City Life Starter

Written by Scott Fiddler

The Word

He has done all things well.

Mark 7:37

Commentary

When God finished creating the heavens and the earth, He assessed the quality of what He had created and declared it was excellent (Gen. 1:31). When Jesus assumed the role of a winemaker, the wine He made was excellent (John 2:9-10).  When Jesus assumed the role of a criminal defense attorney, His advocacy was excellent, shaming the prosecuting group into voluntarily dropping the case (John 8:1-11).  Everything Jesus did was done with excellence, such that after Jesus healed a man, the people said of Him, “He has done all things well” (Mark 7:37).

Peter commands us to proclaim the excellencies of God (I Peter 2:9), which I suppose is what I just did in the prior paragraph. But the praise is warranted. All that God does manifests excellence because it arises out of who He is. In other words, excellence is part of the image of God, and if excellence is part of the image of God, there are at least two important inferences one can draw.

Application

First, Christians should embrace excellence as a virtue. Have you ever wondered why you prefer things that are excellent over those that are mediocre? You may say, “Well, because they are better.” But that answer just begs the question, “Why are they better?” I can imagine an alternative universe in which the mediocre was valued over the excellent because, for example, what is mediocre is more attainable for most people and makes those who produce that which is less-than-excellent feel better about themselves. But the truth is we don’t value the mediocre over the excellent, and I’m guessing the reason we don’t is because excellence is part of the latent image of God in man. We value the Rolex over the Timex, the Mercedes over the Mitsubishi, and Petrus over Yellow Tail, and we do so because we are made in the image of God—no offense to Timex, Mitsubishi, and Yellow Tail.

Second, if excellence is part of the image of God, and we are to be conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29), then we should not only value excellence, but we must seek to display it in all that we do. Our work, our art, our service, and our products—all that we do—should display excellence because in displaying excellence we are providing a glimpse of God to a world addicted to mediocrity. We should seek to be known as a people of excellence so that people can know our excellent God.

Prayer

Lord, help the excellencies of your image shine forth in my life and in all that I do that I may be known as a man of excellence so that men may know you as an excellent God. In Jesus name I pray.