The Chief End of Man
C. J. Brown, D. D. Isaiah 43:21 This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise. 1. God, who made all the lower creatures for some special use, assuredly did not make man, and endow him with those noble powers, without a grand distinctive design or end worthy of Himself and them. 2. This end cannot possibly be anything bounded by his transitory life. 3. The end for which chiefly we were made must needs be that which the Scriptures tell of: "This people have I formed for Myself; they shall show forth My praise," — even to know the ever-blessed God; to serve God; to honour, love God; to enjoy God; and to be everlastingly blessed in the knowledge, service, and enjoyment of Him. (1) This end is a very high and noble one. (2) A most reasonable and righteous end. (3) A necessary and indispensable end, — as it is the end which God actually made us for; it is altogether indispensable that we follow and fulfil it, unless we are to live in a terrible conflict with our Maker, and so inevitably perish. For if God made us to serve and honour Him, and we do it not, then, to put it at the very lowest, we are useless and unprofitable on God's earth; and we are accustomed to cast away from us things useless for the thing they were designed for. But then, most things of this world which are useless do not on that account require to be positively hurtful. But it is otherwise with us. If God made us to serve and honour Him, and we pay no regard to this end, then, necessarily, we dishonour God. If we serve not God, we must serve the devil. If we serve not the true God, we must serve false gods, — creatures of all kinds, to which we give the regard, affection, trust that are due to God, and so unavoidably fall under the sentence of the law of His moral government, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." But this volume has not come to us only to tell the end or use we were made for, but to tell also how we may fulfil it — ay, how we now, after having failed to live for the end, may yet know and serve and love and everlastingly enjoy God. The whole Bible may, as to this vital matter, be summed up in one grand word — Christ. (C. J. Brown, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise. WEB: the people which I formed for myself, that they might set forth my praise.