The Chief Aim of Man

What is the chief aim of man?

The Westminster Catechism poses this question at the beginning and their answer is:
"Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever."

John Piper has created a new term "Christian Hedonist" by acknowledging this response and qualifying it further by answering:
"Man's chief end is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was he responded:
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment." (Matthew 22:37-38)

We have a purpose. We were created for a purpose. All of these responses work together to reveal what our purpose is and to reveal what our culture has distorted. All three responses take for granted something that is largely absent from American Christianity-the pursuit of God. The pursuit of God in our culture is remarkably absent and obviously fruitless. We have lost touch with our purpose. The chief aim of man in all of these definitions is highlighted by emotions and relationship. We were created for God to pursue a relationship that is glorifying to Him by loving Him and enjoying Him forever. Where do we see this in our church?

Yesterday I read Psalm 100 and I was heartbroken that my life and the life of our church doesn't reflect this joyous attitude. If we set aside the small amount of time it takes to read that short Psalm I believe we will see a different attitude than the one we observe in our churches. The cry of the psalmist's heart is obvious-he loves God with all that He is. Today in church the sermon was about love, and love was defined as the chief aim of Christian living. While this is true it became remarkably clear to me that Christian living today is defined by misplaced love. As we were reading 1 Corinthians 13:2 as a congregation I saw a terrifying description of our Christian culture.

1 Corinthians 13:2

²And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

Our culture has books for everything and about everything. We have great theology and great insight, but we have nothing. We are not defined by a thirst and a hunger for more Christ; we do not see great gain in godliness, and instead we are defined by having enough. Today we accept Christ and that is enough. We do not pursue Christ with a stronger passion, because we have enough. But what Scripture actually tells us is that we have nothing, because we do not have love. Love for God is defined in the context of a relationship throughout the Bible. "God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Cor.1:9 NASB)

 Saving faith and a true love for God is marked by a pursuit of God its battle cry is, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish  his will" (John 4:34). There is within God's people a true hunger to do His will and to follow hard after Him. To pursue God in a glorifying manner our pursuit must be fueled by love, a love that is defined by an overwhelming joy and a burning passion and desire to know God better and to bring His truth to all people. To pursue God in a glorifying manner we must ask God to reveal to us that "there is great gain in godliness with contentment" (1 Tim. 6:6 ESV). We must ask God to teach us and to reveal to us His righteousness and the gain there is in pursuing Him alone. We need to understand that there is joy and eternal reward found in pursuing God above all. Without this understanding we will never be able to "Delight in the Lord" as He commands throughout Scripture (Psalm 22:8, 37:4, 111:2).

I believe the absence of a true pursuit of God in our culture is defined by our seeking to make ourselves high and mighty so that we may feel accomplished. This is simply another way of stating that we want something to boast in. We have a created a theology where you can will God into your life and it has wreaked havoc on our spiritual lives, because it is a futile attempt from the beginning. Our love of God is a response to His grace.  "No man can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day" (John 6:44). We are given nothing to boast in, because we have done nothing to deserve and can do nothing to earn God's righteousness.  Our boasting has been excluded by faith, because our righteousness is imputed to us from Jesus by faith (Romans 3:27, 2 Cor. 5:21). Even our faith is given to us by God so that our grounds for boasting are completely shattered, "but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. My sheep hear voice, and I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:26-7).

I am writing this so that we will see that a true and humble pursuit of God is a gift from God. God is the giver and we must receive life from Him. The chief aim of man is only realized when we begin to understand that God is greater than everything this life has to offer. The chief aim of man can then only begin when we humble ourselves and ask God to work in our life to create a love and a passion for Him. We must rely on the promises of God and once that love is born we will have an insatiable thirst for the almighty God. We were created by God and for God (Colossians 1:16). Our aim is loving fellowship with the gracious Creator of everything. It is my prayer that God will reveal His righteousness to us all and that we will develop a true hunger and thirst for Him that nothing in this world will ever diminish.

Saint Dallan Forgaill from Ireland understood the pleasure and joy gained from a life spent searching hard after God when he wrote the hymn "Be Thou My Vision." Let us read some verses from his hymn and pray for a heart that belongs to God alone.

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,

all else but naught to me, save that thou art;

thou my best thought by the day by night,

waking and sleeping, thy presence my light.

Be thou my wisdom, and thou my true word,

thou ever with me, and I with thee Lord;

thou my great Father, and I thy true son;

thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one.

Be thou my breastplate, sword for the fight;

thou my whole armor, thou my true might;

thou my soul's shelter, my strong tower:

raise thou me heavenward, great Power of my power

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise:

thou mine inheritance now and always;

thou and thou only first in my heart;

Sovereign of heaven, my treasure thou art.

God is our prize.

Amen.