I’m going to be completely honest, when I started writing my answer to this question, there were many avenues I wanted to go down and I couldn’t decide, so I did what any rational person would do and went down all of them. Needless to say, it turned into quite a mess of Scriptural doctrines, deep biblical principles, and basically, a very complex answer to a very simple question.
So what is your purpose in God’s Plan? Instead of trying to formulate some answer in our imperfect human minds, as I was attempting to do, let’s look to the source of all Truth, as we read in John 17:17, “Thy Word is Truth.”
We read in Micah 6:8, “He hath showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” Well, there you have it, the Almighty God has instructed you to do three things: do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God. Now if this is God’s instruction to us, and He is God, then we should listen. But let’s say for instance, you don’t speak “KJV,” in which this Scripture is translated, in other words, what do these instructions mean?
Let’s look at “to do justly” first and try to figure out what this means. The term “just” means to do what is morally correct, so for example, the “just” thing to do when driving is to go the speed limit. But let’s go a little further than just following the laws of our government, what about the “Golden Rule” also known as, “treat others the way you want to be treated,” now I would argue this is truly what it means to “do justly.”
Now how do we “love mercy,” as instructed in Micah 6:8? There are many definitions for “mercy” but today we will simply understand it to mean “kindness,” which we all know how to do, kindness can be simple and easy, kindness can also be complex and hard, kindness can be holding the door open for someone, and kindness can be laying your life down for all mankind. But God instructs us not just to practice mercy(kindness), but to “love mercy,” so what’s the difference? Well, you can practice mercy while not really enjoying it. I'm sure we’ve all had to do something that appeared very kind, but deep down we wanted to be somewhere else. This is why God instructs us to “love mercy,” He wants us to be kind because we want to, not just because we have to.
We see the first two instructions basically mean, follow the rules and do good things because you truly enjoy it in the depths of your heart, not just because you have to, but what does it mean to, “walk humbly with thy God?” We know from James 4:6 that, “God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble,” so it is quite important to be humble if we desire a relationship with God but how do we actually “walk humbly with thy God?” We look to Philippians 2:3,4 in which the Apostle Paul writes, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or pride. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” Looking out for others, thinking of others, serving others… this is what it means to “walk humbly with thy God,” this is what Jesus did as He walked humbly with His Father, and Jesus is our example, let us follow Him.
As we have read through and discussed these different instructions given in Micah 6:8, you may have been wondering, “ya this is really cool and all, but what is my purpose in God’s Plan?” And that would be a valid question. So let’s answer it. We are human beings, which means we can’t really do much when compared to a divine being, especially the Creator of all things. His Plan is going to be completed no matter what we do, and this makes the answer to our question pretty straightforward, just do what God tells you to do. “Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him.”
To conclude, I would like to provide the answer I think Jesus, the Son of God, would give to this question, in Matthew 22:35-39, however, I am going to change a few of the words, you’ll see them in brackets, “One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, what is [my purpose in God’s Plan]?” Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” And I think that just about sums it up.
- A Follower of Christ