A podcast listener named Kent writes in to ask this, Pastor John,

I have a question about word choice in your motto.

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

I know you've thought and prayed extensively about each word to convey the proper message,

but I'm wondering why you didn't choose the word Christ in place of God or Him.

What I like most about your ministry is that Christ is central to everything you preach,

and there's no confusing the God you glorify with any other God of this world.

But without using Christ, the above phrase loses specificity and could be referring to a Muslim,

Hindu, Buddhist, or other God. Why not include Christ in the motto?

Well, I am always happy and eager to clarify the meaning of my favorite slogan.

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

So let me make four very brief comments and congratulate Kent.

I just totally agree with what he's saying, and maybe this will give him perspective on how I think.

Number one, I very often, in speaking, do use the name Christ,

and I often say Christ is most magnified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

And I do this because of Philippians 1, 20 and 21, where Paul says,

his eager expectation and hope is that Christ would be magnified in his body,

whether by life or death, for to me to live as Christ,

and to die as gain. And I argue from the very structure of that text that fundamental to my

Christian hedonism is that Christ and his magnificence is shown by Paul's counting him

and all satisfying gain when he loses everything and dies.

So yes, yes, yes, at the very root of my slogan is a text that makes Christ the center of it.

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