OK here is a little trivia question, and I should say that it is the answer commonly given by professing evangelicals that is the impetuous of this post, so try not to be too cute, but play along as you would normally while answering the question.
OK…what is the main job or chief purpose of the church in general and Christians individually?
Typical answers range from evangelism, holiness, loving your neighbor, and some cases social justice. To which I would say that all of these things are good, they are important, but are they the chief purpose of the Christian?
The chief purpose (or as the Westminster Confession says, “end”) of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. The Scripture presents this as the chief purpose of man because it is the chief purpose of God. Everything God does is intended to draw attention to himself, to display his majesty and to demonstrate his supremacy. God is jealously bent on the exaltation of himself at the expense of the exaltation of everyone or everything else. We see this clearly in blanket statements like 1 Corinthians 10.31 where we are told that “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Furthermore this theme is amplified in the unchanging command by God that all humanity engage in the ceaseless promotion and enjoyment of God through worship. Every single command to praise, thank, delight in, sing to, sing about, pray to, meditate upon, or obediently follow God is a command to glorify or make much of God.
Some may say, “Erik, you are splitting hairs here. We know this. It is not necessary for you to take issue with folks who do not speak the same language as you. The point is obedience; doing what God requires.”
To this I would say, “I am glad you are reading this post. And frankly you are missing the point. The point is not disconnected obedience but rather worship through obedience.”
The reason why the chief end or purpose of man is so important is because without it you undermine the other things. What you have is the promotion of that which is good for the sake of the marginalization of that which is best. And further I would argue that the only ‘goodness’ in these things is the fact that they are designed to draw attention to or glorify God!
If you do not think in terms of doing all things for the glory of Christ then what is your motive? For anything of real value to be accomplished the goal must be the exaltation of God.
The simple fact that so many evangelicals do not speak in terms of the glory of God indicates that we do not think in terms of the glory of God. So what are we thinking? What are we doing?
Let’s consider everything we do, whether we are vacuuming the carpet, memorizing Scripture, exercising, or evangelizing to be an act of worship, an opportunity to promote and enjoy the supremacy of God in all things. Otherwise we find ourselves guilty of marginalizing that which God finds most important. And this we do for the sake of what?
