What is our reason for being here on this earth? We know that man is a special creation – and I use the term “man” to mean human beings in general, male and female. We were created by God and for Him. The Bible tells us we are divinely created in His own image:

We are the crowning glory of all of God's creation, His masterpiece, according to the Bible. The Greek word translated “workmanship” is “Poiema”, which conveys a sense of a special design, or a masterpiece. A master craftsman puts a lot of thought, a lot of time, a lot of care into his creation, and that's exactly what our Creator does with us!

Of all His creation, only man was formed by God's owns hands; everything else He merely spoke into being, but He formed man from the dust of the earth, and then formed woman from man's rib bone. And then, God breathed his very own breath of life into man, and man became a living soul.

A soul is eternal. We were created for eternity: to spend an eternity with our Creator in perfect love and fellowship. He created us to have fellowship with Him, to worship and adore Him, to love Him as He loved us.

Why did He need man? We know he created heaven and angels long before this world. Angels are God's creation also. Their purpose is to carry His message, to do His works, and carry out His plans. They are also eternal creatures, and they also worship and adore Him. We are not angels, and never will be. I always cringe when I hear someone say of a departed loved one that they are now an angel in heaven. That doctrine is not Biblical! There is a great difference between man and angels. Humans can never become angels, and angels can never become human – although they can take on human forms at times for God's purposes. (Heb. 13:2)

So why did He create man? As we already saw, we are the crowning glory of creation. God gifted us with something He did not give to any other of His creations, including angels. He gave His masterpiece creation a very wonderful gift : the gift of free will. God desires that we freely choose a relationship with Him, where we worship Him and adore Him, because He is perfect and holy, and worthy of all our worship and love. He longs for us to walk in fellowship with Him, not out of duty, not out of ungodly fear, (there IS a difference between Godly, reverential fear and ungodly fear) not for selfish reasons, not for show, but simply because He is our God, who created us, who loves us, who has a perfect design for each and every one of us.

As Christians, there are many things we are called to do: feed the hungry, clothe those that are naked, visit those in prison, for instance.(Matt. 25:35-40) Helping those who are widowed or orphaned. (James 1:2) Fulfilling what we call the Great Commission. (Matt. 28:19-20)

All of these are important. It is possible for a Christian to fail to do any or all of these things, just as it is possible for these things to be done by others who are not Christians. But for the Christian, there is one thing more important than all of these things.

Our greatest purpose in life is to worship our Heavenly Father, our Lord God, our Creator, and teach our children to love Him as well. Teaching our children to love the Lord is of utmost importance. It has been said that we are always only one generation away from total apostacy, or total godlessness. If we do not teach our children to love and worship the Lord our God, the world will teach them NOT to! And then who then will there be to teach THEIR children? To choose of our own free will to love and worship Him, and teach the next generation to do the same, is our highest purpose in life. That is what we were created for. Jesus repeated this command in His teachings:

In fact, once when Jesus was visiting with his friends, Martha complained to Him that her sister Mary wasn't helping her, but just sitting and listening to Jesus. (Luke 10:38-42) We can all relate to that, can't we? We get so involved in our tasks and taking care of things that we forget what is truly important. Then we get a little frustrated and even sometimes angry because someone else isn't doing their share. But Jesus told her that Mary had chosen the better thing, just sitting at His feet and listening to His teachings. We always need to remember that even if we are encumbered in doing the Lord's work, our most urgent priority must be spending time with the Lord himself.

Loving God is the most important thing we can ever do. It is what gives meaning and purpose to life. We've learned in previous lessons that love is an action verb: love requires actions, not mere words. When we love someone, it is natural to want to do things for them, to do things that please them, and even to do what they ask us to do. When we try to be obedient to God out of a sense of fear or duty, His commands are burdensome to us, and we eventually get tired of doing them. However, when we obey Him out of love, His commands are not burdensome to us; we enjoy doing His will. The difference is love. When we truly love God, we WANT to spend time with Him; we WANT do His will; we WANT to obey Him, we WANT to serve Him. And these things are not a hardship to us when we truly love the Lord our God.

Love is not a one-way street. It requires the active participation of both parties involved. We love God when we finally realize and understand how very much He loves us. He loved us first, and He loved us so much He made a way to reconcile us to Him, even though we were dead in our sin. We can never love more than God loves us. And His love is always perfect, dependable and sure.

We were created for one purpose: to love God and worship Him. Worship Him with love and reverential fear; not a quaking, quivering fear, but a holy, respectful, awe-filled fear for His perfection, His holiness, His goodness. Worship His glory and His majesty. Worship Him for His great love for the crowning glory of all His creation, for He loves us with an everlasting love. (Jer. 31:3) This is our true purpose in life. Or as King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, wrote: