At UniChurch over the past couple of weeks we’ve been looking at Philippians.

As we have God has challenged us about our priorities and motives. One of the examples I used that’s caused some stir is Uni marks. Getting good grades can be something we idolize.

Rob asked a really helpful question during Question Time last night and I don’t think I answered him well. So I’ve put my thoughts down here. I’d love you to comment and tell me what you think as well.

Rob asked “Is it wrong to get HD’s? Can’t you honour God by doing well at Uni?”

No it’s definately not outright wrong to get good marks. Yes you can honour God by working hard and doing well.

However for most of us honouring God is not why we work hard. For most of us good marks are about being successful or feeling good about ourselves. We use them to make ourselves feel superior and smug.

There’s nothing wrong with getting good marks at Uni or in being good at your job, but there are some questions that you really ought  to ask yourself:

Why am I doing this?  What’s my motivation?  What else could I do with this time? Who am I honouring?

And you have to consider them in light of scripture.

Php 1:27 Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.

Php 2:3-5 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

How do you prioritize your time? Why? What motivates you?

Big questions. Hard questions. But worth thinking about because they’re Questions God asks us through his word.

Please leave comments below, lets get the discussion rolling.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 15th, 2010 at 7:38 am and is filed under Maturity, Pastors thoughts, Sermon Series, UniChurch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.