W W W W  World Wide Web Witness Inc.  Home Page   Contents Page for Volume  What is New

It is nothing, he says, nothing to the purpose.

He means, that although in some perspectives it might figure more, in this one, with his aim in view and in focus, it does not really matter at all.

You are trying to go for a swim, but there is a large crowd on the beach. A child zooms across your path, almost tripping you. However you are freely able to go in, despite this trivial action. The mother exclaims, Oh please excuse Jim, he is so careless! Nothing at all, you say, nothing to the purpose - the ocean and I are soon to be together.

Of course you might not be like that; and have never had such an episode in your life. However the point remains: some things which might upset some people in some pursuits, do not upset them when the difference to what they are seeking to do, is slight or negligent (unless they have, for example, a purpose to be a sour puss or something like that!).

Man is a purposing being, just as many young men at 20-26 are often proposing beings. The former is more general; the latter an example of it, only.

In Economic theory, a lot of all but incredible and insufferable nonsense has been talked by many for long. It is to maximise satisfaction, says their sagacity, that they buy, and not only so, buy this amount or that. They continue, it says, until they are so satisfied with this purchase that they get roughly the same sort of satisfaction by expending one more unit of money on something else, and there are various ways in which the graphs might be sketched in as the increasing purchases are considered and so on.

Why people have to construct imaginary beings and call them men - is it some kind of compulsion, verbal explosion from a compulsion, endeavour to laugh at the race, or what else ? - is a fascinating question. To call it a 'science' as in the highest of depravities they sometimes do, makes of the exercise all the greater a comedy.

The 'satisfaction' syndrome, as a substitute for life, is only ONE of exceedingly many possible purposes. IF your purpose is to gain satisfaction from things, and in particular physical things, and in particular by expending monetary units on them, and if your purpose is that you should feel, examine or compute in some comparison, with other expenditures, why then, you have your mathematical model, except of course, that it is merely an option (1), even then not so simple (2) and not likely to be consistent in any case (3) even as an option.

Let us look at 2) and 3). Thus there is much more to man than satisfaction-seeking antennae, and if a man is seeking to satisfy himself, while bent on some clottishly selfish performance, then the conscience may twinge, the morals may fester, the personality may shrink simultaneously with the considerations of what now is rather more pseudo-satisfaction, and the whole matter becomes incredibly complicated. That is what happens when you try to use a Cadillac to draw a rough plough over gravely and rough ground. It is not fitting, so although it has power, it does not have proportionality for the task, or exactitude of connection and so on: it does not fit the design, and the function is not facile in the least. That is the way with misused designs.

Again, a person might embark on some reductionist, simplistic arithmetical spree such as seeking to unify and maximise satisfaction, but finding the pursuit of satisfaction unsatisfactory as a PURPOSE and the proposal of such a program jejune as a pursuit, might disembark, just as many without adequate power, being not in First Class conditions, sought to depart precipitately from the Titanic when its unsuitability for the task of ramming icebergs at high speed, was perceived.
 
 

Man in fact, is a purposing being. His purpose may be pleasure or satisfaction (in either sense - satisfying himself or getting a more objective sort of 'satisfaction' by ensuring that no one ever exploits him and so on), or gain or hard work with which to adorn the lines on his prospective tomb-stone (if he is big on that sort of thing - please excuse the vernacular, but it is a vernacular kind of man in view!). Again, his purpose may be riches, prestige, to exploit everything and anyone to the utmost, as required, to increase wealth, self-satisfaction (a very different variant), prestige, fearsomeness or security; it may be to exhibit rancour, justice, and the latter, in order to be just, or in order to gain a good name for doing so, this being the actual purpose, quite different in kind from the other. This, it is one more example of grades and shades within ONE objective; and in this case, it is more than a small shade. It is darkness as opposed to light.

You may say: But what if his purpose is simply to have no purpose, to exist, to deploy himself from time to time, in this world, as seems exciting, pleasurable, or whatever other thing may take his fancy ?  Why then the purpose is this: to follow no clearly defined purpose, and to allow various sources of purposes to exercise their dynamic within himself, as the mood suffers, or their impact demands. It is in this case rather like a vessel which has had the motor turned off, the rudder left to flap, and the passengers left to enjoy or deplore themselves and each other, as may happen. THAT is then the purpose.

Since man is a purposive being, his purposes may be subtle, denying his nature, and yet in this having for all that to implement it, in that the purpose button by purpose, has to be turned off. THAT is then the purpose. He can no more fail to have purpose, direct or indirect, than a car on wheels can stop rolling if it moves upon them. If they are impaled with spikes, it yet has to move until the impaling is sufficient to stop further rolling. Then it stops. It is then a car with the potential to roll, injured and ceasing to be not a car, but a fully functioning one. You could still sit in it, or have it repaired, and then roll once more.

Men, women, children  who use their imagination, intelligence, thought and consideration, may elect to do this or that, and this is then the purpose. They may, however, if subjected to strenuous adversity, disquieting and dynamic, become dumbed or smitten, and so all but cease to be imaginative, seeking merely to continue. Then the purpose is continuance in the present travail, until some awakening, opportunity or thrust becomes apparent, desirable or available.

The purpose, in economics, may be to use money in order to show by display their importance, or the amount of it people may be induced to think they have, or the way in which it is not valued, since one is so far above all such things, or to employ it with great thrift, in order to show how prudent one is, or because one does not want to waste it. There is an all but unlimited array of purposes available relative to money.

Again, a man may formulate his purposes, in general, and in particular, and finding in some purpose that it will be necessary for its fulfilment, that he should buy certain useful products for its fulfilment, buy them without much thought, being careless because of preoccupation, or buy them with profound thought, because he is so intent that nothing should block his purpose; or he may lose his sense of purpose in seeking bargains, or short cuts, so that the economic in this case may get out of place, and become in part a purpose of its own, so that his integrity in part or whole is lost. He loses the desired, premeditated purpose in the dynamic of the market and amidst the insatiable appetites which it may arouse in him.

That is one particular, pathological case, in which what he is about is determined by what he buys, and not vice versa.

However it is not all so sad. A man may formulate his purposes, categorise those requiring purchases, compare their relevance to the purpose, consider what he can himself do to supplement the purchased items with purposeful auxiliary action of his own, look at varied qualities, with respect to the attainment of his purpose, or perhaps exceeding it at unnecessary expense, or even frustrating it to some extent, and then resolve, in order to fulfil his purpose, the best way to make economic matters subservient to his purpose, and so obtain it.

In love the same: he may fall in love, consider whether it is infatuation, immature or other, or worthy; whether it is uplifting to the spirit, or indulgent to the flesh; ponder his principles, already inherent in some of his purposes from earlier living, or conviction, or both, and then expend this time his very self, in seeking the hand of this or that young lady. The love is in other words, tested, and if he is a Christian, the whole matter is subjected to divine scrutiny by the One who knows all hearts, and all things, so that the marriage should better serve this One than non-marriage. Hence prayer is likely to be intense, trusting and embracive of the issues with transforming zeal.

He may decide this IF he is in love. Others may NOT be in love, a thing repugnant to this author, and marry as if the other person were really some kind of implement. The Moslem treatment of woman has so much of this instrumental side as to be more than nauseating to one who insists on a love which PRACTICALLY values the lady as much as the man values himself, and the Lord more than either, who oversees both. One should not merely love one's neighbour as oneself, provided it not one's wife!

That, then would be his purpose, either to be sure he is in love, or not, depending on the man and his principles; and then to marry in this respect moved, or in that, or in all relevant respects as under the directing hand of the Almighty Redeemer in the name of Jesus Christ, quite simply as a sincere Christian. God being LOVE, it would indeed be an oddity to marry without it at the relevant focus for the young lady!

Again, a man might elect to become an author, actor or researcher. This becomes his purpose; and he prepares by examination, experiment, experience or in whatever way fits his purpose and fulfils his imagination of the case, and if a Christian, meets the divine specifications from the Bible and the leading and insight he is given into the matter. Then the purpose leads to purchase of travel tickets, academic materials or sessions and so on. These may be compared for relative fruitfulness for the purpose in hand, and their cost considered, in that too much would perhaps limit some other desideratum for the PURPOSE of the profession in hand.

Thus one spends not only money, but life, time and energy, imagination and thought in the pursuit of purpose. If you say, But for me, my only purpose is not to be too serious about things, and just to let life flow on about me, while trying to snap up, without too much ponderousness, any good thing that appears to be passing ... so be it. You yourself have declared it, this is your PURPOSE!

While such proposals are made, other things are disposed of.
 
 

There are things involved here which are far more important than any of these.

Thus one's purpose may be to find the truth. In that case, one's preference, except in so far as it is truly this or that from the God of truth, is not relevant. It is not a preference but the actuality which is the objective.

One may set out, consciously or unconsciously in such a case, and the more obviously if not a Christian and hence not under the sovereign and all seeing eye of the God who guides (Acts 1-10, Psalm 32 cf.  A Question of Gifts X). The Christian already knows the truth, but may seek to further knowledge in some area or issue. The non-Christian however seeking the truth may do so with implicit scruples - about cost (financial, personal, social and so forth), or some one may not. The heart can be desperately wicked, and never more perhaps than when it conceals its intent. When sin reigns, what do you expect! If God's light is not invested in the heart, making every part light, what can you do!

A non-Christian, then setting out on such a project may be influenced by the desire for name, brilliance, success or even failure, being careful not to be so socialised that the main zest of the quest is lost. Man's purpose, explicit and implicit are exceedingly complicated at times, and when pure, may have many components. The concept of satisfaction is so simplistic as to be almost a buffoonery. Satisfy what purpose ? in what ? to what extent ? in terms of which other purposes ? in terms of what integrated purposeful overview ? Or is it to fulfil the purpose; or exhilarate the purposer in the pursuit of the purpose, or is it rather to satisfy in a vague generality, so that it may now be the person as a person, now a purpose as a purpose, now some variant purpose, such as grief, or an extravaganza of disregard of all commercial things in acute detestation of commercialism and so on, that it thrusting itself upon the man, adopted by him, or influential over him!

The concept is bare as a rock in the midst of the thrashing sea.

But the case is worse yet!

The Christian emphatically cannot consistently AT ALL seek to gain satisfaction (which is always tilted at someone, often merely assumed to be oneself). It is nothing to do with pleasure or pain. These are as near as could be to utterly irrelevant. Does one say to one's lady love when courting, Oh excuse me! I find that I am not satisfied, muscle wise, with my current posture. Would you mind if we sat over on that bank.

You would most likely not be in love at all. She might then be a satisfaction fulfiller, an instrument of your self-centred pathology. Pathology ? but of course. SINCE IN FACT you are not the centre of the universe, to act as if you were its main concern is delusion, in which will overcomes fact. That is the normal sort of thing in delusion, except perhaps when it has an added or even superior feature, the case where confusion overcomes fact. It may be both. Generalisation about the antics of unsaved man is not particularly profitable, let alone in this simplistic economic rationalism. What is important is to avoid the rampages of generalisation and consider the desires and delinquencies, and so be less ignorant and readier to be reasonable.

The Christian, if the term satisfaction is in his vocabulary at all in his hall of purposes, and in connection with his chief purpose, is not in the business of satisfying himself at all. It is the satisfaction of God which is in view (Colossians 1:10, John 8:29 setting the tone); and as to that, the rules, realisations and terrain are as specified by another, and have no more to do with his own personal satisfaction than the tides of the earth have to do with the flight of a sick butterfly, as its falls lifeless to earth in its dying moment^*1.

'Satisfy' however in the aura of love, is a barren term. It does not satisfy the criteria. When one loves, the satisfaction of the loved one is not enough. One's imagination must seek to find the tender path, the thing of beauty fit for such a creation as the loved one. It is succour, comfort, joy, peace, kindness, empathy, compassion, delight in the beauty of heart, blaze of the spirit and so on, rather than some satisfaction which is relevant; and it is certainly nothing to do with one's self. LOVE, as I Corinthians 13 declares, DOES NOT SEEK ITS OWN!
 
 

There is now another sense of 'disposal' which we must notice. It is the arrangement of thing, the way in which one disposes them as distinct from disposing OF them!

If one is seeking the truth, and should not be a Christian then what, when one finds the Rock, does one do ? How can impurity assess purity, or how relate ? With what implicits and explicits can one draw near, and in what way abandon oneself in one's inadequacies and imperfections in the interests of the truth, who is Jesus Christ the righteous, the Prince of Peace as proved in SMR ?
It is quite simple. This is the case where the purpose is NOT to measure up, for the proclamation is this, that all men are sinners (Romans 6:23), and any attempt to measure up is false measurement at the outset, so that one could join the queue of those who say  'I thank God I am not as other men are' and so proceed to go to hell. Rather, however, one may abandon the concept of measuring up, and accept instead the moral measurements of Jesus the Christ who was abandoned to the immeasurable wrath of God, with immeasurable purity, so that there was both death and resurrection, both in justice, the former vicariously, the latter triumphantly.

That, it is faith; for how could one abandon oneself to one in whom one did not trust ? So be it. Then it is faith. But someone says, I do not trust Him ! So be it, then your purpose, as you follow the reason for faith, appears interrupted by another. Biblically, the flesh has you in its grip, and like the rich young ruler, you walk away, and if like him, do so while grieving. If you do not dispose of your sin, then it disposes of you.

But if you do cast yourself trusting into His hands, what then ? Then the truth has found you, and it is only then and in this way that you yourself find the truth. But if it finds you, since He is personal, there are personal dealings. Implicit and inescapable is repentance for not coming sooner, for all breach of God's laws, for all failure to seek Him earlier with all your heart (Luke 13:1-3, 14:26ff.).

If you say, But my heart was not so disposed ? What then ! If you kill a child by being drunken and not in possession of your wits, are you then clear ? Would the court think so ? or the parents of the little one ? Are you to be absolved because fouled with sin, blind with it, mentally, morally or spiritually paralysed with it, or to some extent or the full extent, this in all three!

Does something not happen because you are not fully aware ? Does your own instrumentality cease because you are morally stupid, stupefied or disjointed ? What does a soldier face if he is feeling a little odd, and so does not manage quite to discipline himself ? Discipline. Right is right and standards are standards. But what if he be sick ? See the doctor; but what if the case is clear that self-will induced the sickness ? It is just indiscipline one step back, and still meets discipline, not for the sickness, but its inducement!

What then if the PURPOSE is to accept the truth, repent, cast oneself upon the mercy of the Lord, being enabled to do so in faith, as far as one can tell, but it is met by a distinct disinclination which paralyses the will and seduces action ? Then of course faith is not arrived, and the normal pathological substitutes for surrender are in full force. What then can one do ? This too is simple. One admits the FACT that one is a sinner, repents of it (and if you do not, why worry, you keep what you want! you pay, but that is the way it is with you, for ever, but still, that is your sense of proportion!), and then casts oneself with disinclination no more relevant than when one has a swim when the water is about 20 degrees celsius, because this is the purpose, duly reached.

Where does one then cast oneself ? into the hands of one's Maker. But what if one is afraid the reception will be too cold, like the water ? This is a certainty if one does not come in the name of the only Saviour ever verifiably presented, validly specified and continually maintained before man, first in prophecy and then in proposition, following His practicalities when on earth, who has no equal, near equal or like.

But what - the sinning heart might singe - if He does not want me. God would have all men to come to the knowledge of the truth (I Tim. 2:1-3). But what if He makes an exception in my case ? Then He would be called a liar. But what if in some unforeseen way, I am just not acceptable, maybe by some treatment of my application which makes it informal or something like that ? Then you would still be calling God a liar, for the performances in cases such as those imagined, are merely the expression of a purpose NOT, a desire NOT to have all men to be saved.

Then you cast yourself on His mercy in confidence, and by the miracle of divine grace, have sought Him with the whole heart, and so have found Him (Jeremiah 29:12-13).

The sunset of your own misrule by misalliance with sin, then has supervening, the dawn that enlightens the darkness, only to grow in increasing light, to the sparkle of mid-day, in the vast oceanic waters that meet and embrace the sky.

Then a free being, constrained and awakened by a love which is spiritual, moral, personal and profound, towards your own Creator, your purposes are expanded, grounded and hallowed in the presence of the Maker of purposive beings, the Lord of created life, the inventer of liberty, giver of meaning and the goad to the appreciation of and participation in wonder, His own fellowship (Colossians 1:27, Proverbs 4:18, Psalm 139:12,23-24). For His own redeemed, bought by grace, the Lord has indeed unconditional love, involving unconditional purification and if need be discipline, and unconditional results both in heart and destiny; and for those who abominate His presence, or dismiss His opportunities, deny His pardon or revolt from His Person revealed definitively in Christ, there comes, despite the provision of a harbour, now bypassed, the storm of truth on the reprobate. This too is unconditional.

There is no other condition for truth, but truth. If it be ignored, the darkness glowers and glooms because that is the objective reality. If it be received, the light is brilliant, the outpouring magnificent, like a very fountain of life. His purpose in offering pardon to all  (Isaiah 52:7, 49:6, I John 2:2, Ezekiel 33:11, Lamentations 3:33, II Cor. 5:17ff.), cannot be abrogated. His purpose in seeking to save the lost, cannot be annulled (Isaiah 42:4,6,7). His purpose to come and do it Himself (as in Ezekiel 34, foretold with Isaiah 40:10, exhibited in John 1:1-14), has been fulfilled. His purpose that free beings should share in His purposes, like a Father with His children, is fulfilled. He knows His own, and His own know Him (John 10:14,27-28). "Why do you not understand My speech ?" He expostulated to some. The answer "Because you cannot hear My word." Why is that ? "You," He continued, "are your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and did not abide in the truth, because there is no truth in him." So we find in John 8:43ff..

It may not be the explicit purpose of many to involve themselves in the imbroglio of the hater of truth; but when you do not receive the truth, there is nowhere else to go. That is the father of that side of things, headed by the befouled creation known as the devil who, in exercising his own liberties, has crusaded for conquest unattainable, and revolts into revulsion.

The everlasting Gospel (Rev. 14, cf. Barbs, Arrows and Balms 17, That Magnificent Rock Chs.   2,   and   3) comes like light blazing into the darkness, to redeem those who become the children of light, according to the purpose of Almighty God who sent His Son a light into the world, so that anyone who walks in Him, should not stumble in the darkness, but have the light of life (John 8:12). Life without the light is like a shuttered house in Winter. Life in the light is like the oceanic marvels of Summer, with the great cliffs of truth all around. Light does not surrender to darkness, though this does not comprehend the light. Uncomprehending but not incomprehensible, the children of darkness continue into their abode, whether their purpose be self-fulfilment, overcoming of authority in the universe, the seizing of power over what they did not create, the invention of dark designs or delusive destinies. The purposes of God, however, who is love and light, who fathers not foundlings but sons and daughters, are undimmed by this darkness, which is its own.
 
 

*1
See II Corinthians 4:10-11: "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh."