Please read the prior posts in this series before this one if you have not.
1. Revelation 14:6 - The Everlasting Gospel
2. Revelation 14:7 - Fear God
Let's begin again by reading what the first angel's message says. The First of the Three Angels says, in Revelation 14:7, "Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters."
What does it mean to give glory to God? In the SDA Bible Commentary, Volume 7, p. 979, Ellen G. White has this to say: "To give glory to God is to reveal His character in our own, and thus make Him known. And in whatever way we make known the Father or the Son, we glorify God."
Let's look at the example of Moses. In Exodus 33:18 Moses is asking for God to show him His glory. "And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory." In verse 19, God gives His answer to Moses. "
And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy." The rest of the chapter is God describing to Moses where and how He will show Moses His glory.
In chapter 34 of Exodus, from verses 5 to 7, God is showing Moses His glory. The passage reads, "5 And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation."
We can see from these passages that God's glory is synonymous with both His character and His name. Think about it this way: we can see what kind of a ruler someone is or what kind of a nation a country is by the laws they make. And when we hear their names, what's the first thing to come to mind? If you guessed their reputation, you guessed right.
In his sermon on this subject entitled, How to Glorify God, (<--- click to watch) Pastor Stephen Bohr mentions an interesting point. Romans 3:23 says this: "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God..." That word for "come short," means "to lack." We all lack the glory of God. So how can we give Him something we don't have?
We've already determined that the glory of God is His character. To give glory to God means to be an example of His character to those around us. But we are born naturally sinful. We are not born with the natural desire to love God. As the Psalmist said in Psalm 51:5, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me."
We need to be an example of God's character before we can give glory to Him. But how do we have His character? We need to totally surrender to God. As Jesus said in Matthew 19:26, "With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible."
Giving glory to God encompasses several different things. When we totally surrender to God, He begins to transform us. We no longer like the same things we used to. We begin to abhor our sin and to do what is necessary to overcome it. No, I'm not encouraging salvation by works here. That's not Biblical. But even Jesus said, "And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell." (Matthew 5:29-30).
If something is causing you to sin, take the necessary steps so that you are no longer tempted to use that excuse to sin.
Let's go over a few aspects of what it means to glorify God.
For example, if you are not already eating healthy, the Holy Spirit will encourage you to do that. Can we honestly say we are glorifying God when we are knowing eating a bad diet? In Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, the Bible lists clean and unclean meats. And remember, God only gave permission to eat meat after the flood, when the vegetation was largely destroyed. Now that we live in a time when we don't have to eat meat at all, why should we?
Even Daniel and his friends, when faced with the kings diet, they requested a water and veggie diet. After 10 days, they faired better than their peers. In our day, more and more people are coming to the realization that a whole foods, plant based diet is, by far, the healthiest way to eat. For a good explanation on why a whole foods, plant based diet is better, I recommend watching Forks Over Knives (watch it free!).
Giving glory to God also includes watching what kind of media we take in, i.e. music, tv, movies, etc.. Ask yourself, does watching this movie bring me closer to God? Does listening to this song glorify God? If you can't answer yes, don't do it. In regards to visual media, I recommend watching the programs by Little Light Studios (see their youtube and vimeo pages as well) to see the research they have done on the topic. For musical entertainment, I recommend a sermon series by Karl Tsatalbasidis. Christian Berdahl also has resources on music as well (see his content on audioverse also).
If there is something in our lives that does not glorify God, it needs to go. We need to ask God for the strength to resist the temptation to partake in what does not glorify Him. He promised to provide that strength in 1 Corinthians 10:13: "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."
