A catechism is “a summary of the principles of Christian religion in the form of questions and answers, used for the instruction of Christians.” (1) Catechisms are useful tools for instructing the one poor in Bible knowledge, fortifying unity among like-minded believers, explaining the Gospel and Scripture to the unsaved, and rooting out wolves and heretics from damaging the church. However, they are not Scripture, and therefore, they are not inspired and may be discussed as to faithfulness and accuracy in summarizing Scripture.
In the varied church company that I have kept over the years, the most well known catechism question is the first one of the Westminster Shorter Catechism: “1. What is the chief end of man?” Answer: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.” (2)
It is a concise statement, but I think slightly inaccurate. As I have contemplated it over several years as it comes up in sermons and discussions, I feel that I want to make two changes to the answer. Firstly, I think that the purpose of all things created is to glorify their Creator. The second reason given in the answer is an example of how we do that. Therefore, I would change “and to enjoy” to “by enjoying”. This thought is not original with me (3), and I honestly don’t know if I came up with it independently or if I just cooped it from things I had heard or read unawares. That doesn’t really matter. Relationship with God and enjoying it is certainly beneficial for us in every way, but it is also glorifying to Him, especially in an environment of God-hating demons and people.
Secondly, I think that there is more to glorifying God than enjoying Him forever. One iteration of my change would read something like the following: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God by enjoying, worshipping, obeying, and serving Him forever.” Then my list grew and grew. So much for conciseness. I considered my list and concluded that all of the items after enjoying Him were examples of serving Him. Some will argue, and this probably includes the writers of the question and answer, that serving is a subset of enjoying. I would agree that we do enjoy Him when we serve Him, but He will have service for us to do.
Therefore, my final draft of how I think the answer should read for the reason of better faithfulness to Scripture is as follows: “The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying and serving Him forever.”
- Oxford Languages online
- https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/westminster-shorter-catechism
- https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/our-grand-obligation
- 2 Timothy 2:12, Revelation 4:10, 7:9
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