The Purpose Of Our Lives
21st November 2021
I pray…….that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.
Ephesians 1:17
Mark Twain once said, ‘The two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why.’ For the Christian the day you find out why you were born is the day you are born again. On that day you have a divine purpose for your life. If you are reading this and you are a Christian, do you know what the purpose of your life is? If you don’t know, then let me see if I can help you.
Often when someone is asked to introduce themselves their response will usually include a description of what they do. For young people this will often be about their schooling and the things they are studying, for many adults this will be their employment and for retired people this will be a list of their activities in retirement. In essence they are saying that their purpose in life is about their activities. So, if someone works as a bricklayer, they will say that their purpose in life is to lay bricks. And this same correlation between activities and purpose is often true in the life of a Christian. A Christian might say of their Christian life that they lead worship, they sing in the choir, they preach, they evangelise, they pastor, they provide refreshments or hospitality, they are a missionary or they have a particular office in the church such as a deacon to name but a few. Or they might express their purpose in terms of a dream, vision or desire they have for their life; something that they are aiming for.
But those Christians who say these things don’t understand what their true purpose in life is. I remember David Watson explaining what it is to be a Christian and he said that it was all about relationships; our relationship with God and our relationship with people. He got this from the mouth of Jesus when He answered the question about the greatest commandment. He said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Notice that loving God comes first. Keep that in mind as I turn to the text I started with. In that great prayer in Chapter 1 of Ephesians, Paul prays that they will grow in knowledge. I like the way that the NIV translation puts it when Paul prays that they may know him better. Notice that Paul does not pray they will not know about him but that they will know him. I can know about someone whilst not knowing them personally. There is a world of difference between having some knowledge about someone and actually knowing them in a personal relationship. You can’t truly know someone until you have spent time with them. For instance, my wife knows me so well that she can almost read my mind. So, what Paul is actually praying for is that Christians will grow in their personal relationship (knowledge) of God.
In Ephesians 1:17 we see what our true purpose in life is once we have been born again. Our true purpose is to grow in our knowledge of God by having a loving relationship with Him. And if that’s all we ever do, then we have fulfilled our purpose in life. Having said that, it is inevitable that our loving relationship with Him will lead to other things. From that loving relationship all else flows like the activities we engage in. So, for instance, the only reason why we should be evangelising is because we love God. When we love God we understand His heart, we know how He wants us to live our lives and what He wants us to do. Our relationship with Him does not exist in a vacuum. It affects us, it changes us, it determines what we do. It’s not the other way round. Our activities do not cause us to know Him better. In fact, they can often do the opposite and diminish our relationship with Him.
So, the next time someone asks you who you are or what you do you should answer them by saying that you are a Christian who is getting to know God better.