What is the purpose of Life?

[SimplyMe]

I'm wondering what is the purpose of our lives here on Earth?

Why did God create man in the first place?

What is our (my) purpose in being here on Earth?

 

[Bible Believer]

#1. We are objects of God's Love.

#2. Fellowship.

#3. To return that same Love back to God.

 

[SimplyMe]

#1. We are objects of God's Love.

Are you saying that the reason we were on Earth is that God was lonely? And then, why create us on Earth rather than in Heaven where we actually kept Him company?

#2. Fellowship.

For whose fellowship? Once again, if for God's, why create us on Earth?

#3. To return that same Love back to God.

And forgive me but all of these seem more like platitudes than real answers. If my purpose on Earth is simply to love God, then why do I need to love God, why do I have interactions with my fellow humans other than to further love God? It seems like this is the same type of answer that is given by cults, such as James Jones, that want their followers to kill themselves or others so that we can give the love to God in person.

Forgive me if I sound argumentative, that is not my purpose. These are sincere questions I've had for a long time that I've never felt have been adequately answered for my life.

 

[Bible Believer]

Sorry you didn't like my answer. Maybe someone else can answer your questions.

 

[Crusadar]

SimplyMe:I'm wondering what is the purpose of our lives here on Earth?

Our purpose in life was for communion and for worship of God before the fall, and to some extent that is still man's purpose but now our primary purpose is to bring all things into union with Jesus Christ - that is to declare and show through ourselves that others may see and know the love of God, and accept His gift of redemption through His Son.

Why did God create man in the first place?

Primarily to be in communion with Him of our own free will, and even though it was only for a little bit of time before man's falling, it was better than not having the joy of communing at all. It has been said that "it is better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all". Even though God knew we were to rebel against Him from the beginning, He created man any way because He is God and it is was to show us the infinite love that He had for us even when we outright rebelled and rejected His love, He continues to be there for us and provided a means for us to return unto Him.

What is our (my) purpose in being here on Earth?

From my understanding God does not physically create anymore but only continues to maintain and uphold His creation. This however does not mean that He does not own you as He did set the process in motion and therefore has every right to your existence and purpose - and yet that is what makes Him the wonderful God that He is in that He allows us to choose between life or eternal separation from Him. For me the only purpose in life really is to understand where it is that I came from (the result of the first man's rebellion) and where it is that I will be going because of it and to seek earnestly redemption from it or be forever condemned. I know which it is I want and because of the path that I now chose I will do my "utmost for His highest" glory in everything that I do.

 

[Never2Heavy]

It doesn’t really answer the questions; however, I find that when I am pondering our existence I find reading the book of Ecclesiastes very powerful.

Regards,
Mike

 

[Reformationist]

I'm wondering what is the purpose of our lives here on Earth?

Why did God create man in the first place?

What is our (my) purpose in being here on Earth?

Our purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

God bless

 

[pax]

"God made me to know him, to love him, and to serve him in this world and to be happy with him forever in the next." I love the Baltimore Catechism .

 

[LewisWildermuth]

I'm wondering what is the purpose of our lives here on Earth?

Why did God create man in the first place?

What is our (my) purpose in being here on Earth?

Those are good questions, and I'm not going to dishonor them by giving you a simple little "feel good" answer.

Since no man can know the mind of God we don't know, and may never truly be able to know even after death because even then we still will not be the same as God.

People can say all they want about fellowship and the like, but an omnipotent God would have no real wants like man right? Saying God wants and needs things may make God a little more understandable to us, but what can we give to a being that by definition has everything anyway? If God truly knows the past, present and future how can such a being get angry or sad about something that He knew was going to happen all along?

I cannot give you any answers, but my best advice is to keep on asking the questions and never to be satisfied with the answers. When one thinks they have these answers it is then that they either become dangerous or complacent in the way they lead their lives.

Keep questioning for a faith or a deity that cannot stand up to questioning is not worth keeping.

 

[Theresa]

I'm wondering what is the purpose of our lives here on Earth?

Why did God create man in the first place?

What is our (my) purpose in being here on Earth?

-"God needs no being other than himself. He not only contains within himself the suffiecient reason for his own existence, but every other sufficiency. To his limitless perfection, nothing whatever is lacking; there is no need of his nature that some lesser being could supply; there is no luxury, even, that some lesser being could bring him. In his own nature is all being, all perfection, all bliss.

Why then did he create the universe? There can be vast theological discussion here but it can be reduced, not too crudely, to the single statement that he knew we should like it. Creation brings him no gain, but it brings us tremendous gain: it means that we are something instead of nothing, with all the possibilities of life and growth and happiness instead of the mere blankness of nonentity.

It is a new light upon the love of God that our gain could be a motive for his action. He knew that beings were possible who could enjoy existence, and he gave them existence. By existing they glorify him-but who is the gainer by that? Not God, who needs nothing from any creature. Only the creature, whose greatest glory is that he can glorify God."

Theology for Beginners - Frank J. Sheed

-as to the rest, you are here on earth by God's love, and you are tested in the love you thence give out.

 

[A Brethren IN CHRIST]

to mature IN CHRIST

philippians 3:13
romans 6:11
2 peter 3:18

 

[nate_b]

[sup]4[/sup] For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love [sup]5[/sup] he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- [sup]6[/sup] to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
Eph 1:4-6 (NIV)


We were created for God’s pleasure and will. First this may sound ghastly. For his pleasure and will? How completely selfish... But look into what his pleasure and will is before condemning him. God is love, that is why we were created. If God is love, he can’t exist without someone to love, thus man was created. You ask, well why were we created on earth? Well, to coexist in with God in a beautiful place Gen. 3:8. But after the fall, God could no longer live among us because he cannot be in the presence of sin. Yet it remained, that God’s pleasure and even his very nature, is to love us, more than we can possibly fathom.

Yeah, ok... that’s why we were created, but still, we have to have a purpose since we’re here other than just soaking up God’s love. We do have purpose, God has plans for each and every one of us. These plans can only be realized after we are in a relationship with him, though. Until we accept him as our god, our lives have no purpose. Since we we’re created in his image though, which is only complete once we have been transformed by accepting Christ as our Lord and savior, our existence is based around love. Our sole purpose as Christians is to love God and love people. Simple in words, impossibly complex in actions. The depth to which we are required to love is not humanly conceivable, let alone actually being able to act it out. To love God we must get to know him, this is only possibly through talking to him and reading his word. Once we begin to understand God and his love for us, we will begin to understand how we are to love others. Then asking God to use us to pour out his love through us.

But we are also created for his will. This does not sound like a very appealing thing. Every person has their own aspirations and desires. Keep this in mind though, God will always do what is best for his kingdom, and what is best for his kingdom is best for us, since we are a very big part of his kingdom. See Romans 8:18.

So, love God, love others and your life will be blessed and filled with understanding.