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Man's Chief End

April 2004

In the movie, City Slickers, is a scene in which the characters played by Billy Crystal and Jack Palance are separated from the other cowboys as they round up stray cattle in a summer-for-fun dude ranch. They are discussing life and things worthwhile when the Palance character offers his words of wisdom. Displaying his index finger he says something to the effect that in order to discover what is worthwhile in life you must know one thing. Billy Crystal’s character awaits the answer as if he was listening to E. F. Hutton for financial advice, but no answer is forthcoming. Palance simply says it is something you must find out for yourself.

Consider the words of the ancient philosopher, Aristotle:

If there is some end of the things we doÉwill not knowledge of it, have a great influence on life? Shall we not like archers who have a mark to aim at, be more likely to hit upon what we should? If so, we must try, in outline at least, to determine what it is” (Nicomachean Ethics).

If there is any bit of knowledge that I esteem more than others it is in knowing why I am here; why I exist. It is a truth I have been aware of early on in my walk with Christ, but its position in the hierarchy of things escaped me for years.

Man’s chief end, meaning the goal toward which all else is to be directed, is to glorify God (Matt. 5:16; 1 Cor. 10:31). When we fear God and keep his commandments (Eccl. 12;13), God is glorified. When we love God with all our heart, soul, and mind (Matt. 22:37), God is glorified, magnified, lifted up. Seeking wisdom as the principle thing (Prov 4:7), we learn how to glorify God. When we obey Him in faith and He saves us, he is glorified (Eph 1:6, 12, 14).

Jack Palance’s character never did answer the question. Billy Crystal thought he found the answer at the end of the storyÑbut he was mistaken. Aristotle’s answer is “happiness.” (Defined properly, I would agree in part with Aristotle, because man’s happiness cannot be found apart from glorifying God.) The writers of Scripture affirm that man’s chief end is to glorify God.

(Lord willing, I hope to write a book on the subject of happiness and how it relates to glorifying God.)

Steven Lloyd