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Glory Is Found In Christ, Not False Piety

Glory Is Found In Christ, Not False Piety

Last updated on: October 25, 2026 at 1:10 am by Henry Karlson

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Glory Is Found In Christ, Not False Piety 2026-10-25T01:10:03-05:00 Henry Karlson

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shakko: Detail from Omophorion’s decorum, Russia, 2nd h. of 17 c. Christ in Glory / Wikimedia Commons

Paul warned us not to engage false piety; not only does vainglory emerge from it, such vainglory reinforces and encourages the use of false piety in order to receive respect from others. While we can pretend to be pious in order to receive worldly honor and glory, what obtain will be transitory at best. True, lasting glory comes from and is found in God. We can partake of and experience it because it is something God shares with us through Christ. If we open ourselves to it, it will transform us so that like Christ, we will not view such glory as something to hold onto and hoard up in ourselves; rather it will be something which will motivate us to act on behalf of others, helping them experience what we have experienced, to share in the glory, and the joy, which we have received. Indeed, the more we try to hold onto it without sharing it, the more it will fall out of our grasp; the more we are willing to share what we have been given with others, the more we will be given, transforming us to become greater, able to receive and share more of Christ’s glory.

To receive that glory, the glory which we are to share with others, we must follow after Christ. When we do so, we will find that there are many legitimate ways to do so. We are given freedom in Christ, and that freedom would be lost, if there were but one way, one kind of discipline or spirituality available to us. This is why we should not expect ever Christian to be the same as each other. Over time and space, and dealing with the personal qualities which makes us distinct, we will find there are diverse spiritual disciplines and practices followed by the faithful. Paul emphasized this in the way he said Gentile converts should be treated by the growing Christian community. Some Christians in his time thought conversion to the Christian faith meant Gentile believers would have to take up and put into practice the complete Law of Moses (which, for men, meant they had to be circumcised). Paul said this was not right. He warned us when we begin to assume one way, one kind of discipline or spirituality, as absolute and to be followed by everyone, it quickly is used by those who engage false piety, those seeking personal glory, as a way to promote themselves and judge those who do not follow such a discipline. Their practice becomes a show, one which hides how far they are from where God wants them to be:

It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that would compel you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For even those who receive circumcision do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh (Gal. 6:12-13 RSV)

Based upon this text, it seems some suggested Gentile converts should become circumcised so that they can fit in, and not because they saw it as a necessity; others, however, saw it was a way to try to exercise power over the developing Christian faith, and they wanted to use circumcision as a way to identify a full or proper member of the growing Christianity community. Jewish tradition allowed for converts, but conversion was not emphasized; there were some who converted, and some who were circumcised, but most who came to accept the basics of the Jewish faith who remained outside of the Jewish community. They didn’t get circumcised, but were recognized as God-fearers. Christianity took what it was given by the Jewish tradition and develop it. Paul knew those who said one had to be circumcised to follow God did not represent the Jewish tradition, and he knew that had to be recognized in the Christian tradition. It was important for Christians to welcome God-fearers into their community, to recognize their conversion, without putting demands on them that was not found within the Jewish tradition. Thus, Paul said what Christians needed to remember is the cross. We found true glory, not in following unnecessary rules and regulations, but in the cross. It is with the cross we find true glory, the glory which is offered to all the Christian faithful, no matter their background; it is not gained by any false piety, even false piety which came out of good traditions, but in union with Christ. Such glory requires us to be humble, for it is in and through such humility, we will follow Christ, in whom we will find our true glory:

But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation (Gal. 6:14-15 RSV)

Reading what Paul said carefully, we should note that after rejecting the notion that Gentile converts should be circumcised, he also wanted to make sure Christians didn’t create a new rule saying Christians shouldn’t be circumcised. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision in themselves matter. What matters is the way we are made new, and we are made new in Christ. We must live the way Christ wants us to live; that is, we are die to our old selves, to all the ideologies and all the sins, which helped us establish a false sense of who we are. Humility and repentance helps us do that. “Nothing is so deadly to sin as self-accusation and self-condemnation with repentance and tears.”[1] By turning away from sin, we allow Christ to make us new (or renewed) creations who live and thrive, not in and with any self-made glory (vainglory), but and with him and his glory. “Peace and mercy be upon all who walk by this rule, upon the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16 RSV). Peace is found when Christians come together in harmony, no longer fighting each other over which form of piety is best, no longer trying to force each other to conform to one way of living out their faith. We can be in harmony with each other, and share in the peace of Christ, when we stop judging by outward appearances, such as those who like to judge the worth of people by their wealth, suggesting those who are rich have been shown God’s favor. Jesus’ story of Dives and Lazarus shows the error of that ideology:

There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom (Lk. 16:19-23 RSV).

If possessing wealth proved someone had God’s favor, then Dives, the rich man, would have been welcomed to Abraham’s bosom when he died because his wealth would have proved God’s favor was upon him. He wasn’t. The man Dives, and so many others, likely judged as lazy and worthless, the man who suffered much of his life, begging just to survive, was the one who proved to have God’s favor. When we judge the poor, as Dives and others passing by Lazarus would have done, we show how far we are from Christ and what Christ wanted us to learn. We prove we still judge on outward appearances, and with it, follow the way of vainglory. We might not be judging on circumcision, like some did in the first century, but we still would be judging on a basis of “the flesh,” establishing a false notion of glory, and in doing so, we have yet to fully open ourselves up to Christ and his glory.

[1] St. John Chrysostom, On Wealth and Poverty. Trans. Catharine P. Roth (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1984), 89 [Fourth Sermon on Lazarus and the Rich man].

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