other, but we don't always have warm, fuzzy feelings towards each other. Sometimes we irritate each other; sometimes we make each other mad. But that doesn't mean we don't love each other. There are times when we may be upset with each other, but we are still devoted to each other, and we won't do anything to hurt one another. There are people in the Bible who loved God - King David, Job, and the prophet Jeremiah, to name a few - who were often frustrated and angry with God. But they still loved Him, were still devoted to Him, and still did their best to obey Him.
The preacher in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes sums up this lesson well: 'Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.' (Ecclesiastes 2.13) We don't glorify God by feeling a certain way about Him, or by practicing a few religious duties throughout the week. We glorify God by becoming truly His: loving Him from the heart, obeying His rules, and walking in the good works He prepared for us.
