Man's chief end

The first question

When the Westminster Assembly wrote a short catechism in the 1640s to teach the faith to children and new believers, it could have begun with God, or with sin, or with the Bible. It began with purpose. "What is the chief end of man?" it asks, and answers in a single line: "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever" Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q. 1. An end is a goal, the thing a life is aimed at. The Larger Catechism, written for preachers, says the same with more weight: "Man's chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him for ever" Westminster Larger Catechism, Q. 1.

That line gathers up the whole movement of Scripture, in which everything comes from God and returns to him.

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.

Romans 11:36

Matthew Henry draws the conclusion plainly: "if all are of Him, and through Him, all should be to Him, and for Him" Matthew Henry. The elders around the throne sing the same reason: "Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things" (Revelation 4:11). That is why Paul can bring the most ordinary moments under this one purpose: "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Glory and joy together

To glorify God is not to add something he lacks. The Old Testament word for glory, kavod (כָּבוֹד), comes from a root that means ‘heavy’. To glorify God is to recognise his true weight, his worth and majesty, and to honour and show it with heart, lips and life. God speaks of his people as those "created for My glory" (Isaiah 43:7).

The small word in the catechism's answer that matters most may be "and". Glorifying God and enjoying him are not two ends competing for first place; they are one end. A duty done for God without delight in him falls short of it, and so does an enjoyment of his gifts that never honours the Giver. We glorify God most when he is our greatest joy. The words ‘for ever’ matter too: this joy does not wait for death to begin, and death cannot end it. The psalmist found this out.

Whom have I in heaven but You? And on earth I desire no one besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Psalm 73:25-26

David sings of the same joy: "You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand" (Psalm 16:11). Matthew Henry, on Psalm 73, puts it sharply: "Heaven itself could not make us happy without the presence and love of our God" Matthew Henry. And on Psalm 16 he describes the people of God: "Gracious persons, though they still covet more of God, never covet more than God" Matthew Henry. To enjoy God is to want God himself, not only what he gives.

Augustine began his Confessions with a prayer that has named this longing ever since: "Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee" Augustine, Confessions 1.1. The restlessness of the human heart is not a flaw in the design but a sign of what we were made for. This is not a Reformed peculiarity. The Catechism of the Catholic Church opens by teaching that God freely created us to share in his own blessed life, and that the desire for God is written in the human heart Catechism of the Catholic Church. Orthodox Christians speak of our end as sharing in God's life, as those who "become partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). The whole church confesses that God is our beginning and our end.

The rule God has given

How, then, do we glorify and enjoy him? The catechism's second answer is just as short: "The word of God, which is contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him" Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q. 2. We do not invent our own ways of pleasing God; we learn what pleases him from what he has said. Scripture is given "so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:17). The lesson on Scripture alone takes this further.

This one end draws the whole of life together. In worship we enjoy God most directly, like the psalmist whose one desire was "to gaze on the beauty of the LORD" (Psalm 27:4). In work, eating and drinking and everything else become ways of honouring him, as the last lesson of this course will show. In rest we learn that we are not God, and that our hearts find their true rest only in him. At the centre of worship, work and rest stands joy in God.

A faith learned by heart

Korean Presbyterians have long learned their faith through this catechism, known in Korean as 소요리문답. In 1907 the first independent presbytery adopted it as a standard of the church's teaching, and many congregations have taught it ever since in classes before baptism and before profession of faith, and in Sunday school (see Presbyterians in Korea). Question and answer is an old way of teaching. A short answer learned in childhood often comes back years later, in a hospital corridor or a sleepless night, and holds us up.

The first question speaks to doubters too. The writer of Psalm 73 admits, "my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped" (Psalm 73:2), because the wicked seemed to prosper while he struggled. Thinking it through only wearied him, "until I entered God’s sanctuary" (Psalm 73:17). He ends where the catechism begins: "But as for me, it is good to draw near to God" (Psalm 73:28). Faith starts not with what we must do for God but with what God made us for, and that purpose is an invitation before it is a duty. For more, see Why do we exist? and What is happiness?.

Practice