What is the Chief End of Man?

Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. (Revelation 4:11) It was Augustine who said O God! You have created us for Yourself and our hearts are restless unless they find rest in You.”

True success in life and business is defined as having an eternal relationship with God and loving others as you love yourself. The reason why we have become a very selfish and self-centered society is that we’ve been taught that success is primarily concerned with achieving your own dreams, making big profits in business and increasing your production. All these are noble goals but they cannot bring true fulfillment and happiness. That is why Solomon said:

Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had toiled; and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 2:11 NKJV)

Most of us have struggled with a decision about a vocational choice. We intuitively felt that we wanted our life to count for something. Most of the advice we’ve got was based on economics, where we could make a good living. But we felt that life must ultimately have more value than anticipating a pay check. There must come a time in each person life, when they sicken of their seemingly purposeless existence, and they hear a voice within say: ‘‘there has to be more to life than this.’’

There is a story of a prominent businessman who was speaking at a conference near Oxford University and said with a single tear rolling down his well-tanned cheek that:

As you know, I have been very fortunate in my career and I’ve made a lot of money-far more than I ever dreamed of, far more than I could ever spend, far more than my family needs. To be honest, one of my motives for making so much money was simple-to have the money to hire people to do what I don’t like doing. But there’s one thing I’ve never been able to hire anyone to do for me: find my own sense of purpose and fulfillment. I’d give anything to discover that!

Another actress had this to say concerning the emptiness in life without a relationship with Jesus Christ:

I thought it was very peculiar that I had acquired everything I had wanted as a child-wealth, fame and accomplishment in my career, I had beautiful children and a lifestyle that seemed terrific, and yet I was totally and miserably unhappy. I found it very frightening that one could acquire all these things and still be so miserable.

True fulfillment and happiness comes only when we are in the right relationship with God and with other people in our lives. I need to emphasize that if you are a Christian you need to find out what God has in mind for you especially His purpose for you as you move towards the accomplishment of your dreams. Don’t copy the custom of this world.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. (Proverbs 16:25) O Lord pleads Jeremiah in the name of the people, I know that the determination of the way of a man is not in himself; it is not in man even in a strong man or in a man at his best to direct his own steps. (Jeremiah 10:23 AMP) Jesus also said: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it.”(Matthew 7:13)

Knowing God Intimately

The ultimate purpose of life is to know the one true God. It means to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, and understand Him and out of this knowledge there comes eternal life, divine life, which is the life of God Himself in the life of a believer. And this is eternal life that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (John 17:3 AMP) It is knowing God intimately as a Person not as a theological concept.

This is a person-to-person relationship and it is a spiritual union. Our souls yearn for this relationship. Every pleasure we experience and every meaningful relationship we make in this world is just a small taste of the ultimate relationship of our soul with our Creator.

David described this longing of fellowship of God when he said: O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water. (Psalm 63:1) It was C.S. Lewis who wrote that:

What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that that they could ‘be like gods’- could set up on their own as if they had created themselves-be their own masters-invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history-money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery-the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.

God made us: invented us a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about a relationship with Him. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.

A royal palace is too small for a man who lives for himself, but a little hut is great and splendid for one who is living for God. David said: I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. (Psalms 84:10)

All human accomplishments will one day disappear; we must keep this in mind in order to live wisely. Earthly possessions and accomplishments are ultimately meaningless. Only the pursuit of the Lord Himself brings real satisfaction and fulfillment. True wisdom is found in the Lord and true happiness come from pleasing Him and serving others. (See Proverbs 8:17-36)