12. The chief end of man
12
The chief end of man
Question 1. What is the chief end of man?
Answer. Man’s chief end is to glorify God,a and to enjoy him for ever.b
a 1 Corinthians 10:31: “Do all to the glory of God.” Romans 11:36: “To whom be glory for ever. Amen.”
b Psalm 73:25, 26, 28: Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. But it is good for me to draw near to God.
If an assembly of philosophers had been convened at Athens to compose a catechism of religion and morals for the youth of Greece, to a certainty it would have opened with the very question before us. For almost all the dialogues and discussions of the fathers of moral philosophy revolve around this supreme and everlasting question, “What is the final cause and chief end of man?” Moral philosophy can put this question, but it is a theology drawn from the Holy Scriptures that can alone supply the answer: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever....”
“Man’s chief end”: “chief and highest end” (Larger Catechism). Our well-known word end most commonly carries the sense of a limit, a boundary, a termination. But it also means an aim, a purpose, an intention, a design. And it is in this latter sense the word is used in the text. The student will at once see that this question and answer carefully recognize other ends in man besides his “chief” end. For it could not with propriety be said that man had a “chief” end unless he had also inferior, secondary, and subordinate ends. The Catechism does not concern itself with them, but it is aware of their existence; it implies them in passing by them to pursue man’s chief end.
“To glorify God”: Glory in its scriptural use is a divine word setting forth, struggling to set forth, a divine thing. The divine glory is the revelation of the divine perfections in the works of creation, providence and redemption. God’s glory stands originally in his possession of all being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth; and he is glorified in the manifestation of himself to all his receptive and responsive creatures. “The glory of God,” says Calvin, “is when we know what he is.” “Glory is the divinity manifest” (Bengel).1 In the fourth verse of the seventeenth [chapter] of John we are supplied with an explanation of this word which will admit of being adapted and applied to the whole creation of God. In our Lord’s report and prayer contained in that great chapter, he says, “I have glorified thee on the earth.” And then, as if in explanation, he adds, “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” Now this same explanation of the word, carried through the whole of creation, and adapted to the nature and capacity of each part, will make the meaning of this great word as clear as it is capable of being made. “Man’s chief end,” therefore, is to “finish the work God has given him to do,” and what that work is the Catechism will labour in both its parts to set forth.…
“And to enjoy him”: Joy is the purest, deepest, and most satisfying delight that can possess the heart of man; and the Scriptures continually set forth God as man’s chiefest joy. As thus: “In thy presence is fullness of joy” [Psalm 16:11]; “Then will I go…unto God, my exceeding joy” [Psalm 43:4].…
“For ever”: Never to end, eternal, everlasting. These words for ever occur four times altogether in the Catechism. In the answer before us they assure us that our enjoyment of God shall never come to an end. The very same words are found along with the pains of hell in Answer 19; with the continuance of two distinct natures in Christ in Answer 21; and with God’s kingdom, power, and glory in Answer 107.…
Uses…
• “Indeed, this seems properly to be an affair of divine revelation. In order to be determined what was designed, in the creating of the astonishing fabric of the universe we behold, it becomes us to attend to, and rely on, what he has told us, who was the architect. He best knows his own heart, and what his own ends and designs were, in the wonderful works which he has wrought” (Jonathan Edwards). Students of sufficient talents and enterprise should master Jonathan Edwards’ tractate, A Dissertation concerning the End for which God created the World.2
• Let a man examine himself as to the chief end he sets before himself life.
Questions…
• Mention some of the subordinate and secondary ends of man; and point out how, properly pursued, they all become means to his chief end.
• Men must not seek their own glory in anything. On the other hand, God, in everything he does and commands us to do, seeks his own glory. Explain and reconcile. Consult Paradise Regained, Book III3; also Edwards’ dissertation.
• Quote utterances of our Lord to prove that he looked on it as his chief end to glorify the Father.
*From A Commentary on the Shorter Catechism (Repr. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1961), 1-3. The Westminster Shorter Catechism was drawn up by the Westminster Assembly in 1647 and consists of 107 questions and answers. The answers are usually single-sentence formulations. The Westminster Larger Catechism (1648) contains 196 questions and answers, and the answers are usually far more detailed than those in the Shorter Catechism.
1. Johannes Albrecht Bengel (1687-1752) was a Lutheran New Testament scholar whose exegetical work on the New Testament, Gnomon Novi Testamenti (1742), was widely used and admired for its penetrating exegesis.
2. For a modern edition of this work, see John Piper, God’s Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards with the Complete Text of The End for Which God Created the World (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1998).
3. Paradise Regained (1671) was written by the famous Puritan poet John Milton (1608-1674) as a sequel to his Paradise Lost (1667).