PURPOSE

                                                                            Purpose

           Humans need a sense of purpose. Sometimes after a time of loss, (such as a loved one, a job, a marriage or romance, a pet, etc.), we begin to wonder what life is all about. I remember a man I worked with many years ago, as we packed up on a Friday afternoon, saying in depressed tones, ‘What’s the use?’ Had I known he was going to suicide over the weekend I would have taken his words more seriously. He had totally lost all sense of purpose. What is our purpose?

It is through the teaching of the Bible that humanity finds its chief purpose. Perhaps this is best summed up in the words Jesus spoke to His Father just before the cross, ‘I have brought You glory on earth by finishing the work You gave Me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world began’ (John 17:4-5).

James the VI of Scotland became James I of Great Britain in 1603. He asked for a fresh translation of the Bible. The King James’ Version (KJV) was completed in 1611. Though not without much internal friction, at his coronation, James united Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland politically, with the intention that God’s Word would be the basis of the United Kingdom’s social cohesion. Upon James’s death in 1625, his son, Charles I, reigned till his execution in 1649. It was during these turbulent times, for the purpose of religious and theological unity, the English Parliament asked for a Christian Assembly, which comprised of an initial one hundred and forty-two ‘learned, godly and judicious Divines,’ and thirty-two lay assessors. The Westminster Standards were drawn up by the Westminster Assembly in 1643–1649. These Standards were to do with Christian teaching and church polity. These formed the basis for uniformity of religion for the United Kingdom of the 1600s, and by extension, the whole of the British Empire from that time forward. In other words, the purpose of the Westminster Standards is about uniting Christians, not dividing them.

By way of expressing this unity, the very first question asked and answered in Westminster Shorter Catechism focuses on the purpose of life Q. 1 What is the chief end of man? A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever. The Larger Catechism expands this a little by replying, Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully enjoy Him for ever.

Christians enjoy God through bringing Him glory. How can we do this? ‘So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God’ (1 Cor. 10:31). Like little mirrors reflecting the sun, the purpose of life is to glorify and enjoy God: through food production, culinary skills, agriculture, vinification, beer brewing, whisky distillation, water purification, architecture, education, politics, theology, metallurgy, writing, art, music, preaching and teaching, church attendance, bricklaying, plumbing, carpentry, electrical work, Lord’s Day keeping, family, church, state, economics, etc., the list is endless. Yet many Christians reduce glorifying and enjoying God to (occasionally!) attending church for an hour on a Sunday morning.

It was the Gospel of Jesus Christ that made the once great Western nations great. However, nowadays many Christians dualistically compartmentalise the Gospel. The little wheel on a penny-farthing bicycle represents ‘God-time’ and big one, ‘my-time.’ If we would only seek to glorify God in everything everywhere, we would surely halt and then reverse the present decline of Western civilisation.