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What is the first main positive purpose of humankind?
Christianity - What is Life for Christians?
What does Christian life look like day to day? Explore worship, prayer, the Bible, and church community, plus how beliefs guide choices and behaviour.
1 .
According to the earliest stages of Genesis, what is the first main positive purpose of humankind?
To do what God tells us and never anything else
To share in the joy of God's creation and bear responsibility for taking care of it ('stewardship')
That the human female was an afterthought on God's part
That free-will can only be a curse upon humankind
Free will would certainly land humans in trouble, yet without it we would all be 'slaves' or 'robots' ~ which would be somewhat unrewarding for all concerned. There continue to be keen debates on the topic of answer 3 ... but this is probably not the place to engage with those. (Any god who kept changing his mind could not claim to be infallible, for starters ... except that his absolute universal ability would, presumably, include the ability to be 'wrong' &/or to change his mind ... deep dark philosophical waters, as we said!)
2 .
Rather later in the Old Testament, the prophet Micah offers an almost disarmingly simple prescription for the behaviour of a true believer (see 6:8 in his Book).
'What does the Lord require?' he asks, rhetorically ... and then offers three of the following answers, among which we have mischievously hidden a false fourth one. Which is this FALSE one?
'What does the Lord require?' he asks, rhetorically ... and then offers three of the following answers, among which we have mischievously hidden a false fourth one. Which is this FALSE one?
Do justly
Love mercy
Honour your neighbour
Walk humbly with your God
For all its echo of the Ten Commandments ~ and an entirely worthy notion ~ this was the false entry, in terms of quoting from Micah.
3 .
Jesus Himself summarised the Jewish Law in basic terms of memorably few principles: how few?
Two
Three
Five
Seven
In modest further paraphrase, the essence of His advice was to 'Love the Lord your God with every fibre of your being [as in the 1st 4 Commandments: see Exodus 20], and love your neighbour as yourself; on these two commandments hang all the Law and the prophets'. Solomon, writing in Ecclesiastes (12:13), had reduced matters even further to 'Fear God and keep His commandments ... that is the whole duty of man'.
4 .
St Teresa of Avila (born 1515) beautifully described the mission of living believers in a meditation which begins:
'Christ has no body now on earth but ... (?) ...
'Christ has no body now on earth but ... (?) ...
... yours ... '
... pray to Him in the Spirit and He will answer you'
... intercedes for you from the Throne of Heaven'
... is raised for your Salvation'
Teresa's point is that it is down to our living selves to identify and implement His works of compassion and other good deeds:
' ... no body now on earth but yours; no hands, no feet ... '
' ... no body now on earth but yours; no hands, no feet ... '
5 .
St Richard of Chichester wrote another, somewhat parallel, devotional prayer which has also remained deservedly popular. It concludes:
'May we ... (?) ...
(There then follow three of these four Christian intentions; which ONE is not in the original?)
'May we ... (?) ...
(There then follow three of these four Christian intentions; which ONE is not in the original?)
Know you more clearly
Love you more dearly
Grow in wisdom yearly
Follow you more nearly
The intention may be similarly worthy, but this is not in the original!
6 .
The story of the very early Church (as told by 'Dr. Luke' in The Acts of the Apostles) sheds interesting light on how the first believers sought to live. Chapter 4 vs. 32-5 might reasonably fairly be paraphrased:
'Everything was shared between the believers ... so nobody went short; even funds from the sale of private dwellings were distributed to help alleviate the needs of others.'
On first glance, at least, to what great political movement does this behaviour (and even wording) bear almost startling similarity?
'Everything was shared between the believers ... so nobody went short; even funds from the sale of private dwellings were distributed to help alleviate the needs of others.'
On first glance, at least, to what great political movement does this behaviour (and even wording) bear almost startling similarity?
The Emancipation of Slaves
The Charter of Human Rights
The Welfare State
The Communist Manifesto
The key difference, however, is that in the Communist case, the aim was to iron-out inequalities (fair enough) but so that humankind would then become self-sufficient ~ without needing to pray to, or 'accept handouts from', any supernatural agency such as God. The early believers, on the other hand, were sharing precisely because their belief in God and His values impelled them to.
7 .
Within the Lord's Prayer, Christians daily pray 'Thy kingdom come; Thy will be on earth, as it is in heaven'. Several other Bible texts give ground for hope and encouragement towards this being achieved: which of the following seems the LEAST relevant?
'The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea' (Isa.11:9 ; Hbk.2:14)
'God works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose' (Phil.2:13)
'Those who sow with tears will ... reap and return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves ...' (Ps.126:5-6)
'Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His field' (Mt.9:38)
Answer 4 carries more of a suggestion that others should be sharing in bearing the load.
There are echoes here of a fine old missionary hymn, 'God is working His purpose out', for which some background, analysis and rationale may be found at Missionary Hymn
There are echoes here of a fine old missionary hymn, 'God is working His purpose out', for which some background, analysis and rationale may be found at Missionary Hymn
8 .
St Paul has plenty to offer on the purpose of Christian life, having taken this up with great enthusiasm in surprising circumstances (see Acts 9). In his letter to the Romans, who were living at the very centre of the then-known world with all its bustle and luxuries, he wrote:
'The kingdom of God is not a matter of ( ... ... ) , but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit'.
What was, or were, the rejected priority in the 'blank' above?
'The kingdom of God is not a matter of ( ... ... ) , but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit'.
What was, or were, the rejected priority in the 'blank' above?
what we eat or drink
satisfying our ambitions and appetites
avoiding trouble with our neighbours
dying with a reasonably clear conscience
Jesus Himself had made reference to God taking care of more than our modest bodily needs (what sociologists and others now refer to as the lowest tier of Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs, which you could look-up accordingly). The quotation from Paul here is at Romans 14:17.
9 .
What, as understood in mainstream Christianity, happens when a personal Christian believer dies?
The signs of mortal life are extinguished, and 'that's it' apart from the formalities of cremation &/or burial
The soul is released into the eternal joy of heaven
Judgement comes, and the 'unsaved' or worthless are cast out, so missing the prospect of eternal bliss
Jesus comes in person to collect the soul of the departed
Answer 1 sadly shows no glimmer of Christian hope; answer 3 does not apply to personal believers, and so lies outside the terms of the question; in reply to answer 4, if Jesus is already dwelling in the believer's heart (in any meaningful sense), this gesture would be redundant.
As mentioned above, an analogy some find helpful is that of dual citizenship: St Paul wrote that we are 'in this world, yet not of this world', and once our mortal body expires, we migrate into that other realm to which we are entitled (through Jesus having conquered the apparent barrier of death in the Resurrection).
As mentioned above, an analogy some find helpful is that of dual citizenship: St Paul wrote that we are 'in this world, yet not of this world', and once our mortal body expires, we migrate into that other realm to which we are entitled (through Jesus having conquered the apparent barrier of death in the Resurrection).
10 .
Of course, 'being us', we find ourselves naturally led to look at life, and the world, taking our own immediate surroundings and experience as a starting-point. But the Psalmist (possibly David ~ him again: shepherd, king, musician, soldier ... with an unusual variety of experience in his own life!) sets himself firmly into humble perspective in the context of creation: the God whom he later claims to be his personal 'shepherd', is Lord of the universe. Having explored the dimensions and majesty of this ~ see Pss. 8 and 19 ~ he signs-off with a prayer which any believer might echo:
'May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be (always) pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, my ~
(How does he then refer to God?)
'May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be (always) pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, my ~
(How does he then refer to God?)
Light
Rock and Redeemer
Refuge
Master
The 'Rock' is of course a symbol of stability; a Redeemer is someone who 'buys back' or 'rescues' a thing or person that would otherwise never remain or return. If, with patience, practice and prayer and the help of God, we can maintain acceptable and worthy speech and impulses, we stand some chance of helping make the world a better place. But as St James puts it (in his 3rd chapter), even 'taming the human tongue' can be a challenge!
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