What is the Meaning of Life?
Adam Bailey- February 2, 2026
To answer this question, ironically, we probably first need to discern what a person means when they ask it! Often, when a person is searching for meaning, they are looking for things like significance, purpose, coherence, or that which brings deepest satisfaction. So to ask “what is the meaning of life” is to say something like, “what in life matters the most?”, or “what in life will bring me the deepest sense of significance and satisfaction?”, or even “what is the purpose of my life? Is that purpose something I create or something given to me?” Most often, we mean some combination of those things when we are looking for life’s meaning.
This question is a natural one to ask, and yet, because of the difficulty of answering it, sometimes people never arrive at an explicit conclusion. However, even with those people, they end up living for something even if they haven’t named it out loud. A popular paraphrase of Carl Jung says it well when it asserts: “Until we make the unconscious conscious, it will direct our lives, and we will call it fate.”
Thus, the answer we come up with (or lack thereof) ends up being enormously consequential! After a brief survey, I’ll argue that Christianity offers a distinct and ultimately more compelling answer.
Three Influential Answers in Modern Western Culture
The various answers given to our question across time are many, but let’s look at three of the most prominent in Western society today:
Existentialism:
This is one of the most influential modern philosophies that grew in the 19th and 20th centuries and is associated with thinkers like Camus and Sartre. I choose to write about it here because I believe it overlaps with (and often underwrites) other modern answers, such as scientific materialism (think evolution) and secular humanism (meaning lies in seeking the greater good of humanity). Existentialism essentially argues that life has no given meaning, and that individuals must create their own meaning through free choices and commitments. It urges authenticity by owning one's freedom and responsibility—examining desires, distilling a direction, and then acting without self-deception. It acknowledges the anxiety and difficulty that developing your own meaning can create. While it didn’t begin as an atheistic movement, it is often associated with atheism today because of its general claim that meaning doesn’t come from outside of you. The universe does not come with a built-in purpose, and thus any purpose you adopt is not universally authoritative.
While existentialism can be deeply appealing to Americans because of its focus on being free to create one’s own meaning, I would argue it is inherently unstable and dangerous. It tends toward subjective morality because moral authority finally rests on human choice rather than an objective standard that applies to all. So in practice, it collapses into “right is whatever I choose,” even when others are harmed. Ultimately, if you are searching for life’s meaning just by following your own desires (even examined desires) and exercising various freedoms, over time, that leads most of us to a deep sense of dissatisfaction. This is because desires shift, conflict with one another, and rarely settle the question of what is truly worth living for. I would argue we sort of begin our quest for meaning in this way naturally, and the often painful and confusing results lead us back to square one and reading articles like this one! A meaning that is created by you is inherently limited by you, as well as subject to all your shortcomings and blind spots.
Nihilism:
This philosophy answers our all-important question by simply saying that life has no meaning. I think of the Joker character from The Dark Knight or Tyler Durden in Fight Club as representing the nihilistic mood. It is similar in some ways to existentialism in that both acknowledge humans long for meaning, but ultimately no objective meaning is available, so life can feel absurd, especially under suffering and death. The difference between them is that existentialism seeks to create meaning, while nihilism would say that’s great and maybe even has benefits, but what you created isn’t real whether you like it or not. An existentialist might say meaning can be just as true and real if you created it, but in reality, it ends up being fabricated, fragile, and incoherent. The nihilist might conclude by saying that created meaning will probably even lead to greater suffering. In this regard, some have argued that nihilism is just a more honest version of existentialism, which I tend to agree with.
As you might imagine, believing your life is purely accidental with absolutely no meaning to be found can tempt one to depression and despair. After all, if life has no meaning, why choose life over death? Friedrich Nietzsche is the philosopher most associated with nihilism, even if much of his work focused on looking for a way out of it (who can blame him). He assessed that Europe had begun to conclude that God was ‘dead’ in the 19th century, and was a convinced atheist himself. He felt Europe would then likely slide into nihilism because, up until that point, belief in God was the primary source of meaning for most people and for society. Ultimately, he became a forerunner to the existentialists by proposing various ideas to avoid nihilism’s meaninglessness, but his ideas suffer from the same weaknesses as the existentialists in that they lack a universal grounding.
Christianity:
Different religions answer this differently (what follows is necessarily brief). Buddhism, for example, would not put the focus on a meaning that comes from God but rather on overcoming suffering through practices like mindfulness and defeating wrongful cravings, reducing disappointment. Islam, in some ways, approaches the question directly in Qur’an 29:64, “And this worldly life is not but diversion and amusement. And indeed, the home of the Hereafter - that is the [true] life, if only they knew.” This text somewhat downplays our current lives compared to the next one, though other texts emphasize meaning through submission to and worship of God, as well as acts of justice and charity. The claims of Christianity are distinct from these and from every other religion in key ways. I can think of three passages from the Bible that help us see clearly what Christianity teaches as the meaning of life.
The first is in John 10:10, in which Jesus says, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Here is the main character of the Bible, Jesus, describing why he came, and he says he came not just to give any old life but a full life. Jesus presents “life to the full” as abundant life, life marked by wholeness and lasting satisfaction. Jesus also implies with this statement that our lives here and now are much more important than mere amusement or diversion, contra Islam. They are about much more than overcoming suffering, contra Buddhism. This passage says an abundant life is not found in a principle or philosophy, but in a relationship with a specific person, namely Jesus. This is materially different from everything we have discussed so far as possible answers.
The second passage is Matthew 22:37-39, in which Jesus declares the greatest commandment of God. He says, “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.” This statement from Jesus gets at the purpose of our lives, which is central to meaning. According to him, it is to love God and love people. Many have lauded the virtue of love, but this passage grounds it universally in a created purpose. The Bible states clearly that Jesus is God (John 1:1, Titus 2:13) and created us (John 1:3, Colossians 1:17). It is natural and reasonable for a creator to assign a purpose to all his creation, the way an author gives a story an aim, or a designer builds something for a purpose. In this regard, human purpose becomes objective and universal for all, binding us together as humans in a powerful way. This is critical because Christianity agrees with nihilism and existentialism that all people long for meaning and purpose, yet it posits this universal longing as evidence that we were designed with a purpose in mind. The longing is there because we are made to have meaning, the way hunger points to the fact that we are meant to have food.
Finally, the third passage is 1 Corinthians 10:31 in which the apostle Paul, one of Jesus’s followers, states, “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” Here, Paul helps us see that while God draws us to do many different things in life, like eat, drink, and work, what matters most is God and giving him glory. It orders our lives: many good gifts, one highest good. The Westminster Shorter Catechism summarizes this and the Bible well by asserting that “man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever”, or as some have amended it (Desiring God - Our Grand Obligation), by enjoying him forever. The basic claim is that we are made for God’s glory, and one of the primary ways we can glorify him is by enjoying him!
Conclusion
So, which of these popular answers is ultimately true, if any? After all, we wouldn’t want to decide on an answer purely based on how it makes us feel, but on whether or not that answer is true. Much more could be said, especially about whether or not God’s existence is reasonable (The Gospel In Life - The Meaning of God). I would argue that, even on its face, Christianity’s answer is the most robust, offering unmatched explanatory power for human nature—our innate longings, moral intuitions, and life itself.
What if the meaning of life isn't something we invent, but a Person we encounter? If you would like to further explore this question, we here at Skyline Church in Denver would love to invite you into the conversation. We have groups that discuss this very question in an open and non-judgmental way. We also have pastors and other leaders available to sit down and discuss it with you further. If you are interested in this, please let us know here.