BasicOne

Ecclesiastes 12:13 describes the conclusion of the author's search for the purpose of life. After
investigating, and experimentally embracing, different philosophies, he said, "Let us hear the conclusion
of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man."

In the New Testament, Jesus said that the first two commandments were to love God - the one true
God - with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, and to love
your neighbor as yourself. In these two commandments, our mission -- our purpose -- is summed up.

Ephesians 2:10 also describes why God made us: "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for
good works, which God has prepared beforehand that we might walk in them."

So: why are we here? To freely love God and other people, and to express that love by doing good.
The word "freely" in that sentence is important! Let's turn back to Ecclesiastes 12 for a moment. After
informing the reader about the duty of man, the author says, "For God shall bring every work into
judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or evil." This means that God will hold us
accountable for our actions. He treats us as free moral agents.

When I use the term "free moral agents," I don't mean that we're CIA agents or spies. I mean that we
have the ability to make responsible decisions about right and wrong. Human beings are not
completely free, and not all human beings experience the same level of freedom. But as a norm, we are
morally free to a degree that makes it fair for God to hold each one of us accountable for his or her
decisions.

This freedom gives meaning to our actions. Reading the words "I love you"

in a letter from someone you love means something. That person chose to

love you. But suppose you made a typewriter, and used it to type "I love you"

on a piece of paper, and then gave yourself the paper. Would you conclude that

your typewriter loves you? Of course not -- because the typewriter is merely a machine; it is not a free
moral agent. It can only react; it cannot think or feel; it cannot decide to love you or not to love you.

Human beings would be like that if we had no ability to choose between right and wrong. We would not
be accountable for our actions. And our actions would have no depth. It would be impossible for us to
freely love Him, and love one another. Without the ability to choose something other than obedience to
God, we would essentially be puppets.

True freedom involves more than just the ability to make different choices. It involves the ability to
make different choices with different consequences. Otherwise the "freedom" is a fake. Imagine going
to a restaurant where the menu listed all kinds of meals, but no matter what you ordered, the waiter
always brought you fried chicken. There's no meaningful difference between the ability to make
inconsequential choices and the inability to make any choices.

God gave us the freedom to make moral decisions that have consequences. In this way, whether we
surrender to God, or whether we rebel against Him, our decisions will have consequences, and we will
be held accountable for what we decide. Either we try to become the people God wants us to be, or we
don't. And either we try to do what God wants us to do, or we don't. Generally speaking, God lets us
live with the consequences of our decisions -- even the bad ones. This is one reason why God often
allows moral evil to exist and to thrive where people let it thrive: it's a consequence of decisions that
people have made (if not in this generation, then in earlier generations) and God wants all our moral
decisions to be consequential, so that when we make the decision to love Him, and when we make daily
decisions to express our love for Him through our obedience to Him, it will be a real decision, and not a
puppet-act.