What Is Man?

It has been many centuries since the Psalmist asked this ever-recurring question: “What is man, that thou art mindful of him?”¹ Both before and since then, men have asked it of themselves and others over and over again. Why is the answer important? Why need we so concern ourselves? Part of the importance is this: What a person thinks he is will largely set the pattern of his life. What a person thinks he is may well determine what he will or will not do. If he knows he is immortal, he may live one way; if he thinks he isn’t, he may do quite differently. And if we know what man is, if we know his very nature, we may then know what is of highest value to him, and what his obligations are to others, and something of the kind of future there is, or can be, before him. “What is man, that thou art mindful of him?” First of all, he is the child of his eternal Father, made in the image of his Maker, and is therefore the brother of all other men also. Furthermore, his Father meant him to be free free to think, to decide, to choose, and to work out his own destiny, so long as he doesn’t infringe upon these same inalienable rights of others. Furthermore, he is not a thing of chance nor is he only of the flesh or of the animal order, but of mind and spirit also. He is a member of an immortal race, a being whose life is not bounded by birth or death, whose identity is inviolate, and whose peace and happiness and progress are everlastingly important. Indeed, man is a creature of such eternal consequence that the Lord God Himself has declared His work and His glory is to bring to pass man’s immortality and eternal life.² “What is man, that thou art mindful of him?”and why is the answer important? Because what man knows of his own nature will determine largely how he lives. A person will prepare for a short journey much differently than he would for one that is everlastingly long. And when we know the nature of man, we shall have given ourselves reason for challenging all bigotry, all tyranny and untruth, all duplicity, all inhumanity, all slavery and sin, all evil and oppression everything, in fact, that does not lead to the freedom, happiness, peace, and eternal progress of man, who is a child of God, and whose possibilities, with those of his Father, are limitless and everlasting.