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What is the purpose of our existence in this world?
It’s the ultimate question that, seemingly, all men from the beginning of time to today have strived to answer. Not only “where did we come from?” or “how did we come into existence” but closer to the final chain in the deep line of reasoning: “What is the purpose of our existence?”
There have been a great many people throughout the history of Earth that have attempted to answer this ultimate question; People ranging from great, well known philosophers to theologians and even to motivational speakers. One man says our purpose is one thing and another man offers a second opinion, and yet another man offers a third opinion. There are likely an endless number of opinions on the answer to what our purpose is in this life. With so many different opinions on this ultimate question, how can we possibly find truth? How can we know the ultimate answer?
As with anything, you must first start with the foundation, and for the sake of white space and the purpose of this article, I will assume that you believe that God does exist. You believe then that God is an all-powerful and good being who cannot, by his nature, be evil in any way. He is the opposite of evil. He is light and in him is no darkness (1 John 1:5). Because God’s nature is so pure and good, and we know that there is no darkness in Him, God must have given us a way to understand what is good and what is evil. You see, evil, by its very nature is simply the opposite of God’s nature. There is no opinion from man on what is good or what is evil because the only standard we have is from the God who created us. He is that standard.
We can see that God must have given us a way to understand what his nature is, what is good and what is evil. That standard is the Bible; written over a 400-year span of time, with 40 different authors all having the same remarkable agreement and theme. There are many proofs for the Bible as the directly revealed word of God but again, for the sake of this article I will assume that you believe the Bible is the direct inspired word of God (2 Tim 3:16).
If we truly are God’s creation, and our God has given us His word for us to learn and know of His nature, then surely he has given us some clues to our purpose. In all reality, he’s done a lot more than give us clues. Take a look at the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 12. Solomon, King David’s son, who is regarded as one of the most wise men to ever live, wrote often examining the vanities that we toil after in this life as compared with ultimate and final nature of God. You can think of the word vain as interchangeable with the phrase “without purpose.”
With his focus on purpose, how does Solomon, one of the wisest men who ever lived, directly breathed out by God, answer the ultimate question? Read verse 13:
Ecc 12:13-14
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is man’s all.
14 For God will bring every work into judgment,
Including every secret thing,
Whether good or evil.
That is pretty clear about man’s purpose. Our purpose is to fear God and keep His commandments. Why? Because God will bring every work into judgment, whether good or evil. Remember how we established God as being wholly good in nature, having no darkness in Him? God cannot let anything that is not one with his nature, anything that has darkness abide with him forever. He must judge our deeds whether they be good or evil. However, thanks be to Him forever that through His abounding love He did send His only son, the Christ to sacrifice Himself giving us a way to obtain purity and holiness and finally align ourselves with his pure and good nature.
