What is the purpose of life according to the Bible?

This is a truly awful condition of things when we consider the end and object for which man was created. This is well expressed in the opening words of the Westminster Catechism. Question: "What is the chief end of man?" Answer: "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever."

The whole creation was ordered for the pleasure of man, and man was made for the glory of God. Day by day, as God acted, He revealed His Power and wisdom and tender care for man, and when the day came for him to be set in his ordered place it was to be surrounded by all these evidences of God’s care and interest.

It was not for this that man was created, for it is written that whoso offereth praise glorifieth God: God created man for His glory — a well-tuned instrument — to respond to the touch of His infinite goodness with intelligent and joyous thanksgiving. But the devil spoiled God's handiwork by introducing distrust of God into the heart of man; and the chord was lost, and the music died out, and instead of songs of praise greeting God's advent in the garden, Adam — a fallen man, a sinner against God, cowered away in dumb fear from the One who loved and had lost him.

Man was created by God for His glory and pleasure, and these were lost in man, through the fall; but God's glory and pleasure are now secured in man, in an entirely new way, through reconciliation. Although men in their sinful state are indifferent to their relations with God, it never was so with God, for seeing the awful condition into which sin had brought him, "it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart" (Gen. 6:6). God could not allow such conditions to be perpetuated; His honour and glory must be secured; and how matchless the wisdom that devised the means whereby His banished be not expelled from Him. Combined with such wisdom is infinite love, and the way has been opened for the recovery of man to God in perfect consistency with divine righteousness and holiness. This being so, we can understand something of the deep pleasure brought to God in having us before Him with every attribute of His character vindicated, and the demands and desires of His holy nature satisfied.

God is the Creator, and Revelation 4:11 tells us that He made all things for His own pleasure, and Man is amongst these things, the chiefest and the best of His work in this lower creation. Great pains did God take with this creation when He made him in His own image and likeness, and He made him for His own pleasure, for “His delights were with the sons of men.” But how could He find pleasure in anyone who did not love Him? That were impossible, and when man listened to the devil's lie, he ceased to love God, whatever he may have done before, and he hid away from God for fear of Him. We do not hide from those we love, neither do we love those whose presence fills us with fear.

What was God to do? It was right that He should tell man what was right. And nothing else than this could be right, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart. ” Every reasonable person will acknowledge that if God be God, and our Creator, we owe this at least to Him that we love Him and honour Him as God. Then for His own glory and for the good of man it was right that God should give to man this command.

The Creator is to be remembered in the days of youth. Decrepitude and death are described: man is overtaken by death ere he has found out true wisdom. In Ecc. 12: 8 the gropings of the philosopher under the sun are over: he comes back to his starting point, "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; all is vanity." A distinct division follows. Sinful man should not expect happiness except in God. "The whole of man " (not his duty, but the one thing for man, the one principle of life), is to "fear God and keep his commandments." God will bring every work into judgement.

But amid all that spoke of vanity there was another subject he touched on, for, being wise, he taught the people. He had spoken at length about man and his works, he speaks briefly about God and what He does. And what he says about God (for the name Jehovah does not occur in the book) only brings out in higher relief the ruined condition of man. Man abideth not, his thoughts perish, his works crumble to dust, his name is forgotten. Created originally not for death, he is now born to die: but God abides. "I know that whatsoever God doeth it shall be for ever; nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it." (Ecc. 3:14.) Here in the midst of what is transient is something permanent. This he had found and desired to impress on others. (Ecc. 5:1-7; Ecc. 11:9; Ecc. 12:1.) He would tell the creature of the Creator. It is not grace that he is charged to proclaim; it is not salvation he is empowered here to offer; but to God's creatures, responsible as such to Him that made them, he would speak. The Creator will take cognizance of, and make judicial inquiry into, the actions of His creatures. This none can escape, and of this all need to be reminded. And now that he has exposed the vanity of all things that are done under the sun, he opens out the only word for man to follow: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." (Ecc. 12:13.) The fuller light that we possess confirms all that Solomon said of man, and tells us likewise more about God; but the principle here enunciated is true for all time — the creature should own the authority of God, and yield implicit obedience to all He is pleased to enjoin. "For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil."

The Shorter Catechism commences with the proposition: "Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever." It was God's purpose in creating man that in contrast to other animals, man alone should have aspirations heavenwards. It is striking that heathen mythology should have been imbued with the same idea. Indeed, the derivation of anthropos, the Greek word meaning "man" signifies "the one who turns up the eye" (ana upwards, tropo I turn, ops the eye). Man has failed signally to fulfil the end which God had in view in creating him. At the beginning in Eden, Adam dishonoured God by listening to the serpent's insinuation to his wife and so far from enjoying God he, filled with fear, hid himself behind the trees of the garden. Man's signal failure has, however, never altered God's unwavering purpose. But in order that His purpose should be effected it was necessary that His Son should assume manhood. When that event took place, there was for the first time on earth a man who could truly lift up the eye to God and who could glorify God and enjoy Him perfectly. For the first time also there was an object on earth which could claim the whole attention of heaven. "What is man that Thou art mindful of Him?.... Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels and hast crowned him with glory and honour" (Ps. 8:4-5). In consequence of His perfect obedience and His having by the grace of God tasted death for every man, He is bringing many sons to glory. (Heb. 2:9-10). They have been endowed with capacity to glorify and enjoy God and they can now turn up the eye to Him. But if the Christian can turn up his eye to God he also finds that his eye meets the eye of God and in that eye he can read guidance for the pathway. "I will guide thee with Mine eye." (Ps. 32:8). When the good sheep-dog is far away from the shepherd, his movements must be controlled by the hand or by whistle. But when he is working at short range he is controlled by the shepherd's eye. It is a matter of common observation how much better he does his work at close quarters than at long range. So in order that we may be guided by the eye of God we must not seek to roam afar, we must be at short range and have the eyes of our understanding turned heavenwards.

Here we have the whole subject fully and clearly before us. God has created us to walk in a path of good works, and He has prepared the path of good works for us to walk in. It is all of God, from first to last; all through grace, and all by faith. Thanks and praise be to God that it is so! But, let us remember that it is utterly vain to talk about grace and faith, and eternal life, if the "good works" are not forthcoming. It is useless to boast of our high truth, our deep, varied, and extensive acquaintance with Scripture, our correct position, our having come out from this, that, and the other, if our feet are not found treading that "path of good works which God has before prepared" for us.

But there is not only the act of turning. There is the conduct that follows, and that conduct, so far as we have it expressed here, is summed up in a very beautiful phrase indeed — they turned to God from idols “to serve the living and true God.” We are told to serve the living and true God. I do not think that these Thessalonians acted in some special manner, and devoted their lives to God in some particular way. I do not think that they gave up their calling in life, and threw themselves exclusively into the service of the propagation of the gospel. I do not think the phrase implies this separation from ordinary pursuits. On the contrary, the Epistle implies that they went on with their work, that they continued in their customary vocation. In the midst of the place and circumstances in which they had been brought up they stayed, only now they worked for their God above. They had found a living and true God, and they had found out the way to serve Him in the midst of their ordinary duties.

Think of it, as life's aim! To serve the living and true God! Is it not, from one point of view, as simple as A B C, doing the will of God, doing daily what He would have us do? And yet, although it is so simple, it is an idea that has not occurred to a great many persons; even some who are piously inclined fail to grasp the fact that the living and true God has a service for each one of us to do. There is a pathway through this world for you and me (for I am now addressing those who are converted) — there is a pathway through this world marked out for every one of us. We have our something to do. We have our words to speak. We have our works to perform. They are such that no one else can do for us. They are such that, if they are not done, the world, our companions, those around us, will be the worse because we fail to do them. God works through His servants, and His servants are men and women who have been saved from the wrath to come. They are those into whom He puts a new nature and His Holy Spirit, and places them here in this world for His praise and glory.