The Most Googled Questions About God — Episode 4: Does Life Have a Purpose?
It’s one of the top five questions most frequently entered on Internet searches about God and religion. That shouldn’t be surprising. We live in a world that is so fast-paced and information-driven that people have either forgotten or don’t know where they came from, where they are headed, and why they are here. In this episode, we’ll look at the gloomy approach to this question first—the mentality that says there is no meaning to life. It just is. Then we will look at an old sermon that was preached in Athens, Greece many years ago by the apostle Paul. He was talking to an audience who were mostly skeptics, and he taught them that life—their life—does have a purpose: a purpose that transcends their own interests, ideas and plans.
Read about this subject
- Scripture: Acts 17:16-34; Ecclesiastes 2:1-11; 12:13-14
- Right From the Beginning in a World of Wrong
Listen to more on this subject
Transcript
Kerry Duke: Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you’ve learned with others.
Does life have a purpose? Is there meaning to life? Is there a reason for all this? Some of you may have a clear answer. Some of you may be struggling with this question. There’s a school of thought called existentialism. An existentialist says no to these questions. He says there is no purpose to life. There is no meaning. There is no answer as to why things happen the way they do. There is no reason as to why we exist. We just do. And since an existentialist says there’s no reason why we’re here, he feels it’s hopeless to look for answers. There are no explanations. Things just are what they are. You may have watched a movie or read a book that was based on this point of view. A writer named Albert Camus wrote a book entitled The Plague. There was nothing cryptic about the title. It was quite literal. The setting was an old town in France. The narrator of the story was a doctor. At first he noticed dead rats. Then people began to get sick and die from a strange illness. Soon the town was in distress. The plague was killing people and nothing could be done about it. No one knew what it was. But the one fact they couldn’t escape was that they had a real problem on their hands and didn’t know what to do about it. Meanwhile, loved ones died, and the ones who lived feared they would be next. The doctor looked for a cure. Religious people prayed. Others tried to live their life or secluded themselves from the public.
Then they began to speculate. Why was all this happening? Some said it was punishment from God. After all, there are times in the Bible where God punished people with plagues because of their sins. God sent the 10 plagues upon the Egyptians in the book of Exodus. So that seemed to be a reasonable explanation. The people in this town were far from perfect. They had their sins just like any other town. So, the explanation that they were getting what they deserved seemed to answer the question. But then they noticed that it was not just evil people that suffered from the plague. It was striking little children. Now they were facing the question of how a loving God could send a plague that would torment and kill an innocent five-year-old child. Meanwhile, the doctor was looking for a scientific explanation and a medical cure. And yet, he could find neither. And, he certainly didn’t have a settled opinion as to why this tragedy was happening. He just looked at it from a practical standpoint and tried to help the people who were affected. And that’s basically where the story ends. No answers. No explanation. No reason as far as anyone could see. And, no hope for anything better.
The Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds follows the same theme. Birds that were once harmless and friendly suddenly attack human beings. The small West Coast town comes under attack by birds of different kinds. In one scene at a restaurant, the people of the town debate what this is all about. One denied that there was a problem at all and said that there was a scientific explanation for all these anomalies. She said there was really nothing to worry about. One fellow rose up and said this was a sign from God that judgment day was near. Another thought there was some kind of conspiracy at work on an international level. And, others just wanted to get on with their life. They weren’t interested in asking why. They just wanted to know how to get through it and get back to their normal life. When the movie ends, the question of why is left hanging. There is no explanation. There is no reason. It just happened, and they had to live with it. That’s the existentialist mindset. And I do emphasize that it is a mindset. It’s very depressing. As a matter of fact, I can hardly think of anything that would be more depressing. You see, this outlook on life says that God is not involved if He exists at all. Some of them would say there can’t be a God because a loving God wouldn’t tolerate all this. He would put a stop to it. Others say the world is a meaningless place and if there is a God, He really doesn’t care or He can’t do anything about it.
This mood is different from the attitude of many atheists. A lot of people who say there is no God are happy about it. Their attitude is: there is no God. There are no rules. We can do what we want. So, live it up! We’re free to do anything we want! That reminds us of what Paul said about people in his day who denied life after death. He said in First Corinthians 15 verse 32 that if there is no hereafter, then the conclusion is: Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die! But the existentialist doesn’t see it that way. He says if there’s no God and no hereafter, then your life is worthless, meaningless, and without hope. The existentialist says: where’s the joy in that? There’s no reason for you being here and there’s no hope for where you’re going. Existentialism is a very pessimistic point of view.
There’s also a philosophy called nihilism. That’s from a Latin word that means nothing.Nihilism says that there’s nothing beyond this life. All we are is matter in motion. There is no God. There is no soul. There is no heaven or hell. There is no divine creation or Providence or intervention. Beyond what we see there is nothing but emptiness. And, that creates emptiness in the soul of anyone who believes it. A good example of nihilism was the Nazi movement of Adolf Hitler. He was a fan of the German philosopher Friedrich Neitzsche. Neitzsche was a self-absorbed nobody who left behind several books on life. One of his books says it all. It’s entitled Beyond Good and Evil. That title is also literal. This infidel ranted and raved about religion being a lie. He said there is no God. There is no purpose to anything. There is no right and wrong. And, he carried this thinking to some frightening extremes. Since there is nothing but what we see, since there are no rules, it’s every man for himself. Nietzsche took what Charles Darwin said about the natural world and applied it to the world of morality. Darwin said evolution is based on the “survival of the fittest.” He was talking about stronger species outliving weaker ones. Nietzsche not only said that intellectually stronger people do overrule the weak, but that’s the way it ought to be. In other words, he set the stage for Hitler’s idea of the master race eliminating so-called inferior races. Hitler considered Jews and black people inferior and he hated them. So, it’s no wonder that he tried to exterminate the Jewish people. He had them arrested, taken from their homes, separated from their loved ones, put in concentration camps, experimented on by doctors, and killed in gruesome gas chambers. How could a human being do something so atrocious? How could people allow such a thing? It was because they followed a philosophy of nothingness.
But there are people today who have never heard of words like existentialism or nihilism, and yet they wonder if life has any meaning or purpose. They are confused. They’ve had a lot of painful experiences in life, and they can’t figure out why. They can’t see a reason for any of it. Sometimes they’re so angry at the thought of God that they become atheists. Or, they decide there’s no use in asking why and they just try to forget about the whole thing and get by the best they know how. And, tragically, others give up and take their own life.
None of this is new. People in Bible times had these same feelings. So, how does the Bible address this question? That’s what people need to ask. What does the Word of God say about the purpose of life? Does life have a purpose? Does it have meaning?
In Acts 17 Paul went to the city of Athens. The people there were idolaters. They believed in all kinds of gods. But they couldn’t agree on which one was right. They couldn’t find answers to the simplest questions of life like the one we’re looking at. They were like a lot of people today. They heard this opinion and that point of view, but they ended up as confused as ever. They needed clear answers just like people today need them. So Paul spoke to them. And it’s in that sermon that we find one of the most direct answers in the Bible to the question we’re looking at.
The first thing Paul did was to tell them that God created everything. God—the Supreme, true God, not one of their false deities—made the universe. “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands” (Acts 17 verse 24). Paul told them God not only made the world but that He also is Lord over it. Now if those people back then or people today really think about that, then they would have to say there is a reason why we’re here. There is a purpose to all this. God doesn’t do things without a reason, especially something on the scale of creating the whole universe! We may never know all that was in the mind of God when He did this, but one thing we can say is that this was not some spur-of-the-moment thing God decided to do. The world is here for a reason. We are here for a reason. And, Paul said God doesn’t dwell in temples that men make. God is not a physical being that needs a temple. Furthermore, Paul said God doesn’t need anything from us. That is not why He created us. That is not the reason why all this is here. We need everything from God. He needs nothing from us. Paul said in verse 25, “Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.” We are only here because God put us here. We only exist because He gives us life. Your life is not an accident. You are not here by chance because what people call “fate” put you here. You are here because God gave you life and God gives you life. The only reason you breathe is because God gives you breath.
Paul then showed that God had reasons for making us as He did and where He did. He “made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17 verse 26). We all have the same blood— not the same blood type, but we all have one and the same human blood, not animal blood. It’s remarkable that in this short sermon, Paul deals with the major issues of our time. This verse shows that racism is out of the question for any God-fearing person. We’re all the same in His sight regardless of skin color. The Bible says God is not a partial God (Acts 10 verses 34 and 35). Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart (First Samuel 16 verse seven). He also says in Acts 17 verse 26 that God “has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.” God sees the future. He saw the future of the whole world from beginning to end before He ever made it. This verse says He already knows the course of nations. That includes nations today. Nothing that any country does surprises God. He already knows, and His hand is involved in, the affairs of nations whether governments realize it or not, or believe it or not. Paul says they all have their pre-appointed times. They all have their places in their own time. And throughout all of this, the hand of God is at work, accomplishing His will without violating human will. That definitely answers the question of whether there is purpose in life. This sermon in a city of unbelievers teaches that God has a purpose for everything we see. He made the sun, the moon and the stars for a reason. The Bible says in Genesis one verses 14 through 18 that He put the sun and the moon in the sky to keep time. He put them there to show His glory according to Psalm 19 verse one. He put them there, as well as the stars, so that we can see their beauty and be in awe (Psalm 8 verses 3 and 4). He made our bodies and our souls the way He did for reasons. He made this planet called earth the way He did and put us here for a reason. I say all this because when people ask if there’s a purpose to life, it seems they often mean is there a purpose for their life. The passage we’re looking at in Acts 17 says that not only is there a reason why we’re here, but there’s a reason for everything else.
And that brings us to the most direct verse in the Bible on this subject. It’s verse 27. Why are we here? Paul said mankind is here “so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.“ There it is. The purpose of life is to seek the Lord who made us, to find Him and to love and serve and glorify Him.
God put us here to seek Him. To look for Him. He didn’t leave us in the dark. He made the world and the world shows us that He is. Everything around us is a reminder of God if we’ll just think about it. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork“ (Psalm 19 verse one). David said that the moon and the stars are the work of God’s fingers (Psalm eight verse three). We can see that God made all this. In fact, the Bible says in Romans one verse 20 that we can clearly see the power of God in His creation. The verses before this, verses 24 through 26, say that God made the world and put us on the earth for this purpose. This passage doesn’t say that God put us here just to know that He exists. There are a lot of people who believe and know that God is the Creator, but they don’t seek Him. They don’t look for Him. To seek God doesn’t just mean to look for the answer to the question “Does God exist?” It’s not about knowing that He exists. It’s about seeking to know Him. To know Him personally. To love Him. To trust Him. And it means to continue to seek to know Him in this way, not just to look for Him and find Him the day you’re baptized for the remission of your sins, and then be satisfied with what you know about Him and how you know Him. When Paul says God put us here to seek the Lord, he doesn’t mean to seek him one time in our life. He means we should long to know God throughout our lives. We are to strive to learn more about His will in the Bible. We ought to pray to Him more. We need to long to go to heaven to be with Him.
Acts chapter 17 verse 27 has an interesting word. It says that we are here to seek the Lord if perhaps we might “feel after him” the King James Version says. Other translations say this means that we “grope” for Him. God is not standing right in front of us. We can’t walk up to God and have a conversation with Him and get to know Him like we do each other. Getting to know God is different. Your soul has to reach out for Him. You have to look beyond and even behind the creation to know the Creator. And that’s a choice. We make a choice every day either to think about God or to ignore God. We have to make an effort. We are housed in a physical body, and we live in a physical world. The things we see and hear and touch around us get our attention, and sometimes they hold our attention too much. It’s hard to think about anything beyond the physical world. God could’ve made things different as far as his raw power is concerned. God had the raw power to make us all and put us in heaven. But He made the world. He made us and gave us a will. And the alternatives are really pretty simple. We can either choose God or choose the world. That’s what the Bible says in First John two verses 15 through 17. “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” The choice between God and the world is a monumental decision. It has eternal consequences. It shows us who we really are. It reveals who or what we love the most. The reason we are here is to look for God. The world is full of temptations. It has many struggles and trials. Sometimes it’s difficult to keep our minds on God because of the pleasures of the world that distract us and the heartaches of life that discourage us. So we have to feel our way through life in that sense. I’m not talking about going by your feelings when it comes to right and wrong and following the doctrine Christ. I’m saying that there are challenges to keep our minds focused on God. And in that sense, the King James Version says that we feel after Him and other versions say that we grope after Him. And Paul says that the aim of all this is that we might find Him.
Verse 26 says He made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and verse 27 says the reason He made us and put us here is so that we might seek the Lord, if perhaps we might feel or grope after Him and find Him. That means if a man or a woman is truly looking to find God then he or she can find him. He or she will find him. That may take time. It may take a long time. There may be a lot of obstacles on the path to finding God. But if that person is sincere, if knowing God is the most important thing in his life, then he will find God. He will find His will. He will know what the Bible tells him to do to be a Christian. Paul said that applies to everybody. He gave this remarkable promise: “He is not far from every one of us.
Remember, he’s talking to a crowd of idolaters. He’s talking to people that should’ve been looking for God. And if he told them that God was not far away, then he’s not far away from anyone anywhere on the face of the earth today. It doesn’t matter if a person is in a remote jungle. It doesn’t matter if he’s in a city with millions of people without the gospel. It doesn’t matter if he’s in a communist country or an Islamic culture. If he wants to find the Lord, he can find him. God through His providence will make sure of that. Sometimes it seems that God is very far away. David felt that way a number of times. Read Psalm 13 and Psalm 22 and you’ll see David asking why God was so far away from him. But that’s only because David was human and discouraged and felt that way at the time. We feel the same way today sometimes. It seems like God is a distant God. It may even seem that He doesn’t know or is not interested in what’s happening. That’s how we feel. This passage is not just an encouraging verse for lost sinners. It’s a reminder to Christians that God is always near. The problem is that you and I think about words like far and near in a different way. We think about someone being far away when they live hundreds of miles from us. We think about somebody being close when there are a few feet away. But we also know from experience that you can be very close to a person who is thousands of miles away. And, on the other hand, you can feel a million miles apart from somebody who’s in the same room with you. God is not far from every one of us. He is close if you look for Him. This has to be one of the most beautiful sayings in the Bible about the question we’re talking about.
So in this sermon in Acts 17, Paul tells us where we came from in verses 24 through 26. He shows us where we are headed in verse 31: the judgment. And He tells us why we are here in verse 27. The world desperately needs this teaching. Many people don’t stop to think about where they’re from, where they’re going or why they’re here. This teaching gives structure to a man’s life. It gives meaning and order. It gives peace and satisfaction. When we remember what Paul said in this sermon, we’ll be better able to handle the ups and downs of life. But, when a person tries to live his life without them, he will never have real peace inside.
Let’s think about this from the standpoint of why we’re not here. We are not here to live forever on this earth. We’re just pilgrims passing through this world. You see that image often in the Bible. In Hebrews 11 verse 13 the Bible says that Abraham and Sarah “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” Verse 14 says, “For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.” Let me remind you that Abraham and Sarah were very wealthy. The Bible says in Genesis 13 verse 2 that Abraham was “very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.” How many people today who have a lot of money talk like Abraham and Sarah? They didn’t live like they would be here forever. They didn’t hold on to what they had for dear life. They knew they would leave all their money and their possessions behind. They didn’t go around talking about what they had and what they were going to buy next like so many people do today. They had plenty to talk about if they had wanted to. They had plenty to brag about. But they said they were just pilgrims on earth and had a better home waiting for them.
God didn’t put us here to make all the money we can and enjoy His creation and give Him the scraps of our attention. Jesus warned about this. He said, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6 verses 19 through 21). In Luke chapter 12 Jesus said, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ‘But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12 verse 15 through 21). By today’s standards, that man was successful. He was a good businessman. But God said he was a fool because he left out what mattered the most—his soul.
Nobody taught this better than a man in the Bible who was far, far, richer than Abraham or the man in the parable Jesus told. I’m talking about Solomon. He was rich beyond anything you can imagine. And, he enjoyed spending his money and using his power to entertain himself. He talks about this in the book of Ecclesiastes. In Ecclesiastes chapter 2 he wrote about his life. He talked about using his money to enjoy his life. But notice what he said about “living the dream.” He wrote, “I said in my heart, ‘Come now, I will test you with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure’; but surely, this also was vanity. I said of laughter—‘Madness!’; and of mirth, ‘What does it accomplish?’” Solomon learned that getting satisfaction out of pleasure is like trying to hold water in your hands. You can’t have it long. It always slips away from you. But Solomon said he tried. He said, “I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives. I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. I acquired male and female servants, and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments of all kinds. So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor; and this was my reward from all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had toiled; and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 2 verses 1 through 11).
I suppose all of us have to learn that lesson. We’ll never be as rich as Solomon, but we tell ourselves if we buy this or that it will finally give us satisfaction. We convince ourselves that if we only had the money to go where we want or do what we want, then that will make us happy. And what happens? It’s the same every time. We enjoy it for a while and then the feeling is gone. And then what do we do? Do we think about how empty these earthly things can be, or do we go right back to thinking that there’s something out there we can really enjoy, something that will really and finally give us the satisfaction we crave? Solomon said don’t get your hopes up. If you do, you’ll end up feeling empty every time. That’s what he said happened to him. The things of the world looked promising at first. But once he had them, he realized how empty they are. There is no real satisfaction in these things. That’s just a delusion. Solomon said, “He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver” (Ecclesiastes 5 verse 10). Throughout this book Solomon explores the question of whether this life has meaning, and he does so from a human point of view first. And, he said from that perspective, a lot of things look promising but in the end they are just empty. There is only one thing that matters, and it’s not earthly things and earthly pleasures. Here are the final words of the greatest financial advisor that ever lived besides Jesus. The last two verses in Ecclesiastes, in chapter 12 verses 13 and 14, read: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.” That is what life is all about. That is the purpose of life.
Once we truly get this in our heads, we look at life in a completely different way. We don’t set our hopes in temporary things. We don’t lose hope when we lose what we have. We don’t give up on God because life is painful. We look at the long run. We aim at the end. Jesus said, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16 verse 26). The only way to have purpose in life is to give your life to the One who gave you life.
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