“Now the great aim of Christ in the world is to have a high place and esteem in the hearts of his people; to have there, as he has in himself, the preeminence in all things–not to be jostled up and down among other things–to be all, and in all [Col. 3:11]” (John Owen, Communion with the Triune God, 319).
If Christ is preeminent before (both temporally and positionally) all things (Col. 1:18), how much more does that not also include preeminence in our own hearts and lives?
We see from His perspective that He jealously yearns and desires our service and worship of Him (James 4:5).
From our perspective we see that our ultimate end in life is His glory and our enjoyment (WSC Q. 1; with regard to the alleged contradiction of God’s glory and our good, see Is The Glory of God and the Good of Man at Odds?). This means that we should make it our end to glorify Him in all that we do (1 Cor. 10:31), and as the Puritan Richard Baxter once wrote, that we have ” ‘holiness to the Lord‘ be written upon [our] hearts in all that [we] do…”
Why give Christ preeminence in our hearts? Because He is the source of all pleasure and joy.
Psalm 16:11
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
