To Enjoy God Is to Glorify Him - Man's Chief End Fulfilled
Human Happiness and the Glory of God Pt. 3
This article is Part 3 of a series based on my Durrington Award-winning essay — Human Happiness and the Glory of God: Does the Pursuit of Man’s Highest Good Fulfill His Chief End?
Over the last two parts of this series, we've built the foundation: The highest good is the final resting place of desire — the one object that, when attained, leaves nothing left to long for. Scripture reveals that object to be God himself: the source of all flourishing, the fullness of joy, the only unwavering delight. Now comes the central claim: pursuing the highest good doesn't compete with glorifying God. It is glorifying God.
Man’s Chief End is Fulfilled in His Highest Good
The argument that proceeds from this point attempts to resolve the question, “Does the pursuit of man’s highest good oppose or fulfill his chief end?” This argument holds that man cannot accomplish his chief end without attaining his highest good. If man exists to bring glory to God, he also exists to enjoy him, since glorifying God necessitates a rightful delight in his value. This position is supported by the preceding arguments; God is man’s highest good, the source of man’s fullest happiness, and therefore, warrants a total and complete submission to the pursuit of God. Interestingly, the previously mentioned Westminster Shorter Catechism does not exclude enjoyment from man’s chief end. Instead, it affirms that man does not fulfill his chief end in the absence of the enjoyment of God. This understanding holds for these reasons: 1) the pursuit of the highest good glorifies its object, and 2) since glorifying God is to recognize his worth, God is not glorified where he is not enjoyed as the highest good.
First, the pursuit of the highest good will inevitably glorify its subject. This pursuit is rightly performed in light of its value, namely that it, and only it, provides ultimate satisfaction. To glorify, as previously defined, is to acknowledge something’s excellence. Thus, the pursuit of the highest good glorifies its subject as it is pursued for its recognized value. Since it is the case that God is man’s highest good, any proper pursuit of him will be based on an appropriate understanding of his value, surrendering all else for his sake. The clearest example of this truth in scripture is found in Psalm 73, where David states, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25-26). Here, God is pursued as the portion to be desired above all else. In this pursuit, he is glorified by the delight that David has and seeks to have in him. If God were not most enjoyable in himself, he would not be shown as so great (glorified) that his people would forsake some higher pleasure for the sake of him, a lesser one. Rather, God, being man’s highest good, will inevitably be glorified when he is pursued as man’s fullest happiness.
Secondly, God is not glorified where he is not enjoyed as most pleasurable. It cannot be said that something is man’s highest good if it does not provide the fullest possible human flourishing. Therefore, to say that the Christian life involves the surrendering of one’s own happiness for the sake of God is to say that God is not most pleasing. This directly contradicts scripture’s plea for the Christian’s life. In the book of Matthew, Jesus states, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37). Following Christ means more than sacrificing pleasures; it means pursuing the greatest pleasure: God. This is also implied in 1 John, which states, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). Assuming obedience is directed at glorifying God, this verse reveals that the one who loves God does not find God’s commands “burdensome.” Rather, he takes delight in them, like the Psalmist who said, “Oh how I love your law” (Psalm 119:97). If God is to be glorified by one’s service, his servant will not live piously by a neglect of his pleasure, but instead, in pursuit of the fullest pleasure: God. God is then not glorified by mere obedience, but more fully, man’s affectionate delight in him.
From these two arguments, it is clear that the pursuit of man’s chief end is not accomplished without the pursuit of his highest good. Rather than being two separate pursuits, they are mutually dependent. When man finds his satisfaction in God, he will do everything in his power to pursue it, since God is the fullest pleasure he can find. When God is recognized for his value and, in turn, pursued in such a way as to be esteemed greater than any other pleasure, it brings great glory to him because he is acknowledged and shown to be most glorious. Therefore, the pursuit of man’s highest good–rightly defined as delight in God himself–does not oppose the pursuit of his chief end, but rather, fulfills it.
Answering an Objection
An objection may be presented that assumes the pursuit of the highest good to be a self-centered one, as it operates in search of one’s own pleasure. By this, the objection would also assume this pursuit to be a self-glorifying one rather than a God-glorifying one. The fault in this objection is that it neglects man’s delight in God as an end in itself. This follows the understanding that God is not a means to another good, but rather, he is the highest good himself. It should be noted that affections (such as happiness, delight, satisfaction, etc.) do not come about without a cause. They are movements of the will which follow the perceiving of some good and its value. John Piper affirms this by saying, “It is not man-centered because the emotions of our worship are centered on God. We look away from ourselves to Him, and only then do the manifold emotions of our heart erupt in worship. Nor is it idolatrous to say our affections in worship are ends in themselves, because our affections for God glorify God, not us” (Piper 95).1 Given this, the pursuit of man’s highest good is not a self-centered one, as the delight had in God is only accessible by the heart’s glad reaction to God himself.
Conclusion
This essay argues that the common suspicion pitting man’s happiness against God’s glory rests on a fundamental misunderstanding of both. God is not the obstacle to maximum human happiness, but rather, the source. From this, the perceived conflict dissolves entirely. Scripture reveals him to be, by every qualification, man’s highest good, and therefore, worthy to be pursued above every other pleasure. Indeed, God is not glorified by cold, joyless obedience; he is glorified when he is treasured above all else. Thus, to glorify God and to enjoy true happiness are not competing obligations. They are, rightly understood, the same act. It is true then that, in the words of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him for ever.” All in all, the pursuit of man’s highest good truly fulfills his chief end.
The suspicion this essay recognized initially — that human happiness and God’s glory pull in opposite directions — turns out to rest on a misunderstanding of both. God is not the obstacle to your deepest happiness. He is its source, its fullness, and its only stable ground. To treasure him above all else is not to sacrifice your joy; it is to find it. Thus, as the Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it, “man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever” — and rightly understood, those were never two different goals at all.
Piper, John. Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist. Rev. ed., Multnomah Books, 2003.