What is your Purpose in Life?

On an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond" the young daughter's question was "Why are we here?" That confounded Raymond. He had no idea!

Anything of any value has utility. Humans are to be useful. Our usefulness is our purpose! Why am I here? Why are you here?

Trying to set an example, I picked up Timothy and Anthony to take them to work with me to learn a little bit. On the way, Anthony said "Timothy is lazy!" to which Timothy responded "I'm not lazy!!!!  I just don't like to work!"  Tim's purpose in life was living the life of a sloth. Sloths are animals which do little more than eat tree leaves and literally hang around. They are pretty much parasitical to foliage! We have a purpose in life, but as Timothy, that purpose is not realized.

Hebrews 6:11 "And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: 12 That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises."

We're to do things that the righteous do!   What do they do? As the disciples have faith and worship so are we. Is that our purpose in life?

1 Corinthians 6:19 "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

I believe we are getting close here!  We are here to glorify God. We're to love, honor and lift up God. We are to do that because we owe God. Glorifying God is what we do in return for his gift of eternal life for us which was bought by his own death on the Cross. That's called "works". That's what we do to pay the debt of thanksgiving to Jesus for dying in our place! I see many who claim salvation, but I really don't see much glorification in thanks. Are we fulfilling our purpose in life?

Our "purpose" is identified in terms of magnifying Christ in the dispensation of grace. What was our purpose when under the first dispensations? We look to the "dispensation of innocence" for that answer:

Genesis 2:15 "And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it."

Here we have man's purpose: It was to dress and keep the garden. That's why Adam was created and why we live! We're to dress and keep the garden. No, that doesn't mean that we glorify God by tilling the soil. It must have a deeper meaning. How can we tend the garden? We must look at what was in the garden:

Genesis 2:9 "And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil."

We can see if we read the passages which precede these that God provided the soil, light, water and everything to nourish the whole garden, but in these verses he specifically mentioned two trees in the midst of the garden. One tree was to just to be left alone, not even eating of that tree, but the other must have been for dressing and keeping it!  Man was created to tend the "Tree of Life" since God took care of all the others and focused on this tree in the midst, being the center of the Garden!

We know that God is the alpha and omega. He is unchanging. All dispensations are actually of grace. Since "The Word" (Jesus) was there in the beginning, so was grace!

Revelayion 2:7b "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."

That tree in the midst of the garden, being a metaphor, is Jesus. Adam and Eve were to tend to Jesus. They were to "dress him and keep him".   Since God is unchanging, Jesus is the Word and he was with God in the beginning, and Jesus is the Tree of Life; just as Adam's purpose was to tend to that Garden (Jesus) so are we! We have the same purpose in life as did Adam, our antecedents and our descendants. We are to tend to Jesus!

How are we to tend to the "Tree of Life? We are to glorify it (him)! That's what Paul tells us when he said "glorify God in your body, and in your spirit".. We dress and keep the Tree by glorifying Jesus! That's why we're here!

Are you tending to the Garden? Are you a servant to Jesus, taking care of making that Tree honored and praised. Are you glorifying Jesus as your purpose?

Most of us are slothful. Rather than providing for ourselves, we take the delicious leaves of that Tree, but fail to honor what we've partaken of. Just as sloths eat of tree leaves and move on after the tree is stripped bare, we accept Jesus, but fail to thank him for his grace by becoming a servant to him. We just fail our purpose in life. We don't tend the Garden!

The Great Commission is the best way to glorify Jesus. We dress and keep the Tree by telling of it's beauty so that others can glorify it's beauty:

Matthew 28:16 "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you..."

There's how we're to implement "our purpose in life". We're to tell others about Jesus! That's how we "dress and keep" that Tree in the midst of the Garden!  We can tell if we're serving our purpose in life by how much fruit that Tree bears. By glorifying that tree we fertilize the seed from Adam and cause it to bear fruit for Jesus. Our purpose in life is telling others about the grace of Jesus! That's man's purpose from the beginning and that's why we're here!