Our purpose in life can be known when we go to the One who made it. God who made the universe and the earth created humans for His own pleasure. He enjoys looking at us like a father adoring his newborn child. Revelation 4:11 says:
“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”
When life is used for wrong purposes, it gets damaged. God provided us the Bible as the ultimate User Manual of Life.
Five Purposes of Life
1. To WORSHIP God
To worship God means to love Him back. Many people get lost or feel empty because they don’t fulfil the number 1 purpose of their life.
Worship is the result of God’s love. It is the response of giving love back to God who loved us first.
God owns everything on earth except for the free will He gave us so we can choose to love Him back out of our own decision.
Luke 10:27 – He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.'”
God wants our affection (heart and soul), our attention (mind), and our abilities (strength)
2. To be part of God’s Family (Fellowship)
The second greatest commandment is to love our neighbours. Fellowship is loving our brothers and sisters in God.
Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. (1 John 4:21)
Why do we need to love one another?
Our Father delights to see His children getting along with one another.
Loving one another reflects our Father’s nature. Love comes from God. This love includes loving the unloving.
Love is a powerful testimony. 1 John 13:34-35 says “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Love is a practice of what we will do in heaven. You would not survive eternal union with a brother or sister you hated on earth.
Levels of Fellowship
i. Membership – Eph 2:19 says we are members of God’s household. We can’t get to be a good basketball player if we don’t join up a team. A Christian’s training ground is their local church family.
ii. Friendship – Committing to be part of a local church leads to sharing our life with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
iii. Partnership – As each household has chore duties, serving God eventually leads our hearts to serving Him in ministries in the church.
iv. Kinship – Deepest level of fellowship is when we learn to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 1 John 3:16 – This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
3. To become like Christ (Discipleship)
God created us to conform to the image of His Son Jesus Christ. Rom 8:29 says “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”
Every Christian is called to grow into spiritual maturity which is usually called as “sanctification”.
Becoming like Christ is not an overnight process and in His grace, we are called to live a life of Discipleship – a continuous transformation being Christ-like.
What God uses for our growth?
i. Spiritual Family – We need our brothers and sisters to grow. As for even in animal scientific experiments, monkeys who grow without their mothers grew slower.
ii. Bible – 1 Peter 2:2 says our souls need spiritual milk which is the Word of God or the Bible. Take away this milk from a baby Christian and they will shrink. Take away this spiritual food from your soul and we will grow weak. James 1:23 tells us that God’s Word is a mirror. It reveals areas in our lives that need cleansing. Psalm 119:105 – Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path
iii. Troubles – God uses troubles to teach us to trust in Him. TRIALS are there to help us, not to hurt us. Satan uses trials to attack our minds and souls because we are in the process of growth. If the enemy is not attacking you, maybe he doesn’t worry about you. Trials are meant to develop our character.
Every problem has a purpose. The main purpose is to make us more like Christ. Jesus Himself experienced many trials on the cross. He defeated them all.
Romans 5:3-4 – Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.
iv. Temptations – Temptations do not come from God himself. They were triggered by Satan to harm us and draw us away from God. Satan did not spare even Jesus but Jesus, being sinless, did not give in to temptations. Unlike Jesus, us humans are not immune to temptations. We need Christ’s help. 1 Cor 10:13 promises that no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will provide a way out so that you can endure it.
Satan makes temptations look big so that we continue to fail. But many have become victorious by obeying God.
v. Trespasses – Trespasses are designed by people to hurt us. And being humans, our sinful nature tempts us to revenge back.