By COGwriter
Here is a brief article addressing the important question, "What is the meaning of life?" The answer to this question is related to the next question.
Does God exist?
There are four brief articles here which should prove this to those with inquisitive and logical minds:
Is God's Existence Logical? Some say it is not logical to believe in God. Is that true?
Is Evolution Probable or Impossible or Is God's Existence Logical, Part II
Where Did God Come From? Any ideas? And how has God been able to exist? Who is God?
How is God Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient?
For if there is no God, if life happened by circumstance and random acts, then there is no meaning of life, no higher purpose.
You may as well be selfish. You have no reason to read the rest of this article.But if there is a God, then there may be some higher purpose, some ultimate destiny, some true meaning for your life. Maybe your actions do matter.
If there is a God, then perhaps God has left a record for us to understand what is expected. We in the Living Church of God believe that the Bible is God's inspired word and that it is true. Those who wonder if the Bible is true may wish to read the booklet by Douglas S. Winnail titled The Bible: Fact or Fiction? as it addresses many issues to demonstrate why the Bible is the word of God. Also those that wonder about how and when the books of the Bible were accepted by the Church of God may wish to read the articles The Old Testament Canon and The New Testament Canon - From the Bible Itself. These things are important to understand, because if one understands that the Bible is the word of God, then it would be expected to be able to answer questions, such as "What is the meaning of life?".
(Those of you who question that what passes for mainline Christianity could possibly be right are correct about your questioning. What generally now passes for Christianity is quite different from what Jesus, the Bible, and the early true Christians taught. To learn what happened and what the original church believed, please check out Location of the Early Church: Another Look at Ephesus, Smyrna, and Rome and The History of Early Christianity.)
The Bible itself teaches that it is true and that your actions do matter,
The entirety of Your word is truth (Ps 119:160, NKJV throughout).
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all (Galatians 6:7-10).
The Bible also teaches,
And what does the LORD require of you, But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8).
Does God have a plan for humans? The answer is clearly YES!
The Bible teaches,
What is man that You are mindful of him, Or the son of man that You take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, And set him over the works of Your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet (Hebrews 2:6).
God says humans (meaning both females and males) are different from the rest of creation, because humans are to be over all things.
How else are people different?
Herbert Armstrong wrote,
Did you ever wonder about the vast difference between human mind and animal brain? This, incidentally, is another PROOF of the falsity of the theory of evolution! The physical brain of the higher vertebrates in the animal kingdom is essentially the same in physical form, design, constituency, as human brain. The brains of whales, elephants, dolphins are larger--and chimp almost as large. Yet the output of the human brain is indescribably greater. Few indeed know WHY! Many passages of Scripture show that there is a spirit in man. Spirit is not matter, and man is matter. To distinguish it from God's Holy Spirit, I designate it as the "human" spirit. Nevertheless, it is spirit and not matter. This "human" spirit imparts the power of intellect, to the human physical brain. The spirit cannot see, hear, taste, smell or feel. The brain sees through the eye, hears through the ear, etc. The "human" spirit cannot of itself think. The physical brain thinks. What, then, is the function of this "human" spirit? It is NOT a "soul." But, 1) it imparts the power of intellect--of thinking, and of MIND power, to the human brain; and 2) it is the very means God has instilled, making possible a personal relationship between human MAN and divine GOD...But man's creation was not completed. He was made mentally and spiritually only "half there." He needed the addition of God's Spirit to unite with his spirit, begetting him as a child of God--uniting him with God--ultimately enabling him to be born into the very GOD FAMILY (Mystery of the Ages, 1985).
Herbert W. Armstrong also wrote,
WHY did the Creator God put MAN on the earth? For God's ultimate supreme purpose of reproducing himself--of recreating himself, as it were, by the supreme objective of creating the righteous divine character ultimately in millions unnumbered begotten and born children who shall become God beings, members of the God family. Man was to improve the physical earth as God gave it to him, finishing its creation (which sinning angels had deliberately refused to do) and, in so doing, to RESTORE the GOVERNMENT OF GOD, with God's WAY of life; and further, in this very process FINISHING THE CREATION OF MAN by the development of God's holy, righteous CHARACTER, with man's own assent. Once this perfect and righteous character is instilled in man, and man converted from mortal flesh to immortal spirit, then is to come the INCREDIBLE HUMAN POTENTIAL--man being BORN INTO the divine FAMILY of God, restoring the government of God to the earth, and then participating in the completion of the CREATION over the entire endless expanse of the UNIVERSE! That incredible potential of man will be fully explained in the pages that follow in this volume. God shall have reproduced HIMSELF untold millions of times over! So, on the sixth day of that re-creation week, God (Elohim) said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen. 1:26). Man was made to have (with his assent) a special relationship with his Maker! He was made in the form and shape of God. He was given a spirit (essence in form) to make the relationship possible (ibid).
Notice that the Bible does teach that there is a whole family is named after God the Father, and that we are to know the love of Christ so that we can have the fullness of God:
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-- to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:14-19).
Notice what the Living Church of God teaches:
How can you not be filled with ALL of the 'fullness of God' and not be God?" "This is the final fulfillment of the Gospel of Jesus Christ--the ultimate Good News--that man can be born into the God Kingdom, the God-level of existence" (Meredith, Roderick C. Your Ultimate Destiny. Booklet. LCG, 1996; p:33)
"God’s purpose is that He is reproducing Himself and that those converted, ultimately, become full members of the Family of God, under the authority of the Father and the Son (1 John 3:1-3). They will share divine glory in the resurrection" (Official Statement of Fundamental Beliefs. LCG, 2004).
"God is reproducing Himself...we will not be a lessor form of existence...He put His very divine nature in us...in the process of reproducing Himself...that is why we are alive. That is the ultimate purpose of our existence" (Meredith R.C. Last Great Day Sermon. Clearwater, Florida, 20051025).
God is reproducing Himself to have additional members of His family. You can be part of it!
Carefully notice the following verses from the Bible:
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God (Romans 8:16-19, KJV).
Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world (Philippians 2:14-15).
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him (1 John 3:1).
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name (John 1:12).
We are to be children of God. The Bible teaches that repeatedly. By being God's children, we are clearly to be part of God's family. That is why God made humans! (For more information on this subject, please see the article Deification: Did the Early Church Teach That Christians Would Become God?)
Why did God make YOU? What is YOUR purpose?
The Bible teaches "God is love" (1 John 4:16). God made you to share His love with YOU.
As a matter of fact,
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (John 3:16-17).
Love is the main part of the meaning of life.
And YOU are also to love,
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love (1 John 4:7-8 7).
The Bible also shows,
If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also (John 4:20-21).
"If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' you do well (James 2:8).
Jesus taught, "And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise (Luke 6:31). The Sabbath, for example, reflects love towards others as well as God's love toward humanity--as it is clear that God intended Divine rest from the beginning. The Bible does teach that real love and ethics are found in the law of God. For more on the Bible and love, please read the article The Ten Commandments Reflect Love.
You may be thinking, "well I have heard some of this before from some religion", what is MY purpose? Who am I? Why me?
YOU are unique. You are one who can give love in a unique way. Ultimately God has special plans for YOU personally. The Bible makes it clear that we are not all the same and are not to contribute the same way, and it uses the analogy of the body in 1 Corinthians 12:12-23 to do so:
For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free--and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.
Yes, YOU, whether strong or weak, are necessary. God's plan includes a plan for YOU!
This, the true Christian meaning of life, is revealed in both the Old and New Testaments.
In the Old Testament, Job understood this when he stated to God, "You shall desire the work of Your hands (Job 14:15). What Job meant was that after he was resurrected (this is discussed in the verses prior) Job knew that God had a meaning of life for him personally.In the New Testament, Jesus taught the same thing. When He taught,
In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself (John 14:2-3).
Jesus was saying that He would prepare a place for YOU if you were one of the Father's.
Those who are depressed about the suffering in today's world need to understand that the Bible teaches,
God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away (Revelation 21:3-4).
And the happiness we will experience will be beyond that which humans can imagine (1 Corinthians 2:9).
Since God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9), sometimes we simply do not understand the specific reasons that we have to go through various trials and problems in this life.
And while we personally cause some of them, for the Bible says, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap" (Galatians 6:7), the Bible always says, "Know therefore that God exacts from you Less than your iniquity deserves" (Job 11:6). And why? Because God loves us, wants us to do what's is right, and tries to minimize any punishment that we may receive.
Notice that the Bible also teaches, "Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer" (2 Corinthians 1:6), hence there is a purpose for our suffering even though we do not like it.
"If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?...Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Hebrews 12:7, 11). In other words, God understands that the bad things that happen are painful, but that they can yield a lot of good later.
And later DOES count, because ETERNITY is a lot longer than the relatively few years that we are on this planet. The Bible acknowledges that if there is no future resurrection (life after this one), then the trials we go through appear to make us "most pitiable" (1 Corinthians 15:9).
We are not to be selfish. For we are to escape "the corruption that is in the world through lust. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love (2 Peter 1:4-7).
In other words, by having self-control and persevering through trials we will be able to add to our faith godliness and kindness, and love. More love than we have ever imagined. A type of love that will endure throughout all eternity where all will be fabulous.
Although it may not always seem like it, the Bible teaches that, "all things work together for good" (Romans 8:28). And apparently everything that is in this physical life is preparing US (and US includes everyone except those who intentionally blaspheme the Holy Spirit, because everything else will be forgiven as per Matthew 12:31) for the spiritual life that we are to inherit for all eternity.
Now this does not mean that God wants us to suffer now:
For He does not afflict willingly, Nor grieve the children of men (Lamentations 3:33).
For the Apostle John was inspired to write, "I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health" (3 John 2). And even though it does not seem like, it God promises: "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it" (1 Corinthians 10:13).
But we simply need to try to endure the tests, trials, and also the good times and try to do justly and love one another.
The Bible teaches that people who truly hope in the true God, who obtain wise understanding, and who keep His law will be happy. Notice:
Happy are the people whose God is the LORD! (Psalm 144:15)
Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, Whose hope is in the LORD his God, Who made heaven and earth, The sea, and all that is in them; Who keeps truth forever (Psalm 146:5-6).
Happy is the man who finds wisdom, And the man who gains understanding; For her proceeds are better than the profits of silver, And her gain than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies, And all the things you may desire cannot compare with her. Length of days is in her right hand, In her left hand riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, And all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, And happy are all who retain her (Proverbs 3:13-18).
But he who has mercy on the poor, happy is he (Proverbs 14:21).
He who heeds the word wisely will find good, And whoever trusts in the LORD, happy is he (Proverbs 16:20).
Happy is the man who is always reverent, But he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity (Proverbs 28:14).
Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law (Proverbs 29:18).
Perhaps I should mention that the Bible requires that new husbands do some to cause happiness for their wives. Notice:
When a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war or be charged with any business; he shall be free at home one year, and bring happiness to his wife whom he has taken (Deuteronomy 24:5).
Also, notice that Paul said that being able to speak the truth made him happy:
I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because today I shall answer for myself before you concerning all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, especially because you are expert in all customs and questions which have to do with the Jews (Acts 26:2-3).
In summary, the Bible teaches that those who truly have hope in God, who obtain wise understanding, who speak the truth, and who keep His law will be happy. Does your church teach that?
We are to try not to worry about our physical needs. Notice what Jesus taught:
I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' "For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble (Matthew 6:25-34).
If you read the related links, it is truly provable that there is, there must be, a Creator God.
God does have a plan for you. God loves you and wants you to love others. That is the meaning of life.
The trials and problems we face are to help us grow so that we can be godly and rule the universe FOREVER! By learning all these lessons (even if we do not often understand many of them), we actually will be able to get along together forever, even though it often seems difficult to believe in this life.
Thus your life counts! Everything you have gone through, every lesson you are learning, makes it so that you are one who can give love in a unique way. And you will be supremely happy. And if you seek God and keep His law now, you can also be happy now.
"God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away" (Revelation 21:3-4). (More on this can be found in the article on Millenarianism).
God is reproducing Himself. God wants you to be part of His family. He wants YOU to help rule the universe. God has plans for YOU, plans that YOU will like. Opportunities for YOU to love as God loves. YOU can be in the very family of God!
As Jesus said, "were not so, I would have told you".
More information can be found in the free booklet Your Ultimate Destiny. It addresses further subject such as Why were you born? Why does God allow even dedicated Christians to go through years and decades of trials, tests and persecution? Why is it so important that we all "overcome"? What is the magnificent PURPOSE for all our lives here on planet earth? What is the meaning of life?
Perhaps it should be added that since God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4) and that God's purpose will stand, that He is NOT losing a battle with Satan and that nearly all who ever lived will be saved. Specific information on that subject can be found in the articles Hope of Salvation: How the Church of God Differs from Protestantism and Universal Salvation: There Are Hundreds of Verses in the Bible that Support the True Doctrine of Apocatastasis.
Thiel B., Ph.D. What is the Meaning of Life? www.cogwriter.com/meaningoflife.htm 2005/2006/2007/2008 0408