What is God’s purpose?
God’s purpose, plainly put, is maximal joy for all. Everything God is and does is dedicated to enabling all people to obtain and retain the greatest joy they are willing to receive. The Lord will do all he can to foster and promote our happiness. The most direct and effective way for God to help us advance our happiness, to the greatest possible ends, is through his assisting us in learning more about and becoming more like him.
The Lord’s purpose is to bring about the immortality and eternal life of man.1 This is his overarching motive in all things. He has the desire and means to offer the path to eternal life to all who will walk it.2 In order to more fully appreciate immortality and obtain eternal life as fully as possible, it is necessary to understand what immortality and eternal life are, how they are different, and how they are both achieved.
Immortality is to live forever. However, having a state of immortality does not imply the quality of that life. Eternal life is the quality of someone’s immortality. Eternal life is by degrees. It is to learn more about and live more of the character of Jesus Christ for the purpose of obtaining more of his joy. The more someone obtains the character of Jesus, the greater portion of his joy they also obtain and the higher the quality of their eternal life.
Just like God and creation, you also have a purpose—whether you’ve thought about it intentionally or not. Creation’s purpose is to provide the opportunity and means for all to increase in joy through enabling people to become as similar to Jesus as they are willing to.596 Your purpose is shown in how you actually live, not how you wish you lived or how you say you live. Your purpose is demonstrated by your character. Your character is who and how you actually are, not who and how you think you are or pretend to be in front of others. Your purpose is powered by your motive. Your motive is why you actually think, feel, and act as you do,597 not what you wish were the case, or wished others thought was the case. If you want to experience the blessings of God’s purpose, you have to actually think, feel, and act as he would in your place,598 not just wish you did.599 His purpose needs to become your purpose in so far as you understand it. The process of aligning your purpose with God’s is called submission.