What's It all About?

What is the goal of our Christian living? Certainly goal-oriented living, or teleological ethics, is very center to the heart of New Testament ethics. Central to a late first century New Testament ethical perspective are such passages as "whatever you do in word and deed do it all in the name of (and for the sake of) Jesus Christ." (Colossians 3)

The existential perspective is to ask "what is the meaning of life?" When Christians do this, we often point to the central tenet of the Westminster Confession: "we are here to glorify God and to serve other people." Certainly this perspective is close to Jesus' own response to "what is the greatest commandment?" We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves."

Essentially then we can measure everything we do by whether or not it is related to our relationship to God or to other people. While some things may be done which are not intentional, all things are related to this goal of Christian life.

Certainly this understanding of the meaning of life is large enough to serve as a mission statement for any vocation. It does not matter whether you have a job outside of the home or your vocation is within the home setting, if it enhances our loving God and/or our neighbor it is meaningful. In fact this goal-oriented living lends itself well to finding an understnading of vocation that supersedes job or profession. Anything and everything in life which leads to service of God and others is our vocation. We are truly made for glorifying God and helping our neighbor.

What is the purpose of life? Ultimately if you had to come up with one thing a Christian person could not do better than that of the words Johann Sebastian Bach put on every piece of music: "Soli Deo Gloria." Everything is to be done by us for the glory of God alone.