Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.” (1 Cor. 10:31)
Honor and glory are indeed due to God and to Him alone, but He will accept neither of them if they be not preserved in the honey of love. Love is sufficient of itself; it pleases by itself and on its own account. Love seeks no cause beyond itself and no fruit. It is its own fruit, its own enjoyment. - Bernard of Clairvaux
A person walks up to an information counter and asks the clerk, “What’s the meaning of life?” This joke has appeared in many forms over the years. The comic line is that no clerk could possibly give an adequate response to such an impossible question. We would all find ourselves scratching our heads attempting to give a suitable answer. However, the very first question asked in the Westminster Shorter Catechism comes close to posing a similar question, what is the “chief end” of humanity? In other words, what were we chiefly given to do here upon this earth? What is the meaning of life?
To glorify and enjoy God – what a compelling and beautiful answer to our chief end in life. For a while, we rest quiet and in awe of the statement and then we discover ourselves saying, “Wait a minute – how? How can human beings glorify and enjoy God?”
Something, similar is at work in the opening line of the Scots Confession, which uses four verbs to describe our relationship to God. “We confess and acknowledge one God alone, to whom alone we must cleave, whom alone we must serve, whom only we must worship, and in whom alone we put our trust.” (Scots 3.01) The Westminster Shorter Catechism makes the same point when it describes “the chief end of man” as “to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever” (7.001). Unfortunately, there is little in our society that prepares us to find joy in service or subordination. When we do manage to take pleasure in the glory of another, more often than not it is a misplaced fascination with the rich and famous, film stars and sports heroes. The Reformers remind us that only God is worthy of such glorification.
God’s glory is God’s self-revelation: a proclamation of God’s worth, goodness, justice, beauty, and power. To know or proclaim God’s glory is to tell the truth about God. God’s glory is an important theme for these confessions, because the Reformers feared that God’s glory was being eclipsed by false claimants to an honor that belongs to God alone.
If your heart is entirely devoted to God, it is itself, for that very reason, the treasure, the kingdom, and the enjoyment that you seek and desire. From the time we desire God and His holy will, one enjoys God and His will, and this enjoyment corresponds to the glory we give to God. To desire to love God is truly to love Him, and because we love Him we wish to become instruments of His action in order that His love may be exercised in, and by us.
The humblest and the most unseen activity in the world can be the true worship of God... Work and worship literally become one. Our chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever; and we carry out that function when we do what God sent us into the world to do... Work well done rises like a hymn of praise to eternal God. - William Barclay, "The Revelation of John, v. 1"
Jesus wanted ordinary people who could take an assignment and do it extraordinarily well. He chose men and women, not for what they were, but for what they were capable of becoming under his direction and power. When the Lord calls us to serve, we must not think we have nothing to offer. The Lord takes what ordinary people, like us, can offer and uses it for greatness in his kingdom.
“To glorify God, and to enjoy him forever,” sets the stage for the theme of each following question. From the beginning of creation, God created us to love and enjoy our relationship to God. The other questions and answers helps us to discover how we might accomplish this purpose, while also pointing out to us how we have fallen short of God’s glory and the enjoyment of his presence and love. Keep this phrase in mind during Lent and discover how God is calling you to glorify and enjoy God.
Today’s Lectionary Readings
Morning Psalm: 119:73-96
Evening Psalm: 1, 65
Jonah 3:1—4:11
Hebrews 12:1-14
Luke 18:9-14
NOTE: Each daily devotion has a list of the Lectionary Readings for the day, but these scripture readings are not directly related to the subject of the daily devotional text.
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