Question: What is the chief end of man?
Answer: Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him
forever.
My thoughts of the coming year is a reflection of the grand opening question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. What is your chief end?? Such a question presupposes that men have purposes, ends, goals or designs. By inquiring as to our chief end, an implication is made that all of our subsidiary designs and goals are to be subservient to our chief end. Life in this world move mistily. The days so long gone and another year is coming. How will we direct our youthful passions and the pursuit of our ambitions? Let us examine ourselves as to the chief end we set before ourselves in life. The Worm Pilgrim has many a time looked upon it.
Reproduced herewith is a commentary on the same question by Rev. William Patton Mackay in his Notes on Shorter Catechism , Hodder and Stoughton, 1889:
"To glorify God!"Man by nature has self for his centre. Everything must bow to self. This is what leads the drunkard, with an everlasting hell before him, to drain his cursed cup. You may speak to him about God ; he has a higher God within -- that is SELF. He cares not for God's will -- the ruler of his life is selfwill. Sin may shortly be said to be just selfwill* -- that is, a man, at all costs, will get himself gratified at the expense of his neighbor or his God. Man by nature has not the glory of God for his centre, but the glory of himself. God came down in His strong love to get us who believe out of self and put us into Christ, so that we might glorify Himself.As long, therefore, as a man is out of Christ, he cannot glorify God. Getting into Christ is the first step a man must take before he can glorify God. Many seem to suppose that man's chief end is to enjoy himself in this life -- to eat and drink like a beast. Solomon, the wisest and richest man on earth, tells us that his experience in seeking for his chief end "under the sun" ended in "vanity and vexation of spirit."I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit" (Ecc.es. 1:14).If we read the Book of Ecclesiastes in this light, we shall see its meaning. A man tries to find his chief end "under the sun," and then he will "perceive that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his portion" (Eccles. 3:22).A miserable one it is to most, and the end of it all is, "For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts ; even one thing befalleth them, as the one dieth, so dieth the other ; yea, they have all one breath ; for all is vanity" (Eccles. 3:19). So if we are in the experience of Ecclesiastes "under the sun," we are no better than the beasts.But One has come from above the sun ; and the chorus of His angelic bodyguard, as they announced His glorious coming to the expectant ears of the waiting few, was "Glory to God in the highest" (Luke 2:14).Others, however, turn from such pursuits and betake themselves to religion, and suppose that "man's chief end" is to go on all his life doing the best he can, and in the long run, as the result of his honest and sincere efforts, that God will save his soul. They put the salvation of the soul at the end -- God puts it at the beginning, and says, I'll save your soul for nothing, and then you'll begin to live for My glory after having got your soul saved.The first step is to "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16: 31). Then the believer begins to glorify God. Until a man's soul gets rest in Christ, he has no heart to think of God's glory."To enjoy Him for ever."Man's joys are the song, the bottle, the dance, the race-course, the newspaper, the novel.God says to His own, "Rejoice (the Christian should be the happiest man ; but it is) in the Lord alway" (Phil. 4: 4). "Is any (among you) merry, let him sing psalms" (James 5: 13). "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord" (Eph 5: 19); "Teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord" (Coloss. 3: 16). We rejoice that our names are written in the Book of Life. "Rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10: 20); "Whose names are in the book of life" (Phil. 4:3).Is He our chief joy at merrymaking times? All men's joys leave a sting and a desire for more ; tasting of them we thirst again ; but His joy is everlasting ; it is perfect, and it is permanent. Every joy, every amusement of earth gets wearisome, as every labour is vanity, if we are "under the sun." If we are "in Christ" Who is seated above the sun, our work will be to glorify God ; our delight to enjoy Him now and for ever ; our happy eternity begins with Christ.Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. (1Corinthians 10:31)Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. (Psalm73:25-26)"._____Note:*So that in 1 John 3: 4, sin is expressly said to be "lawlessness" (not transgression of the law, but its root, lawlessness or selfwill).
Is He our chief joy at merrymaking times? All men's joys leave a sting and a desire for more ; tasting of them we thirst again ; but His joy is everlasting ; it is perfect, and it is permanent. Every joy, every amusement of earth gets wearisome, as every labour is vanity, if we are "under the sun." If we are "in Christ" Who is seated above the sun, our work will be to glorify God ; our delight to enjoy Him now and for ever ; our happy eternity begins with Christ. "Praise thy God Forever and ever amen..
ReplyDeleteThomas Carlyle, a Scottish historian and essayist , in speaking against modern materialism in 1876, made this confession: "The older I grow, and I am now upon the brink of eternity, the more comes back to me the first sentence of the Catechism which I learned when a child, and the fuller and deeper its meaning becomes, ‘What is the chief end of man? To glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever.'"
ReplyDeleteA story from the sermon of Dr. S. Lewis Johnson, Jr. :
ReplyDeleteMr. Warfield tells a most interesting story.... There was an officer in the United States army some time ago who was serving in the western states, and at the time in one of the great western cities there was a great deal of excitement and a great deal of rioting, and so he was there in order to keep the peace. He said that he was walking along the street one day and he saw a man approaching him, and he said this man was of singularly combined calmness and firmness of mien, whose very demeanor inspired confidence. So impressed was he, this soldier with his bearing of the man that was coming to him amidst all of the surrounding uproar that when he passed by the officer, the officer turned around to take a look at him. And just as he turned around to look at the man who passed by, the man turned around and took a look at him. And when he saw the officer looking at him, he turned, stopped, came back to the officer and he said, “He put his finger on his chest and he said, ‘What is the chief end of man?’” And he said, “I said, ‘The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.’” And he said, “The man said to me, I knew you were a Shorter Catechism boy by your looks.” And the officer said, “Well you know that’s exactly what I was thinking when you passed by. I just knew you were a Shorter Catechism boy by the look on your face.” And then, Mr. Warfield goes on to say, “It is worthwhile to be a Shorter Catechism boy because they grow to be men. And better than that, they are exceedingly apt to grow to be men of God.” “Train up a child in the way in which he should go, and even when he is old he will not depart from it,” the Scriptures say.