The Purpose of Life

Why are we here? What is the purpose of life? Those questions have been asked by thoughtful people in every generation, in every society on earth, as long as there have been humans on earth.

Christians the world over will tell you the answer can be found in the Bible but most can’t point to any one scripture that has the answer. The answer is found in the Bible. And it is, in fact, clearly stated in one scripture.

One of the wisest men who ever lived, King Solomon, asked those questions and went on to answer them in one of the shortest books in the Bible. The book of Ecclesiastes has only twelve chapters but contains some of the most profound questions, and profound truths ever sought by man.

It is fitting that the most philosophical of questions is answered in the most philosophical of books in the Bible. Solomon’s conclusion of the matter is a part of Gods revealed word to mankind.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 states the answer…”Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” It’s that simple. And, it's that tough.

Note the first part of that scripture says to 'Fear God'. It doesn't simply say to keep His commandments. A mindless automaton could go through the motions of obedience. Fear, however, comes from inside us. No one seems to talk much anymore about fearing God. That’s because the kind of fear the scriptures refer to is widely misunderstood. The kind of fear the scriptures refer to is a part of respect. To fear God is like fearing ones loving parent. A parent’s duty is to correct and punish a child they love when necessary. Our Heavenly Father loves us. A healthy fear of Him, like a healthy fear of ones parents, serves to make us better people.

God gave us His commandments as an act of love for us. He gave them to us for our own good. God's laws aren't regulatory, they are revelatory. They reveal the way life works. God revealed them to us so we could lead happy and fulfilling lives. Rather than seeing them as a burden the way the world does, the believer should see them as a blessing. God’s word says to keep them is to show our love for Him.  To keep them, even when our own nature would have us act otherwise is an act of worship. To disobey them is to separate us from God.

The greatest irony is that most people calling themselves Christians have no interest in actually obeying God. Most of worldly Christendom reduces the message of the Bible into simply accepting Christ as ones savior without actually doing what He, or the rest of the Bible, says. The reason for that is also simple. To obey God is to act contrary to our own nature. The carnal mind is at odds with Gods way.

Like modern-day lawyers many Christians know God’s law but they construct elaborate arguments about why we don’t have to obey God’s law. The Gospel of Christ is much more simple and direct than that. His first word when He began His ministry was ‘Repent’…that is to turn from disobedience and obey God. That’s the first step in the gospel of Christ. One cannot truly accept the person of Christ while rejecting His message.

Keeping God’s law is about our obedience to Him. It is an acknowledgement that the God who gave us the commandments IS God and only He can determine what is good and what is evil. Only He can determine what is an acceptable act of worship. That’s a lesson that harkens back to Eden.

The quality of our lives is determined by the choices we make.  We can choose to look out only for ourselves and give in to every urge in life for the immediate gratification that offers. Or, we can exercise self control; choose to acknowledge the needs of others and help each other through life. God's law directs us to do the latter. God gave us the free will to make our own choices. Our character is formed by the choices we make every day. Every time we choose to obey God it strengthens our character. Like any loving parent God wants us to develop a strong, upright character because it is essential to a happy and fulfilling life. Good character is a trait God wants in His children both in this life and in His Kingdom.

Christianity is not just a statement of a belief in Christ as ones personal savior. Christianity is a way of life. In fact it was first called ‘the way’. The Christian way of life is to choose to obey God, not just in the letter but also in the spirit. It’s about obedience not just in our actions but also from our hearts. To truly accept Christ is to enter a covenant relationship with God. To obey God is to fulfill our part of that covenant. We don't do it for salvation. It's not a salvation issue. It's an issue of love for our Creator and our response to His love for us...

Keeping God's commandments is the most difficult and most rewarding thing one can do in life. To choose to keep them is to face a battle with our own nature every day. We will often lose that battle but we're not here to simply give in to our urges. We're here to fight the good fight. It's the battle that builds our character. 

The other side of keeping God's commandments is choosing to accept His Grace. God's grace, freely given to us through Christ's sacrifice, is His greatest act of love towards us because it blots out our failures in fulfilling our purpose. God's grace heals the chasm that our disobedience causes between us. That doesn't mean we should ever take His grace for granted. He is gracious in blotting out our failures for trying to keep His commandments. Those who claim His grace without even trying to obey Him mask a hostility towards God.

Our purpose is to live up to our part of the covenant we entered by by accepting Christ's sacrifice. Learning to obey God from our hearts is why we draw breath. His law is about His love for us. Our obedience is about our love for Him. God doesn't force us to obey Him.  He sets before us life and death and He implores us to choose life. In God's law is life... 

From the Heart...

The Bible was written and compiled for believers. This should be an obvious fact. Non-believers don’t care about what it says except perhaps as a matter of literature. The history, the prophecies, the wisdom and the directives, (laws, statutes and judgments) were all written for those who believe God and seek to live by His will. He didn’t leave us in the dark. He gave us an instruction manual for life on earth.

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In the New Testament, or Greek scriptures, a great deal has been recorded about the practices of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Some see what the Bible says about them as merely a historical record. It is not. God has a purpose for everything recorded in scripture whether we know what that purpose is or not. The practices and hypocrisies of the Pharisees and Sadducees are pointed out for our edification. The lessons are for us…the warnings are for us.

This is vitally important for us to keep in mind because the mind-set of the Pharisees is still prevalent among believers today. There are many churchgoers who are more concerned over the minute dos and don’ts of the law than they are with the content of their own hearts. We’ve all known fellow believers that will debate the fine points of the law to no end. It’s even become common for some to refuse to fellowship with others over such slight differences in belief. What many believers are missing in their faith is grace. They ignore God’s admonitions for us to love mercy…and each other. (One wonders if the differences Christ had with the prostitutes and tax collectors He fellowshipped with gave Him pause…)

Debates about the law have become just as commonplace in our time as they were in Christ’s time. Controversies about the law raged then as they do now. Issues of which calendar to use, when and how to celebrate the Holy days, divorce and remarriage and other issues were as hotly debated in Christ time as they are now.

While we should study the scriptures to show ourselves approved to God, we shouldn’t let minor differences in understanding separate us. God is working with each of us. And we are all on different points along the path in understanding and obedience. The scriptures don’t exist for us to hit each other over the heads with them. They don’t exist for us to judge each other’s understanding. They were written to us…personally. When we read about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees we shouldn’t think: “I know someone just like that!” We should use them like a mirror to hold up to ourselves. We should use them to examine ourselves…. what are our hypocrisies?

We need to see the scriptures for not just what they say, but also what they don’t say. Christ could have easily spent His ministry on settling arguments about when the Holy days were to be observed and other points of the law but He didn’t do that. What Christ focused on in His ministry was our hearts. What He saw as important were the things inside of us. Christ looked for, and is looking for, is evidence of the conversion of our hearts. Just read His first recorded sermon, the Sermon on the Mount. Christ set the tone for His gospel by telling us what qualities God is looking for in His people. He wants His law written in our hearts.

Do you think the thief on the stake that Christ said would be with Him in paradise was a righteous man? He, himself, believed he deserved his punishment. Chances are he was not very observant in the faith but Christ saw something in this mans heart that He believed was worthy of paradise. Too many times believers get caught up in where a comma should be in Christ’s statement to that thief and completely miss the point.

Similar lessons were recorded in the stories about the Roman centurion in which Christ saw a greater faith than He has seen in all Israel. He saw something of that same faith in the Canaanite woman who pleaded for her daughter to be set free from a demon. None of these people were as observant as the Pharisees. None of them could argue the finer points of the law. Some modern believers might condemn them all…but Christ praised them for the content of their hearts. There is a lesson in that.

We should obey Gods law to the best of our understanding and ability. We shouldn’t judge people by our understanding however. None of us has the whole truth. And what understanding most of us have has changed over time. We should never forget the ‘weightier matters of the law’. And we should never, ever forget faith, hope and love, qualities that come from our hearts, are what God values the most.