Glorify God or Share the Gospel? What is Our Purpose?

What is our greatest purpose here on earth? Many times we are quick to answer that question with a variation of the first question from the Westminster Shorter Catechism, "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. This statement is absolutely one-hundred percent true, however our assumption of what this statement means, I believe, is sometimes misunderstood. Some might understand this phrase as a call to live life no different then they would if they were not a follower of Christ, but simply giving God the credit for everything the accomplish instead of taking it for themselves. Others might understand this phrase as a call to live life radically different than they did before, doing a plethora of good works and spending a lifetime learning the deep theological truths of scripture, taking no credit for anything they do but saying all the credit goes towards God. While both of these responses in themselves are not bad, it is possible to live each of these lifestyles without focusing on what I consider the most fundamental and important aspect of Glorifying God, which is obedience.

Our greatest purpose here on earth is to to Glorify God; the greatest way that we can Glorify God is to obey Him. We do this by not by living lifestyles that are "good", by doing "good" social works, or even through knowing the deep theological truths of scripture. We do this by being consumed and obedient to the commands and the Gospel.

When we think of the most familiar commandments of God, the ten commandments undoubtedly quickly comes to mind. The Westminster Shorter Catechism states that the sum of the ten commandments is Matthew 22:37-40, "Love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbor as ourselves". I don't think it is by mistake that Jesus sums up all of God's commandments in this statement. Jesus is making it clear that we Glorify God best through obedience to Loving God and Loving Others as ourselves. It is no accident that the most loving thing we can do in loving God and loving others is in fact the same thing, sharing the Gospel.

In recent years in Southern Baptist life their has been great disagreement over what the greatest purpose of Christians here on earth is; Some have argued that it is to Glorify God while others have argued that it is to share the Gospel and fulfill the great commission. I submit to you that the answer is both. The greatest purpose we have on earth is to Glorify God through the obedience of His commands in sharing the Gospel. While it is easy to live lives of grand social work or to study the deep theological truths of God's word, if this is where our obedience stops, then we are merely doing good works and studying God's word, not allowing the Gospel to completely consume us. Jesus calls us to action through the great commission, therefore to be obedient and to glorify Him, we must obey Him.

Share the Gospel today.