Purpose driven Life: Why church 9/12/2004
He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thes. 2:14
Beginning just 3 weeks ago, some of us have been reading the book, Purpose Driven life. As Sam briefly shared with us, I am sure, some of us already agree that it is the best book ever read only except of the Bible. I have to say also that I am learning very important concepts that I would like to share time to time.
In fact, from the very first chapter I learned what I would consider one of the greatest learning about life. In this chapter, Rick refers to Dr. Hugh Moorhead, a philosophy professor at Northeastern Illinois University. He once wrote to 250 of the best-known philosophers, scientists, writers, and intellectuals in the world, asking them, "What is the meaning of life?" He then published their responses in a book. Some offered their best guesses, some admitted that they just made up a purpose for life, and others were honest enough to say they were clueless. In fact, a number of famous intellectuals asked Professor Moorhead to write back and tell them if he discovered the purpose of life! (Purpose Driven Life p.p. 19-20)
This reminds me of two most important and famous Buddhist monks in my country, South Korea: one died saying ‘in vain’ and the other ‘nothing’ That was their conclusion of their lives after so many years of meditations and self discipline. It is so true that ”Unless you assume a God, the question of life’s purpose is meaningless.”
as Bertrand Russell, famous atheist, said.
What is obvious here is that to those who don’t acknowledge the Creator, the purpose of life is simply a matter of individual speculation or meaningless question. That’s why the purpose of the life can’t be known even to these most successful outstanding intellectuals.
You know why even those most highly regarded intellectuals couldn’t come up with a right answer for the purpose of their own lives? According to Rick, it is because the purpose of our life is not about us but about God. Just as it is the maker who decides the usage or purpose of whatever thing he makes, God as the Creator of man is the one who decides the purpose of man. Thus, the purpose of our lives was already determined already even before we were born by our creator.
These 250 best-known philosophers, scientists, writers, and intellectuals in no doubt are the models of what most people want to be and encourage others to be. However, no matter how famous they are, if they don’t know the purpose of life, then they may have lived rather successful life from worldly perspective, but not necessarily fulfilling the purpose of life. Life is not a matter of worldly success or worldly fulfillment. Rather, “life is about letting God use you for his purposes.” (ibid p. 18)
Considering they couldn’t express their life purpose in absolute terms in spite of their outstanding accomplishment by worldly standard, one can safely assume that the life goal is one thing and the purpose of life is another. We ourselves decide our goals according to our circumstances and judgment. But when it comes to the purpose of life, it’s not you, but someone else who decides the matter.
God’s purpose for our being is far greater than being successful, peace of mind, happiness, or anything that has to do with my own family, career, or even wildest dream and ambitions. Our problem is that from our early age on, we were influenced and educated by people, among whom many Christians are included, who don’t know the difference between the purpose of life and goals of life. I mean we are surrounded by the people who care only the goals of life; probably without being aware we ourselves become one of those. Try to identify with what we are thinking and talking about. If we are honest, we would acknowledge we all are talking about goals all the time.
Having said all this, how do we find the purpose of God? God created us in His own image, which means we were created according to His character. If you understand 1 Cor 13, which describes love, you will understand that is the description of who God is because God is love as the Bible says He is. Yes, God being love, we were created in His own image, love. Love is our purpose of life. Loving God and loving others is the purpose of God and thus what matters most. The Bible confirms this by saying that all the laws of God are summarized into two: Love your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. And likewise love your neighbors as yourself.
But then the Bible not only tells us the purpose, but also explains how to carry out the purpose. Suppose you somehow figured out the purpose of computer, then that’s not enough for you to use it. You have to learn how to use it. You have to follow manual to use it as was intended.
This is why God gave us His word or covenant, when we decide to live according to His purpose, that is, when we become His people. In other words, we become His people only when we accept His terms of how to live our lives to live up to His purpose of life.
Again this we call covenant. Do you guys remember the very first covenant?
Adam and Eve could become who God intended to be through keeping the terms in the covenant: “Don’t take the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.”
God gave the Old Testament (the Old Covenant) to the people of Israel. The ten commandments, which can be summarized into basically two commandments- love God and love your neighbors, was given so that they may know what is purpose of their being but also how to carry out that purpose.
Then we all become His people by accepting the terms of the Gospel, which is the New Covenant. Through this Gospel, God revealing Himself, we understand how much God loves.
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, Ephes. 1:13 He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thes. 2:14
Love should be carried out in light of this Gospel as debtor to God.
Philip. 1:27 Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel
Galatians 2:14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
Church is the community of the Gospel with the New Commandment.
Church is actually what God Himself designed and is building by Himself through us as His people obey the commandment: “And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” John 13:34
Can you think of the greater cause than love. The love is the reason that God crated and saved us and called us to belong to Jesus and one another to live up to the purpose of God for life.
