By Jack Sawyer SCQ#1: What is the chief end of man? ANS: Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever. LCQ#1: What is the chief and highest end of man? ANS: Man's chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him for ever. I. What is meant by the word glorify in the catechism? A. The word glorify, from the Greek term doxa, means to honor, praise, or worship. II. What is it to glorify God in the here and now? A. Negatively, to glorify God is not to give any additional glory to Him: it is not to make God more glorious than He is. No creature magnifies God s glory. 1. God is incapable of receiving the least addition to His essential glory, because He is eternally and infinitely perfect and glorious. B. Positively, to glorify God is to reflect His glory. 1. All of creation honors God by passively manifesting and reflecting God s glory. a. Thus, by merely existing, men passively glorify God; by simply being God s creatures and image-bearers, men honor God. 2. Men most excellently glorify God when they manifest and reflect God s glory willingly and actively. a. Men glorify God most when they consciously place God at the center of their lives. b. Men glorify God most excellently when they design, in their every thought, word, and deed, to acknowledge, value, love, obey, trust, thank, serve, honor, praise, worship, and exalt God. 1. Men glorify God when they accurately acknowledge (publicly and privately) God s real and personal existence according to the revelations He has made of Himself in nature and in Scripture. 2. Men glorify God when they value God s infinite greatness above all other things. 3. Men glorify God when they inwardly love God. a. i.e., when they have both a high estimation of God and strong affections toward Him. b. i.e., when they purpose and endeavor to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. 4. Men glorify God by striving to obey all of His revealed will. 5. Men glorify God by seeking to trust God for everything they need. 6. Men glorify God by endeavoring to thank God for all that they have. 1
7. Men glorify God by purposing to serve God with their time, energy, and resources. 8. Men glorify God when they make the beauty of His manifold perfections known. a. i.e., when they honor, praise, and worship God with both their lives and their lips. b. i.e., when they consciously and zealously design to exalt God in their every thought, word, and deed. 3. The Scriptures demonstrate, by instruction and example, how men glorify God. a. Men glorify God when they......encourage other people to honor God (Ps 22:22, 23)....offer sacrifices of thanksgiving to God (Ps 50:23a; 86:12)....labor in God's ordained causes (Hag 1:8)....walk in the "light" before a watching world (Matt 5:14-16) (cf. Ps 119:105; 2 Pet 1:19-21)....exult in God's revealed truths (Luk 2:20)....prove to be Christ's disciples by bearing much fruit (Jn 15:8).(cf. Gal 5:22,23)...accomplish the work God has given them to do (Jn 17:4)....submit to and accept God's providential surprises (Acts 11:18)....rejoice in the successes of God's kingdom (Acts 21:18-20a)....manifest a strong, maturing faith in God's promises (Rom 4:20)....demonstrate unity (Rom 15:5-7)....discipline and keep their physical bodies pure (1 Co 6:18-20)....wisely exercise their God-given liberties (1 Cor 10:31-33)....obediently manifest their confession of the gospel (2 Cor 9:12,13)....marvel at God's transforming grace in people's lives (Gal 1:22-24)....are filled with the fruits of righteousness through Christ (Phil 1:9-11) (cf. Gal 5:22,23)...receive and spread the Word of God (2 Thes 3:1) (cf. 1 Thes 2:13)....behave so as to silence their false accusers (1 Pet 2:12)....zealously serve others with their spiritual gift(s) (1 Pet 4:10,11). III. How will men glorify God in the hereafter? (Note: According to SCQ #1, man s chief end is to glorify God forever.) A. God will be glorified in the hereafter by His people when, in their every thought, word, and deed, they perfectly know, value, love, obey, thank, serve, honor, praise, worship, and exalt God forever and ever in heaven (Rev 22:3-5). IV. What is it to enjoy God? A. Men enjoy God when they take great pleasure in, and receive most satisfaction from, a deep, spiritual relationship with God. 2
V. How do men enjoy God in the here and now? A. Men enjoy God when they are filled with and experience the satisfying pleasure of God s gracious presence (Acts 13:52). 1. i.e., when they experience unction (1Jn 2:20:...ye have an unction from the Holy One... ). a. [Unction is] defined by Vinet as the general savour of Christianity, a gravity accompanied by tenderness, a severity tempered with sweetness, a majesty associated with intimacy. Blair calls it gravity and warmth united (Dabney). B. Men enjoy God when they experience God s sensible manifestations of special love unto them in their prayers (Ps 63:1-8). C. Men enjoy God when, by faith, they rest in Him as their highest good, with complacency and delight (Ex 33:13, 14; Ps 73:23-26, 28). D. Men enjoy God when they are happily consumed with an insatiable appetite for His Word (Ps 119:20, 97, 103). E. Men enjoy God when they take pleasure in being overcome with the beauty of God s infinite perfections in their worship (Ps 27:4; 106:1, 2). F. Men enjoy God when they consider their relationship with God to be their most prized possession (Mat 13:44-46; Phil 3:7-11). G. However, Men enjoy God, in the here and now, imperfectly. 1. David Brainerd: Of late God has been pleased to keep my soul hungry almost continually, so that I have been filled with a kind of pleasing pain. When I really enjoy God, I feel my desires of Him more insatiable and my thirstings after holiness more unquenchable (Quoted in Piper). VI. How will men enjoy God in the hereafter? (Note: According to SCQ #1, man s chief end is to enjoy God forever.) A. God will be enjoyed hereafter by His people, when they shall be admitted into His glorious presence, have an immediate sight of His face, and full sense of His love in heaven, and there fully and eternally rest in Him with perfect and inconceivable delight and joy (Vincent). 1. Ps 16:11: Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. a. Question to Ponder: Have you ever thought of the pursuit of your own personal happiness as being connected to being a Christian? VII. Why is the glorifying of God and the enjoyment of God joined together as one chief end of man? A. God has inseparably joined them together, so that men cannot truly design and seek the one without the other (Vincent). (Jn 15:1-11; Deut 10:12,13) 1. In short, God is most glorified in His people when they are most satisfied in Him (Piper). 2. When God shall be most fully enjoyed by the saints in heaven, He will be most highly glorified (Vincent). 3. The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever (Piper). 3
a. Question to Ponder: If glorifying God and enjoying Him seem in conflict with one another, what should we think of our view of the Christian life? (Something is wrong!) VIII. What is meant by the word chief in the catechism? A. The main, the highest in rank, the most eminent or important. IX. What is meant by the word end in the catechism? A. A purpose, goal, or aim. X. What is meant by the words the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him in the catechism? A. These words are intended to convey that glorifying God by enjoying Him forever is to be man s highest, most significant, most noble, and loftiest calling and purpose. 1. i.e., such is to be man s principal purpose and goal. 2. i.e., such is to be man s most privileged purpose and goal. B. The first and most important aim of God in creating man was that man might glorify and enjoy Him; therefore, the first and most important aim of man ought to be to desire, seek after, and endeavor to fulfill his Creator s intended purpose. 1. Men have as their chief end to glorify God when they seek at all times and in all activities to do that which is well-pleasing in God s sight (1 Co 10:31). 2. Questions to Ponder: a. Do you seek to serve God s purposes, or do you expect God to serve your purposes? b. Do you live unto God, or do you expect God to live unto you? c. Do your personal goals harmonize or conflict with God s divine goals? 1. Men glorify God when who they are and what they do is in harmony with who God is and what He is doing. d. What should we think of ourselves if enjoying God by living for His glory is insignificant to us? XI. May men have no other chief end than the glorifying and enjoying of God? A. Men ought to have no other chief end than the glorifying of God, but they may have subordinate ends (1 Co 10:31). 1. It is lawful for men to desire, design, and seek the improvement of their earthly circumstances, but in all actions, men ought principally and chiefly to desire, design, and seek the glory of God. 2. It is lawful for men to moderately desire and endeavor after the enjoyment of such a portion of the good things of the world as is needful and useful, but they ought to make 4
choice of God for their chief good, and desire the eternal enjoyment of Him as their chief portion (Ps 73:25, 26, 28). XII. Why ought men to chiefly design the glorifying of God in all their actions? A. Because God made men for this end, and He gave them a soul capable of doing it beyond irrational creatures. B. Because God preserves men and makes provision for them, that they might glorify Him. C. Because God has redeemed men, and bought them with the price of His Son s blood, that they might glorify Him. D. Because God has given men His Word to direct, His Spirit to assist, and promises His kingdom to encourage them to glorify Him. E. Because if men refuse to pursue the glorification and enjoyment of God as their chief end, God will unleash His omnipotent wrath upon their eternal souls (Rom 1:18-21). 1. The very essence of sin is that it is an affront to God s glory (Rom 3:23). XIII. Why ought men to chiefly desire and seek the enjoyment of God forever? A. Because God is the chief good, and man s greatest, deepest, and most enduring happiness is found only in enjoying God. 1. There once was in man a true happiness of which now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present. But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself (Pascal). a. All people constantly say to themselves: I ll be happy if... or I ll be happy when... b. Seeking first to glorify God and enjoy Him forever is man s only certain source of full and lasting happiness. 1. Ps 16:11: Thou wilt make known to me the path of life; in Thy presence is fulness of joy; in Thy right hand there are pleasures forever. B. Because the longing to be happy is a universal human experience, and it is good, not sinful. 1. All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves (Pascal). C. Because men should never try to deny or resist their longing to be happy. Instead they should seek to intensify this longing and nourish it with whatever will provide the deepest and most enduring satisfaction. D. Because God is but imperfectly and inconstantly enjoyed here, and men cannot be perfectly happy until they come to the eternal enjoyment of God in heaven (Vincent). XIV. Practical Questions to Ponder: 5
A. Does God give any person the liberty to decide whether or not his or her chief end in life is to glorify and enjoy Him? (No!) 1. What choice does God give each person? (Either salvation to His glory or damnation to His glory.) B. What are some of the things people put at the center of their lives besides God? (themselves + cars, friends, spouses, children, things, money, sex, houses, sports, education, careers, good works etc.) 1. Whatever is the primary focus of their time and energy commitment. C. What is the difference between a person who is God-centered and a person who is selfcentered? 1. All the activities of a God-centered person s life are performed in honor, service, and enjoyment of God. 2. All the activities of a self-centered person s life are performed in honor, service, and enjoyment of self. D. What is in reality your chief end in life? What is in reality the primary focus of your time and energy commitment? E. What is the first step that a sinful, self-centered person must take in order to put God at the center of his or her life? (Rom 3:9-26; 10:9-11) F. What departments of life ought to serve the glory of God? (All of them) G. Since believers sin daily in thought, word, and deed, how can they possibly be optimistic about seeking to glorify God in all things? (1Jn 1:5-2:6) H. Which is more to the glory of God: a young woman who goes to the mission field or a young man who chooses to be a carpenter s apprentice? (Neither they are the same.) I. Which is more to the glory of God: a man who preaches or a woman who is a mother and homemaker? (Neither they are the same.) Works Cited Dabney, Robert L. R.L. Dabney on Preaching: Lectures on Sacred Rhetoric. Carlisle: Banner of Truth. 1979. 116. Only one portion of this outline (quoted) was derived from this source. Pascal, Blaise. Pascal s Pensees. trans. by W.F. Trotter. New York: E.P. Dutton. 1958. 113. Only two portions of this outline (quoted) were derived from this source. Piper, John. Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist. Portland: Multnomah. 1986. 13, 14, 19, 43, 75, 76. Portions of this outline (some quoted and others paraphrased) were derived from this source. Vincent, Thomas. The Shorter Catechism Explained from Scripture. Carlisle: Banner of Truth. 1980. 13-17. Portions of this outline (some quoted and others paraphrased) were derived from this source. Williamson, G.I. The Shorter Catechism. vol. 1. Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed. 1970. 1-4. Portions of this outline (all paraphrased) were derived from this source. 6