Why did God create human being and what is the purpose of life?

A friend asked this question a few days ago. It’s a big question, let’s discuss it together. I know I don’t have all the answers for it. I will just write out what I understand so far.

Simply put, God created human beings out His love. And we are created to know God and to love God through loving each other.

This is the short version of the answer. Let’s elaborate a little more.

To understand the purpose of life, we first have to know the definition of human reality.

There may be many versions of the definition of human being. Here is the one I learned and also the one seems making sense to me:

“Having created the world and all that liveth and moveth therein, He…chose to confer upon man the unique distinction and capacity to know Him and to love Him -- a capacity that must needs be regarded as the generating impulse and the primary purpose underlying the whole of creation.... Upon the inmost reality of each and every created thing He hath shed the light of one of His names, and made it a recipient of the glory of one of His attributes. Upon the reality of man, however, He hath focused the radiance of all of His names and attributes, and made it a mirror of His own Self. Alone of all created things man hath been singled out for so great a favor, so enduring a bounty.”

So human beings and only human beings are endowed with this unique capacity to reflect all the attributes (virtues) of God. The development of this capacity not only constitutes the purpose of our own existence, but also is the purpose of the whole universe.

Yet, this development is not automatic.

“All that which ye potentially possess can, however, be manifested only as a result of your own volition.”

Effort is required from us in our development. Yet God didn’t just create us, throw us in this wilderness and let us do our own job. In order to help us to develop, God not only has formulated this physical world in a way that is best suitable for our development, but also has periodically sent His messengers in different ages and to different places to guide us. The only thing that we are required to do is to recognize God’s messenger for our time and follow the instructions He brought to us.

Simple, isn’t it? Really, it’s not that much if only the physical world does not present to us these many temptations!