Focus: The Meaning Of Life

Text: Gen.2:7

"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."

Life has meaning and God made us for a purpose. Oscar Wilde said, "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." Abraham prayed to God for Ishmael, "O that Ishmael might live BEFORE thee!" (Gen.17:18). That is what real living means; it is living a life God appoints and approves. It is life lived in relationship with, and in the presence of God. If we live life from start to finish without discovering and actualizing its essence, then we have lived in vain. Life without purpose is vanity.

Let me share with you four things that make up the essence of life, using the word LIFE as an acronym.

*Love

The essence of life is to love and be loved. What's life if love is missing? Life devoid of love is empty. It is meaningless.

On the vertical dimension of life, we have God to love. It is written: "And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might" (Dt.6:5). On the horizontal side, we have our fellow man to love. The Scripture says, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD" (Lev.19:18). Loving God and man is the meaning of life. Someone has said that "life is a journey, and love is what makes that journey worthwhile." Love is one fundamental meaning that life has.

Man was created to function in community. As human beings, we belong to each other as one humanity. We are each other's bone of bones and flesh of flesh. Love is thicker than blood. Love is indeed our bond.

*Industry

Labour is another meaning of life. God created man to be creative and industrious. What's life without enterprise? Paul says, "If any would not work, neither should he eat" (2Thes.3:10). Work is an integral part of our life both in time and in eternity. Before God created man, it is written, "The LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to TILL THE GROUND" (Gen.2:5). After God created man, we read that "the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to DRESS it and KEEP it" (Gen.2:15). The words 'till' and 'dress' are the same in Hebrew. God designed man to be industrious and enterprising. 

We exercise our God-given intelligence and skills through industry. By being responsible and accountable moral agents we reflect our creator and glorify His name.

*Family

Another essence of life is family, and family deals with creation and procreation. The Abrahamic covenant involved a land and a seed. In Malachi 2:15, we see that God is seeking for "a godly seed." God wants more than a seed; He wants a godly seed. With industry we achieve prosperity, and with family we achieve posterity. Land and seed belong together. Prosperity and posterity are divinely linked. 

Humanity is designed and destined to function in families, not in solitary. Every earthly family is intended by God to be a reflection of what He has originally ordained, and Paul tells us that it is of God that "the whole family in heaven and earth is named" (Eph.3:15). Family is a divine institution, not just a product of human tradition. The first church in the Bible started with a family - God, Adam and Eve in the sanctuary of Eden. Family is the nuclear church. We preserve the next generation on earth through family. Through our families we populate heaven, not hell.

Family is God's heartbeat. We all came into the world through a family. Family is the bedrock of human civilization.

First, we have the human family, and then our individual families. Family is a beautiful thing; let us cherish the family spirit and foster the family bond of love.

*Eternity

The final essence of life is eternity. God is eternal. The life He gives is eternal life. In the middle of the garden of Eden God planted the tree of life. After Adam sinned, God said, "Now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and LIVE FOR EVER… So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden…"(Gen.3:22,24). Man is meant to live forever by eating of the fruit of the tree of life. In Christ that life has been restored. Paul tells us that Christ is our life. In Rev.2:7, Jesus Christ declares, "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." God is moving man back to Eden. The future God has eschatologically planned for man is to bring him back to the paradise of God, so that in the final analysis, we could gladly testify that paradise lost is now paradise regained. God is moving us from time to eternity, and in God's eternity there will be no more evil, death, pain, and suffering. In God's eternity we shall experience eternal bliss. The eternal God is bringing us into an eternal world where righteousness is forever at home.

I pray that you embrace life in its four essential dimensions of Love, Industry, Family, and Eternity. In the absence of love, industry, family, and eternity, there is no life. We live today in expectation of God's tomorrow, and indeed God's eternity.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter