I promise I will go back to expositional accounts of Scripture before too long, but right now, I will instead share something peripheral to the theme of a Biblical text. In this instance, it has to do with my in-depth study of Ecclesiastes that is coming by so much more slowly than I would like it to.
So, in Ecclesiastes, one statement and theme I keep coming back to is simply - God created us to enjoy Him forever. Of course, this is nothing new. We have all at some point been told that the reason we exist is to ultimately give God the glory, and we do that by serving Him and enjoying Him now and forever.
But it seems that that isn't where we focus in our daily walk with Him. Rightfully so, we are concerned with walking worthy of the calling which we have received when we received salvation. And I definitely don't want to take away from that.
Yet I think it is possible that in our desire to live a holy life, we have forgotten that the purpose God ultimately has for us is to enjoy Him. What that means is, when we read the Bible, we shouldn't only be concerned with guidance for our life.
Instead, our primary purpose should be on getting to know the incomprehensible God a little bit better, so we can appreciate and enjoy Him just a little bit better. After all, that is why we are made.
Within that theological purpose of the text, we will find pure motivation to serve God and to make our walk worthy of our calling, but that should never be the focus. Because to be blunt, that's not why we were made.
Moral living is merely a means to an end of growing closer to God. And seen within this light, is the only way that I can ever see a Christian change his life for God from the inside out. It is also the best way to know what a holy life looks like is to truly get to know the one who defines it.
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