Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. (2 Corinthians 5:9)

What Is Your Aim?

Life without an aim is aimless. That goes without saying. Everyone has an aim in life, but often they aim too low. Without an ambition in life, there is nothing to live for. Many people have great ambitions and lofty goals. They are driven by their ambitions to succeed in finance, entertainment, popularity, fleshly pleasures, and to make a place for themselves in history. The world is filled with those who have no ambitions and those who have the wrong ambitions. A life is defined by the goals a person seeks, which determine how they live.

What the world refuses to accept is that all the goals of life are empty if there is no aim to prepare for eternal life. Denying there is life after death does not change the fact that there is life after death. One view of humanity is that the world is filled with people who will die and never exist again. That makes man nothing more than an animal. Those who deny creation by God believe humanity crawled out of a prehistoric slime and evolved like the animals, which makes them nothing more than a useless existence with no purpose in life. What is the point of life if all a person does is eat, sleep, and die?

The Christian has a completely different view of life because they have an aim in life. Life for the child of God comes with an eternal destiny. There is hope for life beyond the grave. The promise of eternal life changes the view of the drudgery of a sinful world and the sorrow, sadness, and despair that come from hopelessness. One of the remarkable characteristics of the Christian is there is a purpose to life that gives glory to God. What Paul wanted the saints in Corinth to realize is that the aim of life is to be well pleasing to God. This was in stark contrast to the world of the Corinthians.

Life in the ancient Roman world, and especially the city of Corinth, was characterized by the common phrase of someone who lived a life of debauchery and hedonism as “Living like a Corinthian.” This pointed to the wasteful lives of those whose sole goal in life was to imbibe in all the pleasures of the flesh and mind. Their aim in life was centered on themselves. Writing to Christians living in a city like Corinth presented its own challenge. Paul wanted the saints to rise above their world and make their aim to live righteous in a very unrighteous world. It required aiming one’s heart in the right direction with purpose and courage. Paul admonished the Christians to make it their goal and ambition of life to live in such a way that the Lord would say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Everyone has an aim in life, but most people are aiming for the wrong things. There is only one eternal goal: to be well-pleasing to God. Sadly, without setting the right goals and aims in life, eternity becomes a dark place for those unprepared. They realize too late how important it was to set their hearts to serve the Lord and to realize that man is an eternal creature. Humans make goals and aim for higher things. Animals have no goals, and they have nothing to aim for. People never cease to exist. Animals cease to exist. Which creature should be setting proper goals and aims in life?