Question 2: What Is The Chief End of Man?
Man’s chief end is
to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.
“Your duty… is not
to shut either your ears or mind against a cause involving such mighty
interests as these: how the glory of God
is to be maintained on the earth inviolate, how the truth of God is to preserve
its dignity, how the
John Calvin wrote
these words in his work, The Institutes of the Christian Religion. Calvin is one who is known for his love,
admiration, and loyalty to the glory of God.
I though it fitting to begin this week with this quote. He says that the glory of God is worthy of
our ears, investigation, and (if we were a king) our throne. Wow!
Is anything in life more precious?!
I think not.
With that in mind,
our question deals with something that many in our society and even in many
churches are not well acquainted with:
how to glorify God and in doing so, enjoy Him forever. The term glorify in the Hebrew (kabad) means
“to give weight, to make honorable, to make dense”. In the New Testament, the Greek word for
glorify is doxazo and seems to convey the idea of a process by which we honor
God. First we think rightly about God. We cannot honor Him, unless we think about
Him the way that He truly is. For
instance, I cannot truly honor a man for his generosity if I find out he is a
thief. Second, we speak well of God. In other words, we praise Him. Our mouth exalts Him whenever there is an
opportunity. Third, we cause His
dignity and His worth to become manifest and acknowledged. This is the most crucial point, but will
never be fully realized unless we understand the first two. We cannot just make the third element a
reality unless we have made the first two reality.
What happens when
these three points become achieved? Our
lives become the very definition of doxazo.
We glorify God! Our lives are no
longer shallow and meaningless, but they become “weighty” and “dense”. Every aspect of our life is effected and so
the glory of God abounds in our lives.
As a result, we are truly fulfilled.
We do enjoy the Lord and are filled with joy. This does not mean that life becomes some
blissful pipe dream, but it does mean that we can be content with God when
there is plenty around us and when there is nothing around us.
I our society today much is made of self esteem and self image. However, we must help our families to see that we are not made in our own image, but the image of God. When we step in front of a mirror, the mirror reflect the image of the one standing in front of it. Use this illustration to show your family that we are simply the mirrors of our Creator, God. He stands before us and we are to reflect His glory, not our own. God bless you this week.
DAY 1:1 Corinthians 10:31
The apostle tells us to glorify
God no matter what we do. He uses the
most monotonous, mundane things of eating and drinking to illustrate how we
should glorify God.
Ask members of the family to name
some everyday, ordinary things we can do to glorify God.
When Paul uses the phrase,
“whatever you do”, does he include those other things that you named?
Paul speaks in the context of
eating meat that is sacrificed to idols and specifically addresses one’s
conscience (vss. 25-29). Share with your
family the first aspect of glorifying God must come from the conscience. This conscience must be one that is filtered
by the Word of God. We must train our
consciences to be clearly fixed on the true God and His glory alone.
In the same context, Paul also
says that this issue of eating meat that is sacrificed to idols may indeed be
lawful, but not helpful (vs. 23). Share
some examples of things which might fit this analogy.
Ask members of the family to
quietly examine themselves and see if they have glorified or failed to glorify
God today.
DAY 2:Isaiah 43:7
The context of this verse is God
speaking to His people Israel. Isaiah
prophesies to Israel about the impending judgment that God Will lead them into
if they do not turn from their idolatry.
Nevertheless, God speaks of His care and protection of His people (vss.
1-3).
God mentions those “called by His
name” as Israel. Remind your family that
it was the nations in the land of Canaan that were well aware of the God of
Israel, because of the wonderful works he did among and through them.
Are we, the church, called by His
name? The New Testament describes us as
“the called” (Rom. 1:6; 9:24; 1 Cor. 1:9; Jude 1:1). Who are we called by??
According to this verse, what have
we been created for?
God uses 2 words in this text,
“created” (Hebrew=bara’) and “formed” (Hebrew=yatsar). It appears that God initially creates us for His glory and then
“forms” us by the many trials of life (cf. Vs.2) Share some things God has used in your life
to form you that you may glorify Him.
DAY 3:John 17:6-19
This is Jesus’ high priestly
prayer. The first words out of His mouth
are in reference to the glory of the Father (vs. 1). Notice also that His death was approaching
and that He was desiring to be glorified with His Father. This is another keen insight into the deity
of the Lord Jesus Christ, because God does not share His glory with another.
Jesus uses the term “manifested”
in verse 6. It is almost synonymous with
glorified. Jesus obeyed the Father in
everything and spoke the truth of God without error. That’s how He manifested God’s name.
Was it important that Jesus glorify
the Father? How much more should we
glorify the Father?
Share with your family that Jesus
prayed not only for the disciples (vs. 9), but for all that the Father would
give Him (vs. 10). What does He say we
do? We glorify Him.
According to verse 13, what does
Jesus desire to be fulfilled in us? How
is it accomplished?
Finally, what are we to do
according to verses 17-19? How are we to
do that? Did Jesus sanctify
Himself? He says that He did that in
order that we also may be sanctified and in doing so, His joy becomes our joy
(vs. 13).
Why does Jesus pray for His
disciples like this? Could it be through
Him saving them, keeping them, and sanctifying them that God is glorified?
DAY 4:Psalm
David references the phrase “path
of life”. This is synonymous with the
term “eternal life”. It speaks of the
way of righteousness. From what we’ve
looked at so far, how do we know the path of life? Is it the same for everyone?
The term presence in Hebrew is
paniym. It means “before the face”. David speaks of a confrontation with God, one
in which he comes face to face with the Lord.
Moses and the Lord Jesus are both spoken of as those who met with God
face to face. True believers also meet
with the Lord face to face, as well.
David says that in God’s presence
there is fullness of joy. There is an
abundant joy in the Lord’s presence.
Perhaps you could try and describe
to your family the unspeakable joy that comes from the presence of the Lord and
share with them the benefits of that joy.
The reference to God’s right hand
speaks of a place of honor. It was the
Lord Jesus who was exalted to the Father’s right hand following His death,
burial, resurrection and ascension. It
is from that place of prominence that He dispenses pleasures forevermore.
Share some of the many pleasures
you have experienced as a result of the Lord Jesus glorifying the Father
through His death and resurrection.
DAY 5:Psalm 37:4
David writes of giving ourselves
to the Lord and to doing good in this passage.
He speaks of trusting the Lord (vs. 3a) and feeding on His faithfulness
(vs. 3b). He speaks of committing our
way to the Lord. If we do that are we
delighting ourselves in the LORD?
Can we actually do things such as
in the first point and not delight in the LORD?
Ask members of the family what
they delight in? Have them share why
they delight in them?
Is there a promise if we delight
ourselves in the LORD?
The Hebrew word for desires
ismishalah. This word means “request,
petition, desire”. If we delight
ourselves in the LORD, will He answer our prayers?
Will the desires of our hearts be
those that will line up with His word?
Share how God has answered prayers
as you have delighted in Him. Have other
members share their experiences as well.