What goal are you after? And most especially as a Christian, why do you do what you do? What’s the point of the Christian life? You know as well as I do that drifting doesn’t get you where you want to go. So if you don’t understand where you’re headed, you’re going to either end up somewhere else, or be sorely disappointed.

Some people imagine the goal of the Christian life is to:

• Feel peaceful, happy, and have no problems
• Get married and have children
• Be “healthy, wealthy, and wise”
• Go to heaven when you die

The funny thing is, each of those “goals” has just enough truth to give it plausibility. Following Jesus will bring more inner peace and joy than you dreamed. Wanting to get married and have children is a good desire. There’s Biblical evidence that God loves to heal and prosper His children. And would you want to go anywhere else when you die?

But none of those are an adequate reason to follow Jesus. In fact, Jesus promised we would have trouble (John 16:33). God never promised you a happy marriage or children. Many of God’s very best friends have been anything but healthy and wealthy. And what Jesus called His followers to had nothing to do with “go to heaven when you die.”

How could we have so missed the point?

And what is the goal of the Christian life if it isn’t any of those?

The True Goal of the Christian Life

The Westminster shorter catechism in modern English begins this way:

1. What is man’s primary purpose?
2. Man’s primary purpose is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

Paul summarizes it this way; We are “to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29). In other words, we are to come to the place where we look like, live like, talk like, walk like, work like, feel like, “smell” like, love like Jesus.

And Jesus Himself said it this way: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39).

Ouch! How well are we humans doing in that endeavor?

Not very well. Not well at all.

Therefore, the Christian life could be thought of as Lessons in Learning to Love Well. It certainly seems we need such lessons!

Doesn’t that put all your religious activities in a whole different light? It’s not about a list of things you’re supposed to do but about who you are becoming on the inside.

Jesus as the Example of Love

Most people like the idea of being like Jesus. Remember the WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) wrist bands a few years ago? Jesus loved everybody. “Meek and mild.” Gave Himself on behalf of others. “Offer the other cheek.” “Seek and save the lost.”

But that’s a Westernized sanitized version that bears only slight and partial resemblance to the Jesus we read about in the gospels. Those phrases are not untrue, but we’ve grossly distorted what they truly mean.

Jesus was the most disruptive human ever to live on this planet. If the way He lived was what Love is like, we’ve got a lot of Love Lessons still to learn.

Can love be angry? Can we agree that Jesus was Love Incarnate? Nothing He did was not done out of love. Then put yourself in the synagogue on the Sabbath. Jesus is teaching, and He is being watched. A man is there with a deformed hand. And Jesus gets angry! But what does His anger look like?

“And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored” (Mark 3:5).

This is no sappy sentimental tolerance. Love hates what harms its beloved. And it takes action.

For Jesus, humans are His Beloved. You are His Beloved. And He fights for you, all the way to hell and back.

Is that how you love?

Looking Like Jesus 

Since we are to be “conformed to the image of his son,” it could help to consider what that would look like. What would it mean for you to think like, talk like, work like, feel like, “smell” like, love like Jesus?

Among other things it would mean:

• Having nothing to hide, “living in the sunlight,” no hidden agendas
• Being unconcerned about your own rights even while standing tall as a son or daughter of the King
• Never being hurried, but being fully being present with God or with the people around you
• Having rhythms of both time in solitude and cultivating deep connection with people
• Displaying a goodness that is attractive, appealing, and invites people to come closer
• Experiencing and expressing every human emotion including anger, sadness, distress, joy, etc. without being controlled by any of them
• Having an internal response of love toward your enemies without having your identity defined by them
• Being unchanged by either applause or censure while deeply understanding the hearts of those around

If that’s what it looks like to be truly human, how far we have fallen. And how far we have yet to grow.

We sure need those Lessons in Learning to Love Well.

How are You Being Discipled?

If that’s the goal, is what you’re doing moving you closer to that kind of love? Make no mistake; you are being formed, discipled. The question is whether you are being formed into a person like Jesus – or into something altogether different.

And an hour of religious activity on the weekend is woefully inadequate and ineffective to counteract all the other factors forming you.

Something I’m thinking about a lot these days is our digital world. We’ve been schooled to expect instant answers to any question with the swipe of a finger. Social media and other online worlds keep us from any moments of boredom. And now AI offers to be a place we can outsource even our mental struggles and the work of relationships.

Over the next couple weeks I’ll talk more about how we can steward our lives intentionally to cooperate with God in becoming formed into the likeness of Jesus.

But for today, take a moment to consider what goal you’re striving for, and whether the things you devote your time and energy to are moving you in that direction.

Make Learning to Love Well the Goal

Your Turn:  If someone were to look at your life from the outside, what goal would they say you are striving for? How’s what you are giving your time and energy to forming you?  Leave a comment below.

Want more? This week’s podcast begins a series on AI and the Soul. I talk with Dr. John Dyer, theology professor, about technology, and AI in particular, from a theological perspective. Listen or watch.

Tweetables: why not share this post?

• The goal of the Christian life is different than many think. It’s not happiness, a good life, marriage/children, or even going to heaven when you die. The true goal of the Christian life is learning to love well. How are you doing with that? Tweet that.

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It’s Not Magic

But it does take being intentional.

There are simple steps you can take that, if done consistently, will help you experience the kind of life God wants for you. Get your FREE Resource Guide: 7 Keys to Living Fully Alive – from the Inside Out.

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