Your Life's Purpose
"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:35
A close friend of mine has been attempting to convert me to Islam over the last couple of years. During one of our many conversations he told me that Christians did not know their purpose. He went on to explain that the purpose of every Muslim is to obediently submit to the one true God in every act of worship. After sharing a few more of his perspectives he confronted me with a question that he thought I could not answer...What is the Christians Purpose?
The answer to this question is something that I have wrestled with for more than 20 years. When I was about 12 years old my parents were going through a divorce. Even before my father left, he was rarely home and I always missed him terribly. When I went into the basement and saw that his clothes were not in the closet, and his toiletries were missing from the bathroom, I literally wanted to die. I was to afraid of hell to commit suicide, but the emotional pain that experienced certainly shook my faith.
That night as I cried in the darkness of my room I asked God, "Why are we born to go through hell, only to die and go to Heaven?" In Sunday school I learned that God sent Jesus so that when I died, I could go to heaven and live peacefully with God.
No more pain...no more rejection...no more disappointment.
It seemed logical to me that it would be better to skip the middle passage. As I fell asleep that night I asked God to take me to heaven while I slept. Needless to say, God did not grant my request.
Over time, he gave me the answer to my question and a response to my friend’s inquiry. I told him that the Christian’s purpose in life is to love God with all of his heart and to love his neighbor as he loves himself.
In Luke 10 Jesus gives us a template for living (in the words of Rick Warren) a Purpose Driven Life. Starting in verse 25 it says:
...behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read?" And he answered, "You shall 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 your neighbor as yourself."
And he said to him, "You have answered right; do this, and you will live." But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied,
"A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite (one who served in the Temple), when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back. Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed mercy on him." And Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."
We live in a world full of people that are broken, hopeless, and hurting. The root cause of the suffering in the world comes from mankind’s collective unwillingness to live by the 2 commandments given by Jesus. Revolution begins with your decision to utilize your time, talent, and portion of your income to impact change. The love of Jesus Christ flowing through the hearts and hands of every Christian is the world’s greatest need!
Heaven is not your reason for living...it is the icing on the cake. Your purpose in life is to experience the satisfaction and fulfillment of loving and being loved by God. Your responsibility is to compassionately share that love with others through the things you do everyday.
If you would like to know more about entering a relationship with God, please visit www.needhim.org
To learn more about love, check out the reading resources and scripture references listed below.
Recommended Reading: |
Love Beyond Reason: Moving God's Love from Your Head to Your Heart By Zondervan How do you explain a love that has no explanation? What will happen if you let it touch your heart? In Love Beyond Reason, John Ortberg reveals the God you've longed to encounter: a Father head over heels in love with you. After exploring how this love has been revealed through Jesus, you'll learn how you can love your family, friends, and the world around you with the same transforming love. |
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Made to Count: Discovering What to Do With Your Life By Bob Reccord / Thomas Nelson When Bob Reccord and Randy Singer posed the question, "What is your greatest fear?" to people across North America, the most common response received was "My greatest fear is coming to the end of my life without making a significant difference." Made to Count drives straight to the heart of that fear. This astonishing book can change your life...then you can change your world. Read and learn how you have been divinely made to count. |
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Love is patient & kind.
It does not envy or boast
It is not proud, rude, self-seeking, or easily angered.
It forgives (keeps no record of wrongs).
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, trusts, hopes, & perseveres.
Love never fails.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge
If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing
1 John 4:7-21
Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love.
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his own Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world.
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
In this is love perfected with us, that we may have confidence for the Day of Judgment, because as he is so are we in this world.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love.
We love, because he first loved us. If any one says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.
John 13:35 - By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
Romans 13:10 - Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Galatians 5:16-26
Walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would. But if the Spirit leads you, you are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another.
Written by Eric Canaday. This article may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes in any medium without applying for permission. © Laborers In Action, Inc.
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