Purpose

I was asked recently why God created us. The question was along the lines of "Was He bored, lonely, in need of entertainment?" To which I quickly shout "No!" God does not get bored or lonely, and He certainly needs no entertainment from us. But the root of the question is important: God existed before "time" began. So, why did He even start the clock? Why put life into motion and deal with sin and human beings with free will? To what purpose? Perhaps it's one of those elementary questions, or it actually goes pretty deep, or perhaps as I'm thinking deeply, I'm actually just overanalyzing a completely simple question...

In any event, I'm pretty comfortable with the question of "What is a man's purpose" in regards to a man's mortal life. Our purpose on this earth is to serve God and honor Him in all we attempt to do. Everything else, or anything else without that purpose, seems so incredibly meaningless and can never satisfy. But expand that to "What is the purpose of God" or "what was God's motivation in creation", and my answers don't flow quite as quickly. Mainly because I haven't quite overanalyzed it enough just yet ;-) My initial answer is Love. But that requires love to be defined and discussed, and there are so many different views on what love actually is, that we'd all get side-tracked and forget the whole point. [ah, the memories of "that summer", but I digress] Tonight I read the following relating to this issue, so I thought I'd share. It's in the first chapter of "Let the nations be glad" by John Piper:

"What I [John Piper] am claiming is the answer to the first question of the Westminster Catechism is the same when asked concerning God as it is when asked concerning man. Question: "What is the chief end of man?" Answer: "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever." Question: "What is the chief end of God?" Answer: "The chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy Himself forever." "