God’s Word gives us True Purpose for Living

God’s Word reveals the True Purpose for Living

Talking with non-Christians in Australia, my home country, especially amongst people who are pursuing wealth creation, I have often heard that “there is no purpose for life, except one you create for yourself”. Secular humanists, self-help gurus and others may encourage us to adopt “a definite chief aim in life” so that we can be successful, but such self-created aims have no solid foundation. We can be very good at climbing some kind of ladder in life only to discover later on that we have been climbing the wrong ladder.

Atheists, materialists and those following the philosophy of naturalism, if they think deeply enough about ultimate questions, have a real difficulty in avoiding the angst and despair that comes from the thought that “they” are really a kind of freak biological occurrence that came about by Laws of Physics for no particular reason.

Other religions might offer some kind of purpose, or at least some ethical instructions about what the true path of living should look like. But none of these religions can fill the heart of man with divine love, or eliminate self-focus, lust, greed and pride, because they cannot connect people to the true and living God, but only to false gods who work to deceive and enslave men. Even if these religions offer some elements of truth – and they always offer SOME truth mixed with lies –  they do not and cannot reveal the true purpose of God for people communally or individually.

The only way to really have a solid purpose for living is if there is a Divine LORD who has ordained such a purpose for the individual or for the community. I do believe it is possible for God to reveal His specific purpose in part for an individual even if that individual does not acknowledge the Living God. For example, a person may intuitively know they were “born to sing” or “born to help the poor” even before coming to know the Lord. But the full picture of God’s true intention for a person can only be revealed through an understanding of God’s Word.

The Bible reveals that we were created to have an intimate relationship with the LORD God. We were created to be part of God’s eternal family. To be sons and daughters of God, receiving and reflecting His nature and grace. Our purpose is to glorify God according to the particular purpose He has for us, and in living our lives according to the principles of the Word of God. The Bible says that we have been given the ministry of reconciliation.

“Through Christ, God made peace between himself and us. And God gave us the work of bringing people into peace with him.” (2 Corinthians 5:18)

Our purpose, no matter what else God has called us to to, is to work with God the Father and the Holy Spirit to reconcile others to Himself through Jesus wherever possible, through our witness, through our love (really God’s love in us), through our communication with others of the Gospel Message found in the Scriptures. The Scriptures reveal the commandments of Jesus to all true disciples of Jesus. One of them is to go and make disciples (apprentices) of all nations. We need to read what Jesus told his disciples (apprentices) to do and how He taught them to relate to others.

It is a very powerful and necessary to thing to understand for what purpose you are on the planet. We are on earth to learn to be like Jesus, and express Jesus’ life through us, so that God will be glorified and others will be reconciled to God through faith that comes by hearing the gospel message. Everything we do should be working together for this purpose.

Without the Bible, we really would not know God’s purpose for us. The ability to give to people the knowledge of God’s purpose for their lives is part of the power of God’s Word.