The purpose of life

Yesterday was a bad day.  No appetite.  No energy.  Mercifully I have been able to sleep.  Today at least I can sit up and think and write.  Though you would be the better judge of that :-)

Many would feel that my title to this post is more than a little presumptuous.  Many would view it as an arrogant assertion that any individual would be able to identify the purpose of life.  If my title was "the purpose of my life", then all would be happy.  However, it is possible to know the universal, ultimate purpose of life because the God who made the universe has spoken and told us, in plain language, the purpose of everything.  (If you are really ambitious I would recommend you pick up and read Dr. John Piper's annotated publication of Jonathon Edward's classic treatment of this subject which is entitled: "The End for Which God Created the World."  Piper's annotated publication is entitled: "God's Passion for His Own Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathon Edwards.")

Here is one example of the scores of biblical texts that describe the purpose for which God made everything.  In Acts 17:16 Paul has been run out of Macedonia for preaching the gospel and has gone on to Athens, Greece where he is awaiting the arrival of his co-workers, Silas and Timothy.  While he waits he observes that the city is "full of idols" and this fact, we are told, provokes him.  He is disturbed by the "forest of idols" which litters the streets of Athens.  So he begins to preach the good news about Jesus in both the Jewish synagogue and out in the marketplace to anyone who would listen.  While he speaks to the people in the marketplace he attracts the attention of two groups of philosophers; the Epicureans and the Stoics.  Epicureans believe the purpose of life is to minimize pain and maximize pleasure.  They were pantheists, monists, believing that the divine being is made up of all things and all things make up the divine being.  The Stoics were atheists and believed the purpose of life was to live a virtuous life as they defined it.  Clearly, Paul was speaking to an audience who had a wide diversity of opinions about the nature and being of God and about the purpose of life.

Eventually, Paul causes such a stir that he is escorted to the Areopagus which was located on Mars Hill.  This was the group of people in Athens who were in charge of both the civil and religious life in the city.  So they want to find out exactly what it is that Paul is saying as it doesn't sound like anything they have ever heard before as he is preaching Christ crucified and raised from the dead.  Paul begins his address by drawing attention to how religious they are.  They are so concerned with the gods and being in good favor with them that they even have an altar to an "Unknown God".  The are playing it safe, making sure they don't offend any god by having an altar for the god whom they do not know.

Paul takes that as his starting point as he declares to them that what they worship in ignorance he is now going to explain to them.  He gives to them a masterful summary of what the OT says about the only God who exists:
"The God who made the world and everything in it is Lord of heaven and earth and he does not live in temples built by hands and he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything.  For he gives all men life and breath and everything.  From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.  God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us."

Contrary to every man made religion's assertion, God does not need us for anything.  He did not create us because of some need in him but as the overflow of his grace and power and love.  He has given to every human being life.  No one decides to be born.  No one contributes to their birth in any way.  You and I are alive because the God who made everything decided that we should have life.  Not only this, but he also gives every breath to every single human being living on the face of this planet.  He doesn't have to try hard to do it.  God is as close to every human being as our breath.  Each and every breath is a gift from God.  Finally, Paul says, God gives each of us everything that is true about us.  There are no details of our lives that are not directly given to us by the God who made us.

Then Paul moves from the personal to the social/cultural/political landscape.  He it is who made every ethnic group on the planet from one man.  He it is who decided when and where every unique cultural group should live and for how long.  He is Lord of all history.  Why did God make all this?  Why did he do it?  That is the underlined clause in the quote: He did it so that they (men, women and children of every ethnicity and culture) would seek him.

Think about this for a moment.  We have all done this.  Every fall since I was ten years old, except for a few years I was out of the state, I have sought to hunt and bag a white tail deer with my family.  I have sought an undergraduate degree and a graduate degree.  I sought to win the heart of one Jane Van Dinter so that she would marry me.  Happily I was successful in the seeking!  I seek to stay in touch with my family.  I seek to watch Packer games and keep up to date on the exploits of the Milwaukee Brewers.  Why do I seek all these things?  I seek them because it makes me happy both to seek and to obtain.  I treasure each of the persons and objects which I seek.  No one ever seeks something they know for certain will make them unhappy.  We all only seek those things we believe, we trust will make us happy.

Thus the purpose of everything is that you and I would discover and believe and act as though knowing God, being in a relationship with him is the best and highest joy in the universe.  It is to live our lives as if God is the best of all beings, the treasure of delight that our hearts long for.  If you are just a little honest you will immediately recognize that you have a problem, just like me.  The fact of the matter is that I find a whole host of creation pleasures far more attractive than the Creator who made them.  I invest large amounts of time and energy in pursuing those creation pleasures.  My pursuit of God himself is significantly less enthusiastic most of the time.  Tomorrow, if I am up to it, we will look at what God has done about this fact.