What is man's purpose on earth according to the Bible?

This is a truly awful condition of things when we consider the end and object for which man was created. This is well expressed in the opening words of the Westminster Catechism. Question: "What is the chief end of man?" Answer: "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever."

The Shorter Catechism commences with the proposition: "Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever." It was God's purpose in creating man that in contrast to other animals, man alone should have aspirations heavenwards. It is striking that heathen mythology should have been imbued with the same idea. Indeed, the derivation of anthropos, the Greek word meaning "man" signifies "the one who turns up the eye" (ana upwards, tropo I turn, ops the eye). Man has failed signally to fulfil the end which God had in view in creating him. At the beginning in Eden, Adam dishonoured God by listening to the serpent's insinuation to his wife and so far from enjoying God he, filled with fear, hid himself behind the trees of the garden. Man's signal failure has, however, never altered God's unwavering purpose. But in order that His purpose should be effected it was necessary that His Son should assume manhood. When that event took place, there was for the first time on earth a man who could truly lift up the eye to God and who could glorify God and enjoy Him perfectly. For the first time also there was an object on earth which could claim the whole attention of heaven. "What is man that Thou art mindful of Him?.... Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels and hast crowned him with glory and honour" (Ps. 8:4-5). In consequence of His perfect obedience and His having by the grace of God tasted death for every man, He is bringing many sons to glory. (Heb. 2:9-10). They have been endowed with capacity to glorify and enjoy God and they can now turn up the eye to Him. But if the Christian can turn up his eye to God he also finds that his eye meets the eye of God and in that eye he can read guidance for the pathway. "I will guide thee with Mine eye." (Ps. 32:8). When the good sheep-dog is far away from the shepherd, his movements must be controlled by the hand or by whistle. But when he is working at short range he is controlled by the shepherd's eye. It is a matter of common observation how much better he does his work at close quarters than at long range. So in order that we may be guided by the eye of God we must not seek to roam afar, we must be at short range and have the eyes of our understanding turned heavenwards.

With the light of the revelation God has been pleased to give us the question should not be difficult to answer. But before we come to that revelation might we not wisely ask ourselves why the creature exists? Surely it is not that he should go out fresh from the hand of his Creator, forget all about Him, and live to please himself. Surely it is rather that man should serve his Maker, and bask in the sunshine of whatever light may have been given to him by the One to whom he owes his existence. Right through the whole revelation God has given to us runs this glorious truth, that the end that God has in view is that He may be known by His creature.

Man, and above all, man having knowledge of good and evil, should have God for his object; and as an object that his heart can entertain with pleasure, and on which his affections can be exercised: otherwise he is lost. The gospel — Christianity — has given him this. God, who fills all things, who is the source of, in whom is centred, all blessing, all good — God, who is all love, who has all power, who embraces everything in His knowledge, because everything (except the forsaking of Himself) is but the fruit of His mind and will — God has revealed Himself in Christ to man, in order that his heart, occupied with Him, with perfect confidence in His goodness, may know Him, may enjoy His presence? and reflect His character.

It is important to see that the great object of the gospel is that God might be known in the hearts of men, and that men might live before Him in the divine nature. Indeed, this was His eternal thought, for from before the foundation of the world His purpose was to have us “Holy and without blame before Him in love.” No doubt it was for the joy and delight of His own heart, for if His purpose was formed before the world was, it is clear it must have originated with Himself; and if it originated with Himself it must have been for His own pleasure, I might say for the need of His own heart, for no need existed anywhere else. I do not mean need in the sense of want causing unhappiness, but in the sense of a desire to create intelligent beings, and bring them into the blessedness, as far as the creature could be brought, in which He dwelt Himself, the blessedness of eternal love. The way which He has taken to bring all this about, allowing the misshapen footprint of His foe to mar His perfect handiwork, and rebellion against His authority to stalk naked through the earth, while His patience and long-suffering have come to light, we may contemplate with adoring hearts, now that we see the end He has in view, conscious that that end will be attained, for the might is His, and the victory is sure, His dealings with man, with whom apparently He plays a losing game, may furnish the antagonistic and infidel mind of man with data for reasoning, and for judging his Creator, but the faithful heart follows the divine pathway through the world in the spirit of worship, knowing that it leads to glory everlasting.

We shall be greatly helped if we consider and are brought to see the end which God has before Him in connection with His work in our souls, in order that His end may be reached, that we may apprehend it, and realise what it is to be here for His pleasure and for the satisfaction of His love. He would so make Himself known to us, and so form us by the light which He gives us as to Himself, as that He has on earth a company in moral correspondence with Him, delighting and confiding in Him - a worshipping company, worshipping Him according to the revelation which He has given us of Himself, whether it be in regard to His attributes, His nature, or His name; and it is as the Father He seeketh such to worship Him. The assembly is what is for God upon the earth, and it is there where eternal life, the end referred to, is realised and enjoyed.

Now, in all these lovely institutions we notice two prominent characteristic features, namely, glory to God, and blessing to man. These two things are linked together by a divine and everlasting bond. God has so ordained that His full glory and the creature's full blessing should be indissolubly bound up together. This is deep joy to the heart, and it helps us to understand, more fully, the force and beauty of that familiar sentence: "We rejoice in hope of the glory of God." When that glory shines forth in its full lustre, then, assuredly, human blessedness, rest and felicity shall reach their full and eternal consummation.

To love the One who is the very Centre of everything in God's world … to centre all our thoughts and actions around the true Man of God, His beloved, our Lord Jesus Christ.

When our Lord was here on earth, He summed up the law most beautifully under one word, LOVE. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matt. 22:37-39). What a happy world this would be, if this law of love were faithfully carried out! Do we love God with all our heart? Do we love our neighbours as oneself? We are commanded not to kill, not to commit adultery, not to steal, not to bear false witness, not to covet. We would certainly not do any of these forbidden things, did we love our neighbour as oneself.

We have the question of sin raised in Gen. 4:10: "What hast thou done?" True, the words were addressed to Cain by the Lord God after the murder of his brother Abel. But the challenge comes home to us all. Let us review our lives in the light of God. We have spent so many years in this world — 20, 30, 40 or more, as the case may be. They have been years of responsibility to Him who created us. But what have we done? If it be asked what we should have done, and how our lives should have been regulated, our Lord's words in Luke 10:27 supply the answer. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself."