Purpose Driven Life

[kayre]

Summary: “The ultimate goal of the universe is to show the glory of God... God made it all for his glory... What is the glory of God? It is who God is. It is the essence of his nature...” How do people bring glory to God? worship; loving other believers; becoming like Christ; serving others; telling others about God.

My thoughts: Yet another chapter begins with a broad paraphase, of Romans 11:34 this time.

Reading this chapter is a roller coaster. The sentence, “God made it all for his glory” set my teeth on edge, as it sounded like the usual “God made people so they would praise him and make him feel good.” I was reassured when instead Warren went the direction of glory meaning that creation reveals God’s nature. Unfortunately, a few paragraphs later he does go on to say “... we are commanded to recognize his glory, honor his glory, praise his glory..... because God deserves it.” Most of the scriptures quoted to support this read to me like invitations to share in joy, not commands; the only NT quote doesn’t apply at all.

Another moment of hope, he quotes Irenaeus: “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” He goes on to say “God wants our worship to be motivated by love... not duty” but how can it be anything but duty the way Warren is teaching?

Another very broad paraphrase, of Romans 6:13.

Loving other believers? not other people in general???

The paraphrase of 2 Peter 1:3 is astonishingly free, to the point of being misleading-- worst one yet.

I’m pretty tired of the fact that Warren assumes that no one reading this book is really a Christian yet. There is nothing here about deepening one’s spiritual life, because obviously we don’t even HAVE a spiritual life yet. Bah humbug.