In my previous blog, The Six Essentials Questions you need to ask yourself to get clear on your purpose, the first question was to determine whose are you? This question brings to light the relational dimension of purpose.  It is important to know the connections between relationships and purpose.  In this blog, I will share why and how knowing the connection will help contribute to you having a clearer pathway toward your purpose

First, it is important to whose you are before you can get clear on who you are. From a biblical perspective, you were created by God.  You carry the divine imprint in your DNA.  In Genesis 1:26-28, the passages note:

26 Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (NASB, bold font mine). [1]

Your Relationships Inform your Purpose

The first connection between relationship and purpose is that your relationships inform your purpose. God created you to be God’s vice-regents in the world.[2] As a result of this connection, your purpose is to express God’s image as his image-bearer and representative in the world. 

This expression of being God’s image-bearer in the world has a vertical as well a horizontal impact. We are called to be sons and daughters in relationship to God, and we are also called to be stewards of God’s world through “servant-kingship.”[3]   All the covenants in scripture seek to re-align us into the divine image i.e., the Imago Dei.

Calling is best discerned when Purpose and Relationships intersect

The second connection between relationship and purpose is calling.  If the Divine-Human relationship informs our purpose, then the human-to-human relationships are the vehicles through which your purpose is expressed. Your purpose will not be clear and meaningful aside from the relationships you’re in.   

As a result of Christ’s redemptive work and calling us into Covenant. We have been re-imaged to do good works (Ephesians 2:8-10). We must let our light shine before others with our good works (Matthew 5:15-16).  You are called to serve your generation well by expressing the purposes of God like King David (Acts 13:36).  God will often give you a burden to be a solution to problems within the context of a relationship. Your purpose and calling will be clarified through purposeful relationship building. This will help you discern who God is calling you to impact and who you need to purposely connect with for impact.

Have you ever evaluated your relationships to determine if they are purposeful? What do you believe God is showing you in terms of your relationships?

[1] New American Standard Bible. The Lockman Foundation.

[2] G.K. Beale, The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A biblical theology of the dwelling place of God, ed. D.A. Carson (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 81.  

[3] Peter J. Gentry & Stephen J. Wellum, Kingdom through Covenant (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 200.