Answers from church history on today's questions
What Christian writers said, from about AD 170 to 1938.
157 passages · 46 writers · 15 centuries
Few writers in this collection set out to answer "What is the meaning of life?" as a question of its own; most speak of the chief end, the highest good, or the purpose of creation. Of the 157 passages here, 93 state a view on the purpose of human life and 64 mention it in passing. The writers who state a view most often name God as the end of human life, in terms of glorifying God, enjoying God, knowing God, or loving God, and the Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647) answers the question "What is the chief end of man?" in its first line. Earlier, Augustine (AD 397) wrote that God formed us for himself and that our hearts are restless until they rest in him. The writers differ on emphasis, with some stressing happiness and the vision of God, some obedience and love, some Christ as life, and some virtue, grace, and character as the way to that end. Other passages treat the purpose of suffering, the place of work and calling, and the vanity of life without God.
10 passages · 10 writers · 200s to 1700s
Writers state the chief end of human life as glorifying God, enjoying God, or both, with the Westminster answer as a frequent reference point.
We must surely live, and we must live according to the word of God, as far as we are enabled to do so. And we are thus enabled to live, when, “whether we eat or drink, we do all to the glory of God;” and we are not to refuse to enjoy those things which have been created for our use, but must receive them with thanksgiving to the Creator.
Origen of Alexandria, Origen Against Celsus 8.33
Love, therefore, is the foremost of all excellent achievements and the first of the commandments of the law. If ever, then, the soul reach this goal, it will be in no need of anything else; it will embrace that plenitude of things which are, whereby alone it seems in any way to preserve within itself the stamp of God’s actual blessedness.
Gregory of Nyssa, On the Soul and the Resurrection 2
What else was meant by His word through the prophet, “I will be your God, and ye shall be my people,” than, I shall be their satisfaction, I shall be all that men honorably desire,—life, and health, and nourishment, and plenty, and glory, and honor, and peace, and all good things? This, too, is the right interpretation of the saying of the apostle, “That God may be all in all.” He shall be the end of our desires who shall be seen without end, loved without cloy, praised without weariness.
Augustine of Hippo, City of God 22.30
II. To praise God eternally the end of our creation. … Thou wast created for the glory of thy Creator, that, making His praises thy employment, thou mightest ever advance towards Him by the merit of justice in this life, and mightest live happily in the world to come. For the praise of Him yields the fruit of justice here, and of beatitude hereafter.
Anselm of Canterbury, Meditations and Prayers 2.1
We know that we are placed on the earth to praise God with one mind and one mouth, and that this is the end of our life. Death, it is true, puts an end to such praises; but it does not follow from this, that the souls of the faithful, when divested of their bodies, are deprived of understanding, or touched with no affection towards God.
John Calvin, Commentary on the Psalms, Vol. 1 6.3
Q. 1. What is the chief end of man? A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
Westminster Assembly, Westminster Shorter Catechism 1
The great end for which we were made, for which we were brought forth by the power of God into this world, is to worship him and to give glory unto him; for he “made all things for himself,” or his own glory, Prov. xvi. 4, to be rendered unto him according to the abilities and capacities that he hath furnished them withal, Rev. iv. 11.
John Owen, Pneumatologia 1.3
By raising God's glory, we increase our own: by glorifying God, we come at last to the blessed enjoyment of him. 11. Man's chief end is to enjoy God for ever.
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity 2.1
That our only business was to love and delight ourselves in God. That all possible kinds of mortification, if they were void of the love of God, could not efface a single sin. That we ought, without anxiety, to expect the pardon of our sins from the Blood of JESUS CHRIST, only endeavouring to love Him with all our hearts.
Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God 3
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter; we have it, v. 23 , which directs us what to do that we may attain our chief end. 1. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and we are here told that whoso offers praise glorifies him; whether he be Jew or Gentile, those spiritual sacrifices shall be accepted from him. … Hereby we give him the glory due to his name and do what we can to advance the interests of his kingdom among men.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Psalms 50.3
9 passages · 9 writers · 100s to 1900s
Writers ask what God intended in making rational creatures, and answer in terms of God's goodness, God's glory, the image of God, and the creature's own good.
For we cast blame upon Him, because we have not been made gods from the beginning, but at first merely men, then at length gods; although God has adopted this course out of His pure benevolence, that no one may impute to Him invidiousness or grudgingness. He declares, “I have said, Ye are gods; and ye are all sons of the Highest.” But since we could not sustain the power of divinity, He adds, “But ye shall die like men,” setting forth both truths—the kindness of His free gift, and our weakness, and also that we were possessed of power over ourselves.
Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies: Book IV 39
2. For this reason man was brought into the world last after the creation, not being rejected to the last as worthless, but as one whom it behoved to be king over his subjects at his very birth. And as a good host does not bring his guest to his house before the preparation of his feast, but, when he has made all due preparation, and decked with their proper adornments his house, his couches, his table, brings his guest home when things suitable for his refreshment are in readiness,—in the same manner the rich and munificent Entertainer of our nature, when He had decked the habitation with beauties of every kind, and prepared this great and varied banquet, then introduced man, assigning to him as his task not the acquiring of what was not there, but the enjoyment of the things which were there; and for this reason He gives him as foundations the instincts of a twofold organization, blending the Divine with the earthy, that by means of both he may be naturally and properly disposed to each enjoyment, enjoying God by means of his more divine nature, and the good things of earth by the sense that is akin to them.
Gregory of Nyssa, On the Making of Man 2.3
Man, however, being endowed with reason and free will, received the power of continuous union with God through his own choice, if indeed he should abide in goodness, that is in obedience to his Maker. Since, however, he transgressed the command of his Creator and became liable to death and corruption, the Creator and Maker of our race, because of His bowels of compassion, took on our likeness, becoming man in all things but without sin, and was united to our nature . For since He bestowed on us His own image and His own spirit and we did not keep them safe, He took Himself a share in our poor and weak nature, in order that He might cleanse us and make us incorruptible, and establish us once more as partakers of His divinity.
John of Damascus, John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 4.13
It is, therefore, established that rational nature was created for this end, viz., to love and choose the highest good supremely, for its own sake and nothing else; for if the highest good were chosen for any other reason, then something else and not itself would be the thing loved. But intelligent nature cannot fulfil this purpose without being holy. Therefore that it might not in vain be made rational, it was made, in order to fulfil this purpose, both rational and holy.
Anselm of Canterbury, Cur Deus Homo II.I
Furthermore, the entire universe, with all its parts, is ordained towards God as its end, inasmuch as it imitates, as it were, and shows forth the Divine goodness, to the glory of God. Reasonable creatures, however, have in some special and higher manner God as their end, since they can attain to Him by their own operations, by knowing and loving Him.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I.Q65.A2
Of the End for which we were Created. 1. PLACE yourself before God. 2. Ask Him to inspire your heart. 1. God did not bring you into the world because He had any need of you, useless as you are; but solely that He might show forth His Goodness in you, giving you His Grace and Glory. And to this end He gave you understanding that you might know Him, memory that you might think of Him, a will that you might love Him, imagination that you might realise His mercies, sight that you might behold the marvels of His works, speech that you might praise Him, and so on with all your other faculties.
Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life 1.10
God did not make the world for man’s use only, but chiefly for his own glory; for man’s use to enjoy his creatures, and for his own glory to be acknowledged in his creatures, that we may consider his art in framing them, and his skill in disposing them, and not only gaze upon the glass without considering the image it represents, and acquainting ourselves whose image it is. The creatures were not made for themselves, but for the service of the Creator, and the service of man. Man was not made for himself, but for the service of the Lord that created him.
Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God 9
God’s respect to the creature’s good, and his respect to himself, is not a divided respect; but both are united in one, as the happiness of the creature aimed at is happiness in union with himself. The creature is no farther happy with this happiness which God makes his ultimate end, than he becomes one with God.
Jonathan Edwards, Dissertation on the End for Which God Created the World 4
(2) It would seem to be perfectly self-evident that God does not exist for the sake of man, but man for the sake of God. God only is Creator and the supreme Good, while man is but a creature, who for that very reason cannot be the end of creation. The temporal finds its end in the eternal, the human in the divine, and not vice versa.
Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology 1.2.3
10 passages · 10 writers · 300s to 1900s
Writers ask where lasting happiness is found, compare the answers of the philosophers with their own, and place it in God, in knowing or seeing God, or in immortality.
The one chief good, therefore, is immortality, for the reception of which we were originally formed and born. To this we direct our course; human nature regards this; to this virtue exalts us.
Lactantius, The Divine Institutes 7.8
But our Lord is also Himself the end and the ultimate blessedness according to the purpose of the Word; for what does He say in the Gospel? “I will raise him up at the last day.” He calls the transition from material knowledge to immaterial contemplation a resurrection, speaking of that knowledge after which there is no other, as the last day: for our intelligence is raised up and roused to a height of blessedness at the time when it contemplates the One-ness and Unity of the Word.
Basil of Caesarea, The Letters 8
For the Scriptures state that nothing is good but what is virtuous, and declare that virtue is blessed in every circumstance, and that it is never enhanced by either corporal or other external good fortune, nor is it weakened by adversity. No state is so blessed as that wherein one is free from sin, is filled with innocence, and is fully supplied with the grace of God.
Ambrose of Milan, On the Duties of the Clergy 3.3
Thou movest us to delight in praising Thee; for Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.
Augustine of Hippo, The Confessions 1.1
But happiness is loved above all. But happiness does not come about except through the best and ultimate end. Human desire, therefore, seeks nothing unless it be the highest good or something which leads to it or something which has some resemblance to it.
Bonaventure, The Mind's Road to God 3
On the contrary, It is written ( 1 Jn. 3:2 ): "When He shall appear, we shall be like to Him; and [Vulg.: 'because'] we shall see Him as He is." I answer that, Final and perfect happiness can consist in nothing else than the vision of the Divine Essence.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I-II.Q3.A8
For whatever the philosophers may have ever said of the chief good, it was nothing but cold and vain, for they confined man to himself, while it is necessary for us to go out of ourselves to find happiness. The chief good of man is nothing else but union with God; this is attained when we are formed according to him as our exemplar.
John Calvin, Commentary on Hebrews 4.2
A. Even as I already now experience in my heart the beginning of eternal joy, 1 so after this life I will have perfect blessedness such as no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has ever imagined: a blessedness in which to praise God eternally.
Reformed Churches, Heidelberg Catechism 58
What is it, then, that this desire and this inability proclaim to us, but that there was once in man a true happiness of which there now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present? But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself.
Blaise Pascal, Pensées 7
Just as thirst implies water, and water is intended to remove thirst, so the existence of desire in the soul implies the existence of true happiness and peace. When the soul finds Him who planted within it that desire, it receives far greater satisfaction than the thirsty man does from water, and this satisfaction of the soul’s desire we call heaven.
Sadhu Sundar Singh, At The Master's Feet 14
10 passages · 9 writers · 300s to 1900s
Writers treat Ecclesiastes' "vanity of vanities," the shortness of life, and the question of death, and say what, if anything, gives life meaning.
It is not a blessed dissolution, which awaits us, nor is non-existence the fruit, and annihilation the appointed reward of faith: but the end is the final attainment of the promised blessedness, and they are blessed who endure until the goal of perfect happiness is reached, when the expectation of faithful hope has no object beyond. Their end is to abide with unbroken rest in that condition, towards which they are pressing.
Hilary of Poitiers, De Trinitate or On the Trinity 2.11
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity and vexation of spirit, possibly meaning some unreasoning longing of the soul, and distraction of man condemned to this from the original fall: but hear, he says, the conclusion of the whole matter, Fear God. This is his stay in his perplexity, and this is thy only gain from life here below, to be guided through the disorder of the things which are seen and shaken, to the things which stand firm and are not moved.
Gregory of Nazianzus, Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 6
“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” ( Eccles. xii. 8 .) Vanity not simply but superlatively. Let us believe him, and lay hold on that in which there is no vanity, in which there is truth; and what is based upon a solid rock, where there is no old age, nor decline, but all things bloom and flourish, without decay, or waxing old, or approaching dissolution.
John Chrysostom, Homilies on 1 Timothy 16
I answer that, The necessity of holding the resurrection arises from this---that man may obtain the last end for which he was made; for this cannot be accomplished in this life, nor in the life of the separated soul, as stated above ( Q[75], AA[1] ,2): otherwise man would have been made in vain, if he were unable to obtain the end for which he was made. And since it behooves the end to be obtained by the selfsame thing that was made for that end, lest it appear to be made without purpose, it is necessary for the selfsame man to rise again; and this is effected by the selfsame soul being united to the selfsame body.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica Suppl..Q79.A2
Indeed it is not learning that makes a man holy and just, but a virtuous life makes him pleasing to God. I would rather feel contrition than know how to define it. For what would it profit us to know the whole Bible by heart and the principles of all the philosophers if we live without grace and the love of God? Vanity of vanities and all is vanity, except to love God and serve Him alone.
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ 1.1
The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great consequence to us and which touches us so profoundly that we must have lost all feeling to be indifferent as to knowing what it is. All our actions and thoughts must take such different courses, according as there are or are not eternal joys to hope for, that it is impossible to take one step with sense and judgment unless we regulate our course by our view of this point which ought to be our ultimate end.
Blaise Pascal, Pensées 3
Solomon is here drawing towards a close, and is loth to part till he has gained his point, and prevailed with his hearers, with his readers, to seek for that satisfaction in God only and in their duty to him which they can never find in the creature. … We see it daily proved; let it therefore be daily improved: Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Ecclesiastes 12.2
Indeed, from the most distant time of which I know anything, when life began, people have lived knowing the argument about the vanity of life which has shown me its senselessness, and yet they lived attributing some meaning to it. From the time when any life began among men they had that meaning of life, and they led that life which has descended to me.
Leo Tolstoy, A Confession 7
I asked myself what my life is, and got the reply: An evil and an absurdity. and really my life — a life of indulgence of desires — was senseless and evil, and therefore the reply, “Life is evil and an absurdity”, referred only to my life, but not to human life in general. … I perceived that to understand the meaning of life it is necessary first that life should not be meaningless and evil, then we can apply reason to explain it.
Leo Tolstoy, A Confession 11
‘Vanity of vanities’ is a cheerless creed and a half-truth. Its completion lies in being driven, by recognising vanity as stamped on all creatures, to clasp the one reality. ‘All is vanity’ apart from God, but He is fullness, and possessed and enjoyed and endured in Him, life is not ‘a striving after wind.’
Alexander Maclaren, Second Kings from Chap. VIII, and Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes 1.9.13
7 passages · 3 writers · 100s to 1800s
Writers describe the purpose of life as loving God with the whole heart, doing his will, or keeping his commandments.
Further, the other counsels and precepts are unimportant, and respect particular things,—as, for example, if one may marry, take part in public affairs, beget children; but the only command that is universal, and over the whole course of existence, at all times and in all circumstances, tends to the highest end, viz., life, is piety, —all that is necessary, in order that we may live for ever, being that we live in accordance with it.
Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen 11
17. What discourses or writings of philosophers, what laws of any commonwealth in any land or age, are worthy for a moment to be compared with the two commandments on which Christ saith that all the law and the prophets hang: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself”? All philosophy is here,—physics, ethics, logic: the first , because in God the Creator are all the causes of all existences in nature; the second , because a good and honest life is not produced in any other way than by loving, in the manner in which they should be loved, the proper objects of our love, namely, God and our neighbour; and the third , because God alone is the Truth and the Light of the rational soul.
Augustine of Hippo, Letters of St. Augustin 1.120
Let us hear, O Christ, what chief end Thou dost prescribe to us; and that is evidently the chief end after which we are told to strive with supreme affection. "Thou shalt love," He says, "the Lord thy God."
Augustine of Hippo, On the Morals of the Catholic Church 8
For if God is man’s chief good, which you cannot deny, it clearly follows, since to seek the chief good is to live well, that to live well is nothing else but to love God with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the mind; and, as arising from this, that this love must be preserved entire and incorrupt, which is the part of temperance; that it give way before no troubles, which is the part of fortitude; that it serve no other, which is the part of justice; that it be watchful in its inspection of things lest craft or fraud steal in, which is the part of prudence. This is the one perfection of man, by which alone he can succeed in attaining to the purity of truth.
Augustine of Hippo, On the Morals of the Catholic Church 25
25. As to virtue leading us to a happy life, I hold virtue to be nothing else than perfect love of God. … The object of this love is not anything, but only God, the chief good, the highest wisdom, the perfect harmony.
Augustine of Hippo, On the Morals of the Catholic Church 15
In this, then, consists the righteousness of a man, that he submit himself to God, his body to his soul, and his vices, even when they rebel, to his reason, which either defeats or at least resists them; and also that he beg from God grace to do his duty, and the pardon of his sins, and that he render to God thanks for all the blessings he receives. But, in that final peace to which all our righteousness has reference, and for the sake of which it is maintained, as our nature shall enjoy a sound immortality and incorruption, and shall have no more vices, and as we shall experience no resistance either from ourselves or from others, it will not be necessary that reason should rule vices which no longer exist, but God shall rule the man, and the soul shall rule the body, with a sweetness and facility suitable to the felicity of a life which is done with bondage. And this condition shall there be eternal, and we shall be assured of its eternity; and thus the peace of this blessedness and the blessedness of this peace shall be the supreme good.
Augustine of Hippo, City of God 19.27
I returned to the belief in that Will which produced me and desires something of me. I returned to the belief that the chief and only aim of my life is to be better, i.e. to live in accord with that Will. and I returned to the belief that I can find the expression of that Will in what humanity, in the distant past hidden from, has produced for its guidance: that is to say, I returned to a belief in God, in moral perfection, and in a tradition transmitting the meaning of life.
Leo Tolstoy, A Confession 12
7 passages · 4 writers · 300s to 1900s
Writers connect sorrow, trouble, and discipline to the purpose of life, and some say it forms character or leads to holiness.
In this one thing alone can we be happy in this life, if we appear to be unhappy; if, avoiding the enticements of pleasures, and giving ourselves to the service of virtue only, we live in all labours and miseries, which are the means of exercising and strengthening virtue; if, in short, we keep to that rugged and difficult path which has been opened for us to happiness. The chief good therefore which makes men happy cannot exist, unless it be in that religion and doctrine to which is annexed the hope of immortality.
Lactantius, The Divine Institutes 3.12
As, therefore, we are saved, so we are made happy by hope. And as we do not as yet possess a present, but look for a future salvation, so is it with our happiness, and this “with patience;” for we are encompassed with evils, which we ought patiently to endure, until we come to the ineffable enjoyment of unmixed good; for there shall be no longer anything to endure. Salvation, such as it shall be in the world to come, shall itself be our final happiness.
Augustine of Hippo, City of God 19.4
In contradistinction to us, who the wiser we are the less we understand the meaning of life, and see some evil irony in the fact that we suffer and die, these folk live and suffer, and they approach death and suffering with tranquillity and in most cases gladly. … And of such people, understanding the meaning of life and able to live and to die, I saw not two or three, or tens, but hundreds, thousands, and millions. and they all — endlessly different in their manners, minds, education, and position, as they were — all alike, in complete contrast to my ignorance, knew the meaning of life and death, laboured quietly, endured deprivations and sufferings, and lived and died seeing therein not vanity but good.
Leo Tolstoy, A Confession 10
Now let us consider for a moment the thought that the true meaning of life is discipline. I say discipline rather than ‘chastening,’ for chastening simply implies the fact of pain, whereas discipline includes the wholesome purpose of pain. The true meaning of life is not to be found by estimating its sorrows or its joys, but by trying to estimate the effects of either upon us. The true value of life, and the meaning of all its tears and of all its joys, is what it makes us.
Alexander Maclaren, Second Kings from Chap. VIII, and Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes 1.9.3
If we have in our hearts, as our chief aim, the desire to get closer to God, then our sorrows and our tears will become sources of refreshment and fertility. Ah! how different all our troubles, large and little, look when we take as our great aim in life what is God’s great purpose in giving us life—viz. that we should be moulded into His likeness and enriched by the possession of Himself.
Alexander Maclaren, Psalms 2.15
Not our happiness but our rectitude is God’s end in all that He does with us. It is worth His while to make us, in the lower sense of the word, ‘happy,’ but the purpose of joy as of sorrow is to make us pure and righteous. We shall never come to understand the meaning of our own lives, and will always be blindly puzzling over the mysteries of the providences that beset us, until we learn that not enjoyment and not sorrow is His ultimate end concerning us, but that we may be partakers of His holiness. Since He is righteous, the dearest desire of His loving heart, and that to which all His dealings with us are directed; and that, therefore, to which all our desires and efforts should be directed likewise, is to make us righteous also.
Alexander Maclaren, Psalms 1.13
Religion gives no screen to keep the weather off us, but it gives us an insight into the truth that storms and rain are good for the only crop that is worth growing here. If we understand what we are here for, we shall be very slow to call sorrow evil, and to crown joy with the exclusive title of blessing and good; and we shall have a deeper canon of interpretation for the words of my text than he who is represented as speaking them ever dreamed of.
Alexander Maclaren, Second Kings from Chap. VIII, and Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes 1.7.6
7 passages · 3 writers · 400s to 1500s
Writers touch on whether daily work and a settled calling carry meaning, and on how the active life compares with contemplation of God.
Mary hath chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” You see then that the Lord makes the chief good consist in meditation; i.e., in divine contemplation: whence we see that all other virtues should be put in the second place, even though we admit that they are necessary, and useful, and excellent, because they are all performed for the sake of this one thing.
John Cassian, The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X 2.8
Nothing in this life is so like this final and perfect happiness as the life of them who contemplate truth so far as possible. For the contemplation of truth begins in this life, but will be consummated in the life to come, whereas the life of action and the political life do not transcend the bounds of this present.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra Gentiles 3.63
Consequently it is evident that the last end cannot consist in the active life, which pertains to the practical intellect. … Therefore the last and perfect happiness, which we await in the life to come, consists entirely in contemplation. But imperfect happiness, such as can be had here, consists first and principally, in an operation of the practical intellect directing human actions and passions, as stated in Ethic. x, 7,8.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I-II.Q3.A5
That which belongs principally to the contemplative life is the contemplation of the divine truth, because this contemplation is the end of the whole human life. Hence Augustine says (De Trin. i, 8) that "the contemplation of God is promised us as being the goal of all our actions and the everlasting perfection of our joys." … Hence it bestows on us a certain inchoate beatitude, which begins now and will be continued in the life to come; wherefore the Philosopher (Ethic. x, 7) places man's ultimate happiness in the contemplation of the supreme intelligible good.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II.Q180.A4
If any man infer from this, that men are created for the purpose of doing something, and that every man has his province assigned him by God, that they may not sit down in idleness, he will offer no violence to the words of Christ. We are also at liberty to infer, that our whole life is unprofitable, and that we are justly accused of indolence, until each of us regulate his life by the command and calling of God. Hence it follows, that they labor to no purpose, who rashly undertake this or that course of life, and do not wait for the intimation of the call of God.
John Calvin, Harmony of the Evangelists, Vol. 2 1.73
Seeing that the end of man’s existence ought to consist in profiting in God’s school, we nevertheless perceive how the world distracts him by its allurements, and how he also forms for himself a thousand avocations calculated to withdraw his thoughts from the main business of his life. The next clause of the verse, in it I take pleasure, must be carefully attended to. For it is an indication of rare excellence when a person so arranges his sentiments and affections as to renounce all the enticements pleasant to the flesh, and take delight in nothing so much as in the service of God.
John Calvin, Commentary on the Psalms, Vol. 4 119.5
Grant, Almighty God, since at this time thou hast so familiarly manifested thyself to us in the gospel of Christ our Lord, that we may learn to raise our eyes to the light which has been prepared for us; and grant that we may have them so fixed that we may be directed and urged towards the object of our existence, until the duties of our calling being finished, we may arrive at length unto thee, and enjoy also with thee that glory which thine only-begotten Son acquired for us by his blood. — Amen.
John Calvin, Commentary on Ezekiel, Vol. 1 5.7
6 passages · 6 writers · 1200s to 1900s
Writers tie the meaning of life to knowing Christ, being in him, and living for him, often citing John 17:3 and Philippians 1:21.
19. Our final happiness is in God alone; and to Him alone the honour of latria is to be paid (B. III, Chap. CXX). But our happiness is in God the Son: This is life everlasting, that they know thee, and him whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ (John xvii, 3).
Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra Gentiles 4.7
As this is life eternal, to know the only true God, and him whom he hath sent, Jesus Christ, ( John 17:3 ,) Christ justly pronounces him to be blessed who has honestly made such a confession. This was not spoken in a peculiar manner to Peter alone, but our Lord’s purpose was, to show in what the only happiness of the whole world consists. That every one may approach him with greater courage, we must first learn that all are by nature miserable and accursed, till they find a remedy in Christ. Next, we must add, that whoever has obtained Christ wants nothing that is necessary to perfect happiness, since we have no right to desire any thing better than the eternal glory of God, of which Christ puts us in possession.
John Calvin, Harmony of the Evangelists, Vol. 2 1.52
It is the work of Christ to bring us back to God, and to restore us to the perfection of holiness and obedience; and as he is the way to the Father, so faith in him is the way to our former employment and enjoyment of God. I hope you perceive what I aim at in all this, namely, that to see God in his creatures, and to love him, and converse with him, was the employment of man in his upright state; that this is so far from ceasing to be our duty, that it is the work of Christ to bring us, by faith, back to it; and therefore the most holy men are the most excellent students of God’s works, and none but the holy can rightly study them or know them.
Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor 1.1
Christ is the gain we aim at, living and dying. We live to glorify him in all the actions and affairs of life; we die, whether a natural or a violent death, to glorify him, and to go to be glorified with him.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Romans 14.1
21. For—in either event (Php 1:20) I must be the gainer, "For to me," &c. to live is Christ—whatever life, time, and strength, I have, is Christ's; Christ is the sole object for which I live (Ga 2:20). to die is gain—not the act of dying, but as the Greek ("to have died") expresses, the state after death. Besides the glorification of Christ by my death, which is my primary object (Php 1:20), the change of state caused by death, so far from being a matter of shame (Php 1:20) or loss, as my enemies suppose, will be a positive "gain" to me.
Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown, Fausset, and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible Philippians 1
The highest end, the great purpose of the Gospel and of all God's dealings with us in Christ Jesus is to make us like our Lord. As we have borne the image of the earthly we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 'We, beholding the glory, are changed into the glory.'
Alexander Maclaren, Second Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, and First Timothy 2.4.1
27 passages · 12 writers · 100s to 1900s
Writers describe how a person is brought to the end of life, by virtue, grace, faith, holiness, and the formation of character.
Now Plato the philosopher, defining the end of happiness, says that it is likeness to God as far as possible; whether concurring with the precept of the law (for great natures that are free of passions somehow hit the mark respecting the truth, as the Pythagorean Philo says in relating the history of Moses), or whether instructed by certain oracles of the time, thirsting as he always was for instruction. For the law says, “Walk after the Lord your God, and keep my commandments.” For the law calls assimilation following; and such a following to the utmost of its power assimilates.
Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, or Miscellanies 2.19
God then remains, in following after whom we live well, and in reaching whom we live both well and happily.
Augustine of Hippo, On the Morals of the Catholic Church 6
Moreover, when the mind has been imbued with the first elements of that faith which worketh by love, it endeavors by purity of life to attain unto sight, where the pure and perfect in heart know that unspeakable beauty, the full vision of which is supreme happiness. Here surely is an answer to your question as to what is the starting-point, and what the goal: we begin in faith, and are made perfect by sight.
Augustine of Hippo, The Enchiridion 5
We have to be satisfied with the virtual continuity of our intention to please God. and the more the mind can be even actually fixed on God, the more perfect will man’s life be, as keeping nearer to its last end. And this actual fixing of the mind upon God will go to strengthen the intention directed towards Him, which intention must needs come to naught unless at times the mind be fixed upon Him actually. All the precepts and counsels therefore of the divine law go to furnish man with aids for fixing his mind on God and removing obstacles to such attention.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra Gentiles 3.130
The better therefore the object, the more virtuous will be the act according to its species. But the end is better than the means thereto; and in the category of means the better is that which comes nearer to the end. Therefore among human acts that is the best, which tends straight to God, the last end; and after that, an act is better in its species according as its object is nearer to God.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra Gentiles 3.140
5. There are many impediments in the way of man’s arriving at his end. … The more he clings to such things, the further he is separated from his last end: for these things are below man, whereas his end is high above him. He is impeded also very frequently by infirmity of body from the performance of the acts of virtue which carry him on to his end. Man therefore needs the divine assistance, lest with such impediments in his way, he fail altogether in the gaining of his last end.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra Gentiles 3.148
But the final end to which man is led by the assistance of divine grace is the vision of God as He essentially is, which is proper to God Himself; and so God shares this final good with man. Man then cannot be led on to this end unless he is united with God by conformity of will, the proper effect of love: for it belongs to friends to like and dislike together, and to rejoice and grieve together. The grace then that constitutes the state of grace renders man a lover of God, as he is thereby guided to an end shared with him by God.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra Gentiles 3.152
3. Since the perfect happiness of man lies in a knowledge of God beyond the natural capacity of any created intelligence (B. III, Chap. LII), there was wanted for man in this life a sort of foretaste of this knowledge to guide him to the fulness of it; and that foretaste is by faith (B. III, Chapp. XL, CLIII). But this knowledge of faith, whereby a man is guided to his last end, ought to be of the highest certitude: to which perfect certitude man needed to be instructed by God Himself made man.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra Gentiles 4.54
I answer that, Man is perfected by virtue, for those actions whereby he is directed to happiness, as was explained above ( Q[5], A[7] ). Now man's happiness is twofold, as was also stated above ( Q[5], A[5] ). One is proportionate to human nature, a happiness, to wit, which man can obtain by means of his natural principles. The other is a happiness surpassing man's nature, and which man can obtain by the power of God alone, by a kind of participation of the Godhead, about which it is written (2 Pet. 1:4) that by Christ we are made "partakers of the Divine nature."
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I-II.Q62.A1
I answer that, Since every creature is subject to the laws of nature, from the very fact that its power and action are limited: that which surpasses created nature, cannot be done by the power of any creature. Consequently if anything need to be done that is above nature, it is done by God immediately; such as raising the dead to life, restoring sight to the blind, and such like. Now it has been shown above (A[5]) that Happiness is a good surpassing created nature. Therefore it is impossible that it be bestowed through the action of any creature: but by God alone is man made happy, if we speak of perfect Happiness.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I-II.Q5.A6
For a man’s highest good would be and truly is, that he should not seek himself nor his own things, nor be his own end in any respect, either in things spiritual or things natural, but should seek only the praise and glory of God and His holy will. … Now God teacheth and admonisheth man to forsake himself and all things, and to follow Him only.
Anonymous, Theologia Germanica 36
So long as a man seeketh his own will and his own highest Good, because it is His and for his own sake, he will never find it; for so long as he doeth this, he is not seeking his own highest Good, and how then should he find it? For so long as he doeth this, he seeketh himself, and dreameth that he is himself the highest Good; and seeing that he is not the highest Good, he seeketh not the highest Good, so long as he seeketh himself. But whosoever seeketh, loveth, and pursueth Goodness as Goodness and for the sake of Goodness, and maketh that his end, for nothing but the love of Goodness, not for love of the I, Me, Mine, Self, and the like, he will find the highest Good, for he seeketh it aright, and they who seek it otherwise do err.
Anonymous, Theologia Germanica 46
MY CHILD, I must be your supreme and last end, if you truly desire to be blessed. … Refer all things principally to Me, therefore, for it is I Who have given them all. Consider each thing as flowing from the highest good, and therefore to Me, as to their highest source, must all things be brought back.
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ 3.9
There is, no doubt, a far more rich and powerful manifestation of Divine grace in this second creation than in the first; but our highest perfection is uniformly represented in Scripture as consisting in our conformity and resemblance to God. Adam lost the image which he had originally received, and therefore it becomes necessary that it shall be restored to us by Christ. The design contemplated by regeneration is to recall us from our wanderings to that end for which we were created.
John Calvin, Commentary on Galatians and Ephesians Ephesians 4.6
Our happiness lies in having the image of God restored and formed anew in us, which was defaced by sin. … Hence it follows, that no one ought to be reckoned among the disciples of Christ, unless we perceive the glory of God impressed on him, as with a seal, by the likeness of Christ.
John Calvin, Commentary on the Gospel of John, Vol. 2 17.5
(3) Can you truly say, that you have so far taken the everlasting enjoyment of God for your happiness, that it hath the most of your heart, of your love, desire, and care; and that you are resolved, by the strength of Divine grace, to let go all that you have in the world, rather than hazard it; and that it is your daily, and your principal business to seek it? Can you truly say, that though you have your failings and sins, yet your main care, and the bent of your whole life, is to please God, and to enjoy him for ever; and that you give the world God’s leavings, as it were, and not God the world’s leavings; and that your worldly business is but as a traveller’s seeking for provision in his journey, and heaven is the place that you take for your home?’
Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor 3.5.2
And in our desires for heaven, if they are regular, we consider not so much our freedom from trouble as from sin; nor is our aim in the first place so much at complete happiness as perfect holiness. And they who desire heaven as that which would only ease them of their troubles, and not as that which will perfectly free them of sin, will fall into a state wherein sin and trouble shall be eternally inseparable. As, therefore, we would continually tend towards our rest and blessedness, as we would have assured and evident pledges of it in our own souls, as we would have foretastes of it and an experimental acquaintance with it, (as who would not know as much as is possible of his eternal blessedness?) this is the design which we ought to pursue.
John Owen, Pneumatologia 5.1
Let us thus think often that our only business in this life is to please God, that perhaps all besides is but folly and vanity. You and I have lived above forty years in religion [i.e., a monastic life]. Have we employed them in loving and serving God, who by His mercy has called us to this state and for that very end?
Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God 14
Every man's life is his opportunity of doing that which will make for him in eternity. 2. For our own comfort. Let us make ourselves easy, rejoice, and enjoy the good of our labour, as it is the gift of God, and so enjoy God in it, and taste his love, return him thanks, and make him the centre of our joy, eat and drink to his glory, and serve him with joyfulness of heart, in the abundance of all things.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Ecclesiastes 3.2
There is not only something to be had, but something to be done, in this life, and the chief good we are to enquire after is the good we should do, Eccl. ii. 3 . This is the world of service; that to come is the world of recompence.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Ecclesiastes 9.2
God has made us, and given us life, and therefore we should study to use our life to some good purpose, to spend it in glorifying God and serving our generation according to his will, that we may answer the end of our creation and it may not be said that we were made in vain.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Job 33.1
We know, therefore, from the very constitution of our nature that the right and the expedient are not identical ideas; that the difference is essential and immutable. And we know from the same source, and with, equal assurance or certainty, that happiness is not the highest good; but on the contrary, that holiness is as much higher than happiness, as heaven is higher than the earth, or Christ than Epicurus.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology II.8.2
What is the end for which days and years are given? That they may give us what eternity cannot take away—a character built upon the love of God in Christ, and moulded into His likeness. … The great end of life is to make us like Christ, and pleasing to Christ.
Alexander Maclaren, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers 1.1.31
The main question is, do I grasp the aim of life with clearness and decision as being to make myself by God’s help such a character as God has pleasure in? If I do I shall regulate all these things thereby.
Alexander Maclaren, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, First and Second Samuel, First Kings, and Second Kings Chapters I to VII 1.5.17
But it is not conduct, and it is still less thought, and it is least of all enjoyment, in any of its forms, which is the purpose of life, and ought to be our aim here upon earth. We are here to learn to be; and the cultivation and production of characters that lie parallel with the will of God is the Omega of all our life in the flesh.
Alexander Maclaren, Ezekiel, Daniel and the Minor Prophets; and Matthew Chaps. I to VIII 2.17
The end of life is to make men; the meaning of all events is to mould character. Anything that makes me stronger is a blessing, anything that develops my morale is the highest good that can come to me.
Alexander Maclaren, St John Chaps. I to XIV 1.30
What the Germans call ‘proof pieces’—that is the meaning of life. And though ‘the night cometh when no man can work,’ the day cometh when the characters we have made ourselves here, the habits we have cultivated and indulged in, the capacities we have exercised, and the set and drift of all our activity upon earth, will determine the work that we get to do there.
Alexander Maclaren, St John Chaps. I to XIV 1.38
5 passages · 5 writers · 100s to 1600s
Writers name God as the highest good or last end of human life, in passing remarks on other subjects.
Wherefore the Gnostic circumscribes his desires in reference both to possession and to enjoyment, not exceeding the limit of necessity. Therefore, regarding life in this world as necessary for the increase of science ( ἐπιστήμη ) and the acquisition of knowledge ( γνῶσις ), he will value highest, not living, but living well. He will therefore prefer neither children, nor marriage, nor parents, to love for God, and righteousness in life.
Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, or Miscellanies 6.12
The subject seems to require in this place, that since we have taught that immortality is the chief good, we should prove this also, that the soul is immortal. On which subject there is great disputation among philosophers; nor have they who held true opinions respecting the soul been able to explain or prove anything: for, being destitute of divine knowledge, they neither brought forward true arguments by which they might overcome, nor evidence by which they might convince. But we shall treat of this question more conveniently in the last book, when we shall have to discuss the subject of a happy life.
Lactantius, The Divine Institutes 3.13
As I had been long revolving with myself matters many and various, and had been for many days sedulously inquiring both concerning myself and my chief good, or what of evil there was to be avoided by me: suddenly some one addresses me, whether I myself, or some other one, within me or without, I know not. For this very thing is what I chiefly toil to know.
Augustine of Hippo, Two Books of Soliloquies 3
Let all around us be overthrown, nay more, all within us; I mean let our soul be sad or glad, in bitterness or joy, at peace or troubled, dry and parched, or soft and fruitful, let the sun scorch, or the dew refresh it; but all the while the magnet of our heart and mind, our superior will, which is our moral compass, must continually point to the Love of God our Creator, our Saviour, our only Sovereign Good. “Whether we live, we live unto the Lord, or whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord’s.
Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life 4.13
(1) Can it be expected that God will bless that man’s labors, (I mean comparatively, as to other ministers) who worketh not for God, but for himself? Now, this is the case with every unsanctified man. None but converted men do make God their chief end, and do all or any thing heartily for his honor; others make the ministry but a trade to live by. They choose it rather than another calling, because their parents did destine them to it, or because it affordeth them a competent maintenance; because it is a life wherein they have more opportunity to furnish their intellects with all kind of science; or because it is not so toilsome to the body, to those that have a mind to favor their flesh; because it is accompanied with some reverence and respect from men, and because they think it a fine thing to be leaders and teachers, and have others ‘receive the law at their mouth.’ For such ends as these are they ministers, and for these do they preach; and, were it not for these, or similar objects, they would soon give over.
Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor 1.2
5 passages · 5 writers · 100s to 1600s
Writers refer to blessedness, joy, rest, or the vision of God as where human life comes to its end.
But further, it becomes us now to seek for what we once had, but have lost, to unite the soul with the Holy Spirit, and to strive after union with God. … But man alone is the image and likeness of God; and I mean by man, not one who performs actions similar to those of animals, but one who has advanced far beyond mere humanity—to God Himself. This question we have discussed more minutely in the treatise concerning animals. But the principal point to be spoken of now is, what is intended by the image and likeness of God.
Tatian, Tatian's Address to the Greeks 2.15
The Gnostic will never then have the chief end placed in life, but in being always happy and blessed, and a kingly friend of God.
Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, or Miscellanies 4.6
Here indeed is appeasement without weariness: here never-quenched thirst for knowledge, without distress; here eternal and infinite desire which knows no want; here, finally, is that sober inebriation which comes not from drinking new wine but from enjoying God (Acts 2.13). The fourth degree of love is attained for ever when we love God only and supremely, when we do not even love ourselves except for God’s sake; so that He Himself is the reward of them that love Him, the everlasting reward of an everlasting love.
Bernard of Clairvaux, On Loving God 11
We must observe, however, with what intention Paul has added this. For he admonishes us, that the sum of our felicity consists in this, that we are united to God who is the chief good, and this is accomplished when we are gathered together under the head that our heavenly Father has set over us. In the same sense Christ said to his disciples, “ Car il nous donne a entendre, et remonstre, que le comble et la perfection de nostre felicite consiste la ;” — “For he gives us to understand, and shows, that the summit and perfection of our felicity consists in this.”
John Calvin, Commentary on Corinthians, Vol. 1 3.4
Alas! how little do most men know of that Deity they profess to serve, and own, not as their Sovereign only, but their Portion. … These treatises, reader, will inform thee who He is whom thou callest thine, present thee with a view of thy chief good, and make thee value thyself a thousand times more upon thy interest with God, than upon all external accomplishments and worldly possessions. Who but delights to hear well of one whom he loves! God is thy love, if thou be a believer; and then it cannot but fill thee with delight and ravishment to hear so much spoken in his praise.
Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God 0.1
5 passages · 5 writers · 1400s to 1800s
Writers refer to God's glory or praise as the aim of human life and of creation.
On the contrary, he who has true and perfect charity seeks self in nothing, but searches all things for the glory of God. Moreover, he envies no man, because he desires no personal pleasure nor does he wish to rejoice in himself; rather he desires the greater glory of God above all things. He ascribes to man nothing that is good but attributes it wholly to God from Whom all things proceed as from a fountain, and in Whom all the blessed shall rest as their last end and fruition.
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ 1.15
The design of building is, that there should be a house. This is the immediate design, but the convenience of dwelling in it is the ultimate design. It was necessary to mention this in passing; for we shall immediately find that Paul mentions another design, the glory of God. But there is no contradiction here; for the glory of God is the highest end, to which our sanctification is subordinate.
John Calvin, Commentary on Galatians and Ephesians Ephesians 1.1
23. For all have sinned - In Adam, and in their own persons; by a sinful nature, sinful tempers, and sinful actions. And are fallen short of the glory of God - The supreme end of man; short of his image on earth, and the enjoyment of him in heaven.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 6.3
By these things, it appears, that truly virtuous mind, being as it were under the sovereign dominion of love to God, above all things, seeks the glory of God, and makes this his supreme, governing, and ultimate end. This consists in the expression of God’s perfections in their proper effects,—the manifestation of God’s glory to created understandings,—the communications of the infinite fulness of God to the creature,—the creature’s highest esteem of God, love to, and joy in him,—and in the proper exercises and expressions of these. And so far as a virtuous mind exercises true virtue in benevolence to created beings, it chiefly seeks the good of the creature; consisting in its knowledge or view of God’s glory and beauty, its union with God, conformity and love to him, and joy in him.
Jonathan Edwards, The Nature of True Virtue 2
The older theologians almost unanimously make the glory of God the ultimate, and the good of the creature the subordinate end of all things. … It, however, makes all the difference in the world, whether the Creator be subordinate to the creature, or the creature to the Creator; whether the end be the means, or the means the end. … And if we make the creature, and not God, the end of all things, our theology and religion will in like manner be perverted.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology I.5.13
8 passages · 8 writers · 200s to 1800s
Writers name other proposed ends of life, such as pleasure, riches, applause, learning, or the self, and say how they regard them.
Suppose that Plato, for example, the son of Ariston, in one of his Epistles, is discoursing about the “chief good,” and that he says, “The chief good can by no means be described in words, but is produced by long habit, and bursts forth suddenly as a light in the soul, as from a fire which had leapt forth.” We, then, on hearing these words, admit that they are well said, for it is God who revealed to men these as well as all other noble expressions.
Origen of Alexandria, Origen Against Celsus 6.3
What is so ridiculous, as to esteem that the chief good which the physician is able to give?
Lactantius, The Divine Institutes 3.8
Do you not, O Dioscorus, remember an ingenious line of your favourite Persius, in which he not only rebukes your folly, but administers to your boyish head, if you have only sense to feel it, a deserved correction, restraining your vanity with the words, “To know is nothing in your eyes unless another knows that you know”? You have, as I said before, read so many Dialogues, and devoted your attention to so many discussions of philosophers—tell me which of them has placed the chief end of his actions in the applause of the vulgar, or in the opinion even of good and wise men?
Augustine of Hippo, Letters of St. Augustin 1.108
Learn, therefore, to conquer yourself in all things for the sake of your Maker. Then will you be able to attain to divine knowledge. But anything, no matter how small, that is loved and regarded inordinately keeps you back from the highest good and corrupts the soul.
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ 3.42
Let us eat and drink This is a saying of the Epicureans, who reckon man’s highest good as consisting in present enjoyment. Isaiah also testifies that it is a saying made use of by profligate persons, ( Isaiah 22:13 ,) who, when the Prophets of God threaten them with ruin, with the view of calling them to repentance, making sport of those threatenings, encourage themselves in wantonness and unbridled mirth, and in order to show more openly their obstinacy, say, “Since die we must, let us meanwhile enjoy the time, and not torment ourselves before the time with empty fears.”
John Calvin, Commentary on Corinthians, Vol. 2 1.4
360. What the Stoics propose is so difficult and foolish! The Stoics lay down that all those who are not at the high degree of wisdom are equally foolish and vicious, as those who are two inches under water. 361. The sovereign good. … There is a contradiction, for in the end they advise suicide.
Blaise Pascal, Pensées 6
18. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosopher - The Epicureans entirely denied a providence, and held the world to be the effect of mere chance; asserting sensual pleasure to be man's chief good, and that the soul and body died together. The Stoics held, that matter was eternal; that all things were governed by irresistible fate; that virtue was its own sufficient reward, and vice its own sufficient punishment. It is easy to see, how happily the apostle levels his discourse at some of the most important errors of each, while, without expressly attacking either, he gives a plain summary of his own religious principles.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 5.17
We ought frequently to call to mind the solemn words, "What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and lose his own soul?" … (Prov. 30:8.) Our constant aim should be to be rich in grace. Those who "will be rich" in worldly possessions often find at last that they have made the worst of bargains. Like Esau, they have bartered an eternal portion for a little temporary gratification.
J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Matthew Matthew 26:14-25
9 passages · 9 writers · 200s to 1600s
Writers describe worldly goods and the present life as vain, passing, or of less worth than the soul.
Besides, our wise men have such a contempt for all sensible objects, that sometimes they speak of all material things as vanity: thus, “For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him that subjected the same in hope;” at other times as vanity of vanities, “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, all is vanity.” Who has given so severe an estimate of the life of the human soul here on earth, as he who says: “Verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity?” He does not hesitate at all as to the difference between the present life of the soul and that which it is to lead hereafter.
Origen of Alexandria, Origen Against Celsus 7.50
22. That in the meantime we die, we are passing over to immortality by death; nor can eternal life follow, unless it should befall us to depart from this life. That is not an ending, but a transit, and, this journey of time being traversed, a passage to eternity. Who would not hasten to better things?
Cyprian of Carthage, The Treatises of Cyprian 7
For the events that happen in this life are all transitory, be they even the painful incidents, of which he says, “As all things now are consigned to oblivion.” … For they are not remembered for these, but only for what they may have evinced of wisdom or folly, virtue or vice. … The death of sinners, indeed, is evil: yet the memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked is extinguished.”
Dionysius of Alexandria, Exegetical Fragments of Dionysius 1.2
“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “all is vanity.” … No; if things which are good in themselves as being the handiwork of a good Creator are called vanity, it is because they are compared with things which are better still. For example, compared with a lamp, a lantern is good for nothing; compared with a star, a lamp does not shine at all; the brightest star pales before the moon; put the moon beside the sun, and it no longer looks bright; compare the sun with Christ, and it is darkness. “I am that I am,” God says; and if you compare all created things with Him they have no existence.
Jerome, The Letters of St. Jerome 48
11. “They acted hastily: they forgot His works” ( ver. 13 ): other copies read more intelligibly, “They hastened, they forgot His works, and would not abide His counsel.” For they ought to have thought, that so great works of God towards themselves were not without a purpose, but that they invited them to some endless happiness, which was to be waited for with patience; but they hastened to make themselves happy with temporal things, which give no man true happiness, because they do not quench insatiable longing: for “whosoever,” saith our Lord, “shall drink of this water, shall thirst again.”
Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Book of Psalms 106
Remain with Me and you will find peace. Dismiss all passing things and seek the eternal. … Leave all these things, therefore, and make yourself pleasing and faithful to your Creator so that you may attain to true happiness.
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ 3.1
The groaning of believers, on the other hand, arises from this — that they know, that they are here in a state of exile from their native land, and that they know, that they are here shut up in the body as in a prison. Hence they feel this life to be a burden, because in it they cannot enjoy true and perfect blessedness, because they cannot escape from the bondage of sin otherwise than by death, and hence they aspire to be elsewhere.
John Calvin, Commentary on Corinthians, Vol. 2 5.1
There is an immortal spirit dwelling in this fleshly tabernacle, of more value than all earthly things, which must live to all eternity, when this world shall lie in white ashes. A soul for which Jesus Christ shed his precious and invaluable blood. I was sent into this world to provide for this soul; indeed God hath also committed to me the care of my body, but, as one happily expresses it, with this difference; a master commits two things to a servant, the child and the child's clothes; will the master thank the servant, if he plead, I have kept the clothes, but I have neglected the life of the child??
John Flavel, A Saint Indeed 13
As men who naturally understand their own condition avoid nothing so much as rest, so there is nothing they leave undone in seeking turmoil. Not that they have an instinctive knowledge of true happiness... So we are wrong in blaming them. Their error does not lie in seeking excitement, if they seek it only as a diversion; the evil is that they seek it as if the possession of the objects of their quest would make them really happy. In this respect it is right to call their quest a vain one. Hence in all this both the censurers and the censured do not understand man's true nature.
Blaise Pascal, Pensées 2
7 passages · 7 writers · 400s to 1800s
Writers refer to Christ as the one in whom the end of life is found or reached.
To cling to God continually, and as you say inseparably to hold fast to meditation on Him, is impossible for a man while still in this weak flesh of ours. But we ought to be aware on what we should have the purpose of our mind fixed, and to what goal we should ever recall the gaze of our soul: and when the mind can secure this it may rejoice; and grieve and sigh when it is withdrawn from this, and as often as it discovers itself to have fallen away from gazing on Him, it should admit that it has lapsed from the highest good, considering that even a momentary departure from gazing on Christ is fornication. And when our gaze has wandered ever so little from Him, let us turn the eyes of the soul back to Him, and recall our mental gaze as in a perfectly straight direction.
John Cassian, The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X 2.13
Therefore reflect; and, as I admonished you at the beginning of this meditation, think ever on your last end; because thus thinking, and being always solicitous about your departure hence, you will not easily sin; and so living on to the last, the temporal joys being ended, which, whilst you were thus timorous, flitted like a puff of wind across your cheek, you will find not vanity but truth, which is Christ; to whom may He bring you who created you.
Anselm of Canterbury, Meditations and Prayers 2.5
Fifthly, with regard to the full participation of the Divinity, which is the true bliss of man and end of human life; and this is bestowed upon us by Christ's humanity; for Augustine says in a sermon (xiii de Temp.): "God was made man, that man might be made God."
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica III.Q1.A2
We must go up from the wilderness of this world having our conversation in heaven; and, at death, we must remove thither, leaning upon Christ, must live and die by faith in him. To me to live is Christ, and it is he that is gain in death.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Song of Solomon 8.2
21. To me to live is Christ - To know, to love, to follow Christ, is my life, my glory, my joy. … But if I am to live is the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour - This is the fruit of my living longer, that I can labour more. Glorious labour! desirable fruit! in this view, long life is indeed a blessing.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 11.1
In Philippians, besides the usual recognition of Christ as the source and giver of grace and peace, which comprehend all spiritual blessings, and the acknowledgment of Him as the end of our being (i. 21, 22), we have in ii. 6-11 the clearest declaration of the divinity of Christ.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology I.7.3
The eye and ear are two of the taskmasters for which man toils. But these are never "satisfied" (Ec 6:7; Pr 27:20). Nor can they be so hereafter, for there will be nothing "new." Not so the chief good, Jesus Christ (Joh 4:13, 14; Re 21:5).
Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown, Fausset, and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible Ecclesiastes 1
8 passages · 8 writers · 300s to 1700s
Writers describe the aim of life as serving God, obeying him, loving him, or fearing him.
The first head of this law is, to know God Himself, to obey Him alone, to worship Him alone. For he cannot maintain the character of a man who is ignorant of God, the parent of his soul: which is the greatest impiety. For this ignorance causes him to serve other gods, and no greater crime than this can be committed. Hence there is now so easy a step to wickedness through ignorance of the truth and of the chief good; since God, from the knowledge of whom he shrinks, is Himself the fountain of goodness.
Lactantius, The Divine Institutes 6.9
The lover, then, whom we are describing, will get from justice this rule of life, that he must with perfect readiness serve the God whom he loves, the highest good, the highest wisdom, the highest peace; and as regards all other things, must either rule them as subject to himself, or treat them with a view to their subjection.
Augustine of Hippo, On the Morals of the Catholic Church 24
O sweet and joyful service of God, which makes man truly free and holy! O sacred state of religious bondage which makes man equal to the angels, pleasing to God, terrible to the demons, and worthy of the commendation of all the faithful! O service to be embraced and always desired, in which the highest good is offered and joy is won which shall remain forever!
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ 3.10
Here we must exercise the obedience of faith, since we know that God regards nothing as more important than uniting miserable men in the hope of eternal life. This is the chief end of the law and the gospel, that men being reconciled to God, may worship him as a Father.
John Calvin, Commentary on Ezekiel, Vol. 1 3.13
All absolute perfection in this life is rejected as unattainable. The end proposed is blessedness and glory, with the eternal enjoyment of God; and the way whereby we press towards it, which compriseth the whole of our obedience, is by continual, uninterrupted following after, pressing, reaching out, — a constant progress, in and by our utmost diligence.
John Owen, Pneumatologia 4.2
Certainly, next to the love and enjoyment of God, that ardent charity and affection wherewith blessed souls do embrace one another, is justly to be reckoned as the greatest felicity of those regions above; and did it universally prevail in the world, it would anticipate that blessedness, and make us taste of the joys of heaven upon earth.
Henry Scougal, The Life of God in the Soul of Man 2
That he had always been governed by love, without selfish views; and that having resolved to make the love of God the end of all his actions, he had found reasons to be well satisfied with his method.
Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God 3
The preacher's end in this book, ver. 9-12. The sum of all, to fear God and keep his commandments, in consideration of the judgment to come, ver. 13, 14.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 48.12
5 passages · 4 writers · 300s to 1600s
Writers refer to the end for which creatures and human beings were made.
Why, then, should God not make man, although He foreknew that he would sin, when He might crown him if he stood, and set him right if he fell, and help him if he rose, Himself being always and everywhere glorious in goodness, righteousness, and clemency? Above all, why should He not do so, since He also foreknew this, namely, that from the race of that mortality there would spring saints, who should not seek their own, but give glory to their Creator; and who, obtaining deliverance from every corruption by worshipping Him, should be counted worthy to live for ever, and to live in blessedness with the holy angels?
Augustine of Hippo, On the Catechising of the Uninstructed 18
In Paradise, then, man lived as he desired so long as he desired what God had commanded. He lived in the enjoyment of God, and was good by God’s goodness; he lived without any want, and had it in his power so to live eternally. … No sadness of any kind was there, nor any foolish joy; true gladness ceaselessly flowed from the presence of God, who was loved “out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned.”
Augustine of Hippo, City of God 14.26
Further, the Son of God became man, in order that He might again bestow on man that favour for the sake of which He created him. For He created him after His own image, endowed with intellect and free-will, and after His own likeness, that is to say, perfect in all virtue so far as it is possible for man’s nature to attain perfection.
John of Damascus, John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 4.4
You acknowledge that the intelligent creature was made holy, and for this purpose, viz., to be happy in the enjoyment of God.
Anselm of Canterbury, Cur Deus Homo I.IX
As all creatures were created, not only for themselves, but for the honor of God; so the grace of the new creation carries a man to answer this end, and to order all his operations to the honor of God, and his well‑pleasing.
Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God 2
6 passages · 3 writers · 300s to 1900s
Writers connect affliction and sorrow to the end of life, and say it leads to blessedness, holiness, or God's glory.
This is the land of the dead. The land of the dead passeth, the land of the living cometh. In the land of the dead is labour, grief, fear, tribulation, temptation, groaning, sighing: here are false happy ones, true unhappy, because happiness is false, misery is true.
Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Book of Psalms 86
Though it looked like a man's misery, it would really be his bliss: Happy is the man whom God correcteth if he make but a due improvement of the correction. A good man is happy though he be afflicted, for, whatever he has lost, he has not lost his enjoyment of God nor his title to heaven.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Job 5.3
It is not the man who suffers only that is blessed, but he who endures, who with patience and constancy goes through all difficulties in the way of his duty. … They are so far from taking away a good man's felicity that they really increase it. 3. Sufferings and temptations are the way to eternal blessedness: When he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, dokimos genomenos — when he is approved, when his graces are found to be true and of the highest worth (so metals are tried as to their excellency by the fire), and when his integrity is manifested, and all is approved of the great Judge.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on James 1.2
2. To suffer for the sake of Christ is a valuable gift too: it is a great honour and a great advantage; for we may be very serviceable to the glory of God, which is the end of our creation, and encourage and confirm the faith of others. And there is a great reward attending it too: Blessed are you when men shall persecute you, for great is your reward in heaven, Matt. v. 11, 12 .
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Philippians 1.7
The weakness which is our own when faith sleeps, and the rejoicing power which is ours because it is His, when faith wakes, are God’s education of it to fuller and ampler degrees and depth. We shall lose the meaning of life, and the best lesson that joy and sorrow, calm and storm, victory and defeat, can give us, unless all these make us ‘rooted and grounded in faith.’
Alexander Maclaren, Mark 1.43
But still, rightly taken, sorrow is the best ladder to God; and there is no such praise as comes from the lips that, if they did not praise, must sob, and that praise because they are beginning to learn that evil, as the world calls it, is the stepping-stone to the highest good.
Alexander Maclaren, Psalms 2.5
6 passages · 6 writers · 1500s to 1900s
Writers refer to work, calling, or the main business of life, in passing remarks on other subjects.
Grant, Almighty God, that since thou kindly and graciously invites us to thyself, we may not wait until thou stimulates us with goads, but cast aside our sloth and run quickly to thee. And when our torpor so possesses us as to render punishment necessary, permit us not to harden ourselves; but being at length effectually warned, and we return to the right way, and strive so to render all we do approved by thee, that we may find a door opened to thy grace and favor: and being made partakers of those blessed, by which thou affordest a taste of that goodness which we shall enjoy in heaven, may we ever aspire thither, and be satisfied with the abundant blessings which we daily and even continually receive from thine hand, in such a manner as not to be detained by this world; but may we, with minds raised up to heaven, ever tend upwards, and labor for that perfect happiness which is there laid up for us by Christ our Lord.
John Calvin, Commentary on Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and Haggai Haggai 1.8
Observe, Christians ought to accommodate themselves to the gospel by which they are called, and to the glory to which they are called; both are their vocation. We are called Christians; we must answer that name, and live like Christians. We are called to God's kingdom and glory; that kingdom and glory therefore we must mind, and walk as becomes the heirs of them.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Ephesians 4.1
Our great Master attained not, as it seems, to the conclusion of his thirty-fourth year. Yet what glorious achievements did he accomplish within those narrow limits of time! Happy that servant, who, with any proportionable zeal, despatches the great business of life; and so much the more happy, if his sun go down at noon. For the space that is taken from the labours of time, shall be added to the rewards of eternity.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 3.3
Now assurance goes far to set a child of God free from this painful kind of bondage, and thus ministers mightily to his comfort. It enables him to feel that the great business of life is a settled business, the great debt a paid debt, the great disease a healed disease, and the great work a finished work; and all other business, diseases, debts, and works, are then by comparison small. In this way assurance makes him patient in tribulation, calm under bereavements, unmoved in sorrow, not afraid of evil tidings, in every condition content, for it gives him a fixedness of heart.
J.C. Ryle, Holiness 8
As we shall have occasion to see presently, there is a permanent element in the most material work, and if in handling the transient we have been living for the eternal, such work will abide; but if we think of the spirit in which a sad majority do their daily tasks, whether of a more material or of a more intellectual sort, we must recognise that a very large proportion of all the business of life must come to an end here. There is nothing in it that will stand the voyage across the great deep, or that can survive in the order of things to which we go.
Alexander Maclaren, Second Kings from Chap. VIII, and Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes 1.9.7
Men must pray, and put strength and heart into their praying. This is part of the primary business of life, and to it God has called men, first of all.
E.M. Bounds, The Weapon of Prayer 5
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