What is our purpose and how does it help with having peace?

Many people emphasize that Christianity is about being “saved from” Hell.  But God’s primary focus is about us being “saved to” Heaven — and getting a small taste of that now.

Jesus summarized all that God teaches about life in “The Two Greatest Commandments” – Love God and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-40).  Love God because He is more loving and wise than us.  Love your neighbor as yourself because wholesome relationships is critical to peace and purpose.  These two commandments enhance all of our relationships and all of our values, goals and activities.  More on that in our content for the two greatest commandments.

Jesus showed us our purpose — loving others.  Jesus said He is the exact representation of the Father (Hebrews 1:3, John 14:9).  As we look at Jesus interacting with people while walking this earth, we see that He was mostly counseling people on how to live more wisely.  He also healed many people.  If you look at the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and the parables, you see much counseling to help us mature our attitudes.  God still sometimes performs miracles today, but they are less common now because we have the Word and the Spirit.  We are now supposed to be learning to mature our faith via living the truths He taught us.  That helps us live better lives now and definitely helps prepare us for an eternity of wholesome relationships in Heaven.  2 Peter 1:5-7 Faith –> virtue –> understanding –> self-control –> steadfastness –> godliness –> brotherly affection –> love.

A little more on peace and purpose coming from the two greatest commandments:
Unconditional Love:  This is best experienced when we are making His “First and Greatest Commandment” our top life priority.  That commandment is to love Him with all our heart, soul and mind.  God built into our design the parent-child relationship.  That was intentional.  While some don’t have good examples of that in their life, a wise and loving parent will reward and discipline at times for behaviors.  All they do of both are part of a loving molding of their child’s character so that the child will have a better full life.  The child will not be expected to fully understand this at times, especially in their younger years, but they usually will understand it more as they get older.  If the parents and child are listening to each other, the child will know that they are unconditionally loved even when being disciplined.  The child will know that their love is unconditional and never based on how good they are, but solely on their parent’s love.  God’s love for His children is perfectly unconditional.  He loves His children even when they wonder.  As a loving and wise parent, He will bless and discipline as appropriate, but all will be with purpose for our good (Romans 8:28).

Eternal Purpose:  This is best experienced when we are making His “Second Greatest Commandment” our practical response to the greatest commandment.  When we focus primarily on “self”, it corrupts relationships.  Once we realize that it is more rewarding to give than to receive, we find eternal purpose that offers purpose the world cannot offer (Acts 20:35 and John 13:34-35 which reference Matthew 25:34-40 and Luke 14:12-14).

Having unconditional love and eternal purpose are two ingredients of true and lasting peace.

We need to understand that this time on earth is a training ground for Heaven.  The strife of this 80+/- years is a blink-of-an-eye part of our eternal life where God is letting us see what happens we do things our way instead of His.  If we are insightful, we will see that doing things our way has created a world full of strife.  Those that prioritize the two greatest commandments will have an eternity full of wholesome relationships that will be the result of trusting their loving and wise Heavenly Father and loving others as ourselves.  As a bonus, to the extent that we do that while on this earth, we can get a taste of it now.  We cannot have the full experience here because we are impacted by the actions of others and also we are not yet fully grasping and implementing loving others as ourselves.  But we can have a taste of it.

Summary:
Once we really do prioritize the two greatest commandments as the core foundation for our values, goals and activities, we will find peace and purpose the world cannot understand.  But that is not easy because the world keeps telling us to fill “self”.  Again, that is expanded upon in the page on those two commandments.  We need to realize that God is doing all this for our good similar to what a loving and wise parent does.  Then we can have an eternity full of wholesome relationships with Him and the others in Heaven with us that have also come to trust Him.  Once we do, we will desire it more rewarding than anything this world has to offer.  It will not be burden or requirement, it will be a driving desire.

Go to:  The two greatest commandments.
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Bible verses:

• Ephesians 2:4-9  But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ by grace and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works…
• Matthew 22:37-40  And he said to him, “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.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
• Romans 8:28  And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
• John 13:34-35  “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” 
• Acts 20:35  In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
• Matthew 25:34-40 (summarized)  When you help the needy, you are helping God.
• Luke 14:12-14  He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid.  But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
• Hebrews 11:13-16  (context is a long list of people of faith in the Bible)  These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.  For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.  If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.  But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. 
• 2 Peter 1:5-7 Faith –> virtue –> understanding –> self-control –> steadfastness –> godliness –> brotherly affection –> love.
• John 3:16  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 
• 1 John 3:16  We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.