Why Did God Make Man?
Does life consist simply of selfish pursuits or is there a more noble and loftier cause for living? The Bible gives this answer:
TO KNOW why God made man, turn to the Bible, because therein God gives the answer. Under inspiration the apostle Paul, writing to the Philippians, said: “Keep working out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for God is the one that, for the sake of his good pleasure, is acting within you in order for you both to will and to act.” Then, man, according to Paul, was made for God’s “good pleasure,” to share the Creator’s attributes of love, wisdom, justice and power. The angels of heaven in song gave a like answer: “You are worthy, Jehovah, even our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, because you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created.”—Phil. 2:12, 13; Rev. 4:11, NW.
Perfect man, created in the image and likeness of his Creator, was to reflect perfectly on earth the attributes of his Maker. But certainly the reflections of today’s man are a far cry from what we know of an all-wise, peace-loving Creator. What has happened to man? Moses answers: “They have acted ruinously on their own part; they are not his children, the defect is their own. A generation crooked and twisted!”—Deut. 32:5, NW.
Moses does not say this of all men, especially not of Christian men. Christians know why they are alive. They realize that as intelligent creatures they must worship their God and thus bring praise and pleasure to him. If they fail in this God can cause them to go out of existence. Therefore, Paul counsels them “to be blameless and innocent, children of God without a blemish in among a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you are shining as illuminators in the world, keeping a tight grip on the word of life.” Jesus called Christian disciples “the light of the world,” and told them: “Let your light shine before mankind, that they may see your right works and give glory to your Father who is in the heavens.”—Phil. 2:15, 16; Matt. 5:14-16, NW.
To let one’s light shine in this dark world is to be blameless and innocent in it by doing right works. Such ones are told: “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of the judgment by him has arrived, and so worship the one that made the heaven and the earth and sea and fountains of waters.” So for a man to discharge his responsibility as a man on earth he must be a true worshiper of Jehovah God.—Rev. 14:7, NW.
The perfect man Jesus did do this, and of him it was said: “Look! the man!” He so perfectly reflected the image of the Father Jehovah that he could say of himself: “He that has seen me has seen the Father.” John, writing of Jesus’ life course, says: “We had a view of his glory, a glory such as belongs to an only-begotten son from a father, and he was full of undeserved kindness and truth.”—John 19:5; 14:9; 1:14, NW.
By his perfect life pattern, Jesus taught men how they too might mirror Jehovah’s glory. “A pupil is not above his teacher,” he said, “but everyone that is perfectly instructed will be like his teacher. A good man brings forth good out of the good treasure of his heart, but a wicked man brings forth what is wicked out of his wicked treasure; for out of he heart’s abundance his mouth speaks.” The great truths vital to life and salvation that Jesus learned of his Father he communicated to his disciples. In turn his disciples were to convey this precious message to others. They were to be doers of the word and not hearers only. They were to make other disciples of people of all the nations and instruct them to observe all the things that Jesus commanded. Discharging this responsibility faithfully would bring joy to the creature and happiness to the Creator.—Luke 6:40, 45; Matt. 28:19, 20, NW.
The presence of Christianity in this twentieth century is conclusive proof that the disciples carried out Jesus’ command. To the Romans Paul revealed how the truth of Christianity was made known: “‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’; that is, the ‘word’ of faith which we are preaching. For if you publicly declare that ‘word in your mouth’, that Jesus is Lord, and exercise faith in your heart that God raised him up from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one exercises faith for righteousness, but with the mouth one makes public declaration for salvation.”—Rom. 10:8-10, NW.
REASON FOR LIVING TODAY
So man’s reason for living at this time has much to do with the right use of his tongue, because by that little member of his body he sheds either glory or reproach, honor or dishonor on his Maker. Isaiah the prophet wrote: “The Lord Jehovah hath given me the tongue of them that are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him that is weary.” (Isa. 50:4, AS) An American Translation of this text reads: “The Lord GOD has given me a tongue for teaching that I may know how to succor the weary with a word.”
The prophet Daniel shows that “knowledge shall be increased” at this end of the world. Zephaniah the prophet declares that Jehovah would “turn to the peoples a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of Jehovah, to serve him with one consent.” Isaiah says that all believers some day “shall be taught of Jehovah; and great shall be the peace of thy children.” The Proverbs state that “the tongue of the wise is health,” that “a gentle tongue is a tree of life.”—Dan. 12:4; Zeph. 3:9; Isa. 54:13; Prov. 12:18; 15:4, AS.
God has caused these prophecies to come true today, because on earth now he has a people bringing glory and honor to him. These people are the light of the world by letting the light of Bible truth shine through them to the ends of the earth. They are engaged in right works by worshiping Jehovah in spirit and truth, by remaining blameless and innocent in this crooked and twisted generation, by letting others know of the way to life. This group of God-fearing people are represented in the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses. Of them a modern writer had this to say:
“As witnesses under divine constraint to make known the imminence of the end of the age and the coming of the Theocracy, they seek by every conceivable means to get their message to the people. One need never be surprised at any new method they may evolve. . . . Jehovah’s Witnesses have literally covered the earth with their witnessing.” Then after giving a report on the great quantity of literature distributed the writer continues: “It may truly be said that no single religious group in the world displayed more zeal and persistence in the attempt to spread the good news of the Kingdom than the Jehovah’s Witnesses. . . . No modern Christians make a more constant use of scripture, or memorize it in greater quantities than the Witnesses. To argue successfully with them on scriptural grounds, one must know his scriptures better than most members of even the fundamentalist churches do today.”—Charles Samuel Braden, These Also Believe, 1950, pages 370, 380.
It is very true Jehovah’s witnesses do know and talk the Bible. They must know their Bibles if they are to bring glory to God. With Bible knowledge they are overturning strongly entrenched things, overturning reasonings and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and with it they are bringing every thought into captivity to make it obedient to the Christ.—2 Cor. 10:4, 5, NW.
“Nothing earthly is capable of influencing the human mind to such an extent as the spoken word,” said Edwin G. Lawrence. “Therefore, it stands to reason that educated speech is the grandest weapon possessed by man.” And the purpose of speech “is to convey thought from one mind to another, and, in a broader sense, to influence the person addressed.”
That is precisely the purpose of Christianity. With its right, hopeful speech it will influence some toward righteousness and life. To share knowledge of God and his kingdom with men of good will is the highest and most noble cause for living at this time. May you share in this happiest reason for living.