The purpose of this chapter is to announce that the Church as a voice to express Christian principals and inform people where things are in contrast to those principals. From there, the Church expects its people to act as citizens in their civic capacity to reshape existence.
This can very much sound like the Christendom model, relying on the governmental structure to accomplish Christianity. This is not the case at all however, rather the voice from the Church, quickened in the hearts of the members maneuver out as blood cells away from the heart to nourish community, then to return for their refocus.
Everybody conforms to certain communal structures, be it political, social, (both), economic or whatever. Social structures are inevitable and also pluralistic. A Christian in America does not engage existence in the same way as a Christian in Africa, yet both are dynamically moved by the Spirit to exist and press within the given structures - possibly to shift the structure.
Temple points out that self-centeredness is disastrous. He says:
...I am not the centre of the world, or the standard of reference as between good and bad; I am not, and God is. In other words, from the beginning I put myself in God's place. This is my original sin. (50)
To avoid the original sin of displacing God as center, and to exist within structure for God's purpose Temple's genesis is God. God begins Christian thinking about society. Thus man's value is:
...not what he is worth in himself or to his earthly state, but what he is worth to God; and that worth is bestowed on him by the utterly gratuitous Love of God.
In essence, this chapter sets up for Temple that humanity must rid itself of its self-centered tendencies. God is the beginning and the one to base order upon. From here, then the Church as it is and as it exists in individuals can move within the appropriate structure to encourage God's societal design.
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