In his book, How Sermons Work, David Murray has written, “God is a God of order. He did not create everything all at once, but in sequence. He grouped things in classes and created like things on the same days. He revealed Himself in stages and brought all things to readiness before He gave the crowning piece of His revelation, the Lord Jesus Christ. Full of ardor, God is also full of order in what He does.”
Mr. Murray wrote those words in a book on preaching. Evidently he has known a few preachers who were not very orderly in their manner of presentation. One who preaches or teaches, and does not take the time to set his material forth in an orderly fashion, is dishonoring the God he claims to serve. Even if every item of teaching is true, jumbling the material together in a disorderly fashion is untrue to the nature of our Lord. But is this not also true of every Christian?
We should all be learning to conduct our lives in an orderly manner. In order for us to live “self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Titus 2:12) our lives must be marked by orderliness. This would be especially true of our worship (1 Cor 14:40), as the passage in 1 Corinthians indicates; but orderliness is a habit of life. If we allow ourselves to be disorderly in how we keep our homes or how we conduct ourselves at work, it will be difficult to be orderly in how we conduct the work of the church.
The human body is put together in an orderly manner, with the various parts carrying out the functions for which they are suited. The church is the body of Christ (Rom 12:5; 1 Cor 12:12-27; Eph 5:23), and it is to conduct itself in an orderly fashion (Col 2:5; Titus 1:5).
Thankfully, we will not all die as martyrs for the Lord. We will not all serve as missionaries, or as preachers, or as teachers. But we all have the opportunity to help in honoring the Lord. When we neglect orderliness in life and especially in the work of the church, we are dishonoring the Lord. By working to become self-disciplined, orderly citizens, workers, parents, and church members we are honoring God.
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