“Question 1. What is the chief end of man?
Response. Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
Here are two ends of life specified: the glorifying of God, and the enjoying of God.
End 1: Glorifying God
I begin with the first. ‘”‘That God in all things may be glorified’ (1 Peter
4:11).
The glory of God is a silver thread which must run through all our actions.
‘Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God’ (1 Cor. 10:31).
Everything works to some end in things natural and artificial.
Being a rational creature, man must propose some end to himself, and that is that he may lift up God in the world.
It is better to lose his life than lose the end of his living.
So then, the great truth asserted is this: that the end of every man’s living is to glorify God.
This is the yearly rent that is paid to the crown of heaven.
Glorifying of God has respect to all the persons in the Trinity.
It respects God the Father, who gave us our life.
It respects God the Son, who lost His life for us.
It respects God the Holy Spirit, who produces a new life in us.
We must bring glory to the whole Trinity.”
–Thomas Watson, A Body of Practical Divinity, in The Works of Thomas Watson, Volume 2, Ed. J. Stephen Yuille and Jordan Stone (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2026), 2: 13-14.
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