- Live Notes
Life lived without the perspective that there is a God – is a waste.
Solomon tells us where NOT to look for meaning in life: The Things of this world
He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes?… There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil. (Ecclesiastes 5:10-11;6:2)
For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires. (1 John 2:16-17)
The philosophies of this world
Fatalism
“I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning; consequently I assumed it had none, and was able, without much difficulty, to find satisfying reason for this assumption… The philosopher who finds no meaning in this world is not concerned exclusively with a problem of academics; the philosopher who finds no meaning in this world is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he should not personally do what he wants to do, or why his friends should not siege political power and govern in the way that they find most advantageous to themselves. For myself, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation, both sexual and political.”
– Aidous Huxley
“Life has no meaning the moment you lose the illusion of being eternal.”
– Jean Paul Sarte
Pessimism
“We are the product of causes that had no provision of the end they were achieving. That is our origin, our growth, our hopes and fears, our loves and beliefs are all the but the outcomes of the accidental collocation of atoms; all of our labors, all of our devotion, all the geniuses are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only in the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation be safely built.”
– Bertrand Russell
Optimism
Hedonism
“We modern people believe in absolute freedom. Many of us don’t believe in God at all. Many of us don’t believe in a god you can know. Therefore, we believe in no god, or no god you can really know, because we believe in freedom. If there was a god, and if there was a god we could know, who told us how we had to live, and who gave us rules and the regulations, well, then, we wouldn’t be free. But because we believe in freedom and because we don’t believe in the traditional view of God… we are free!”
– Albert Canus
When I applied my heart to know wisdom … then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out. (Ecclesiastes 8:16-18)
In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Colossians 2:3)
Q: How does this relationship with Jesus lend itself to find meaning & purpose in life?
It gives me an eternal perspective on life
God has put eternity into man’s heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
It gives me confidence in God’s sovereignty
In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other (Ecclesiastes 7:14)
God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5)
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing. (Job 1:21-22)
It gives me hope in light of my mortality
No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. (Ecclesiastes 8:8)
For the living know that they will die. (Ecclesiastes 9:5)
For man does not know when his time will come. (Ecclesiastes 9:12)
The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. (Ecclesiastes 12:13)
Jesus answered, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:29)