Does life have meaning?
If so, what is that meaning? The
answer, to be valid, must discover meaning for lives lived 70 years and longer
as well as those lived for 70 minutes or fewer.
That is to say, that it must reveal meaning for all members of the
family of Adam and Eve. I have to admit
that I cannot fathom an answer that life offers meaning only for some people but
not for others, that the others are just stage props for those fortunate humans
for whom life really matters.
I would also posit that in order for life to have meaning
for man, then man’s existence cannot end with the end of mortality, that life
must have an eternal character for there to be meaning to it. Temporary meaning is no meaning in the end. If there is an end, then in the end what does
it matter?
I will add that, if there is eternal existence, that
whispers to me a strong intuition of the existence of God, the existence of a
being who has it all figured out, who has used eternity well. I do not offer this point as a proof at this moment,
but rather as a likelihood. There are
other proofs that I know and could offer for the existence of God, for God has
not hidden Himself from His children who want to know Him. He sent us here to find out which of His
children really want to know Him: that
is one of the purposes of this life, closely related to the central purpose of
life. The process of coming to know God is
an individual work that necessitates the personal development of what is also God’s
defining characteristic. That
development involves the process of living in this life on earth.
That is to say that one way of describing the central
purpose and meaning of life is this: for
each individual to develop an ever greater capacity to love. That may sound sentimental and trite, but it
is nonetheless true. Good fiction draws its vitality from important themes of reality.
J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series climaxes with the discovery that the
most powerful “magic” in the world is love, belittled and scorned by the arch
villain of the series even as he is destroyed by its strength.
Love, particularly the love of God, is the central theme of
scripture. The scriptures taken
altogether are an unfolding exposition of God’s love operating among His
children and either embraced or rejected by them. The scriptures describe the deepest and most
complete form of love as charity,
“the pure love of Christ” (Moroni
7:47), the greatest of all the gifts of God (see 1 Corinthians 13:13).
Elsewhere the scriptures name “eternal life” as “the
greatest of all the gifts of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 14:7). This is not a contradiction, as eternal life
and charity are coincidental. To possess
one is to possess the other. Consider
these passages of scripture together.
The first is how God describes His work, what He does, which must therefore be very closely related to His meaning, His purpose:
For behold, this is my work and my
glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. (Moses 1:39)
The second is how the ancient Israelite prophet Lehi
described man’s purpose to his family:
men are that they might have joy. (2
Nephi 2:25)
This means that immortality, eternal life, and joy are all
connected. Jesus taught that they are
united in the personal development of the divine trait of love. During the Savior’s preaching in Jerusalem in the last
week of His mortality, the legalistic Pharisees sought to trip the Savior up
with a question that to them must have been a real poser, undoubtedly a favorite
debate topic:
Master, which is the great commandment
in the law?
Conceptually this is just another way to introduce our topic
about the meaning of life, for surely the commandments of God and the meaning
of life are closely related, God’s commandments designed to lead His children
through a life of meaning and fulfillment.
The answer of Christ, who before His birth had given the commandments to
the prophets, silenced for a time His tempters; at least, no rejoinder is
mentioned in the record, perhaps because Jesus was referencing what He had
given in the laws He revealed to Moses (see Deuteronomy 6:4,5, and Leviticus
19:18).
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind. This is the first and great
commandment. And the second is like unto
it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:36-40)
All the rest of the gospel is elaboration of these two
commandments. That is the purpose of
life, to develop charity, the pure love of Christ, the complete soul-filled
love of God, which manifests itself in loving our neighbors as ourselves. How do we do that? As Jesus said, that is the purpose of the law
and the prophets. “If ye love me, keep
my commandments.” (John 14:15)
As the ancient American prophet Mormon taught,
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray
unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this
love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus
Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we
may be purified as he is pure. Amen. (Moroni 7:48)
Mormon’s people nearly all rejected his counsel and descended
into a hatred that devoured their civilization in pointless dissolution.
Life has meaning because it has choices with real
consequences. We feel and see and live
them everyday. Amidst the easy-to-see
evils of the world, there are plenty who choose to do good, to love their
fellows and increase in their love of God.
There are and have been those who live life to its fullest, growing in
the greatest of all gifts and the mightiest of all powers by being true
followers of Jesus Christ, increasing in the love by which they become like Him
and by which they will know Him.
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth
is born of God, and knoweth God. He that
loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
(1 John 4:7,8)
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