Works & Purpose

Summary

Our purpose in life is to do good works (Ephesians 2:10) for God’s glory (Colossians 1:16). We have the free will to accomplish this however we want (Proverbs 16:9), yet allow prayer to curb any anxiety in decision-making (Philippians 4:6-7). Learning about God (good) and helping others (works) is the meaning of life (Matthew 6:33; Micah 6:8).

Endorsements

The majority of Christians believe that our purpose is to use our free will to do good works for God’s glory.

Concepts

Our purpose is to do good works.

We are “created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Ephesians 2:10) for the glory of God (Isaiah 43:7; Colossians 1:16). Ultimately, our purpose is to do good works, “good” meaning perfect submission to the law, summarized as being loving (Romans 13:8,9,10). “Good works” means to help others in faith (John 6:28-29; John 10:32).

Our purpose is our free will.

Free will is a concept explaining that everything we do is done by our own choice, not God controlling us (Exodus 35:29). Although “no one seeks God” (Romans 3:11) and our election is unconditionally an act of mercy (Romans 9:16), not by our choice, everything else in our lives is our choice because God allows those saved Christians to be lazy if they want (Revelation 3:15-16). God did prepare our purpose ahead of time because He knows everything (Ephesians 2:10), but He prepared it in a way that allowed us to choose because “the heart of man plans his way” (Proverbs 16:9), and God is looking for those who plan to deeply serve Him (Isaiah 6:8; Ezekiel 22:30). God rewards Christians based on their stewardship of His grace so that they can better serve Him (Matthew 25:15,29; Matthew 24:45-51).

Our purpose is our soul.

Although we may know the Greatest Commandment includes to love God with our soul (Mark 12:30), what is our soul? Soul is often used synonymously with a person (Acts 2:41) because the soul is what we use to make free will decisions (John 12:27; Matthew 16:26). Although the soul isn’t physical (Matthew 10:28), the soul is similar to our DNA, a sort of computer programming that guides our life (Psalms 139:13-14) and that can be rewritten (Proverbs 2:10).

Our purpose requires decision-making.

The paradox of choice, decision fatigue, and analysis paralysis are a few terms to describe how it’s difficult to grow your purpose in life when there are so many decisions. This anxiety can be overwhelming, but God says to pray about anything, and He will give you an answer to your problem (Philippians 4:6-7). Sin is punishable only if you know what you’re doing is wrong (John 9:41); so, feel free to pick any decision and learn from real-world “testing” (Romans 12:2).

Our purpose is to learn and do.

The Bible has many climactic or ultimate-sounding verses for the meaning of life, and all of them have the same thing in common. Because life is about good works (Ephesians 2:10), working is doing and understanding what is good is learning: