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What Human Beings Are For

What Human Beings Are For

Last updated on: November 11, 2026 at 6:00 am by Gene Veith

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What Human Beings Are For 2026-11-06T17:47:35-05:00 Gene Veith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I was asked to write a post for Word by Word, the blog of Logos Bible Study Platform, that massive digital reference resource and e-book library. I was asked to address the questions, what are human beings for, and what is technology for?

They asked me because of my new book with Trevor Sutton, Irreplaceable: Humanity, Vocation, and the Limits of Technology, which they knew about because Logos used to own Lexham Press, our original publisher, which they sold to Baker Books, which is our new publisher.

Anyway, the post I wrote for them does draw on our book when it comes to technology, but I was intrigued by the opportunity to think through specifically what the Bible says about the purpose of human life.

As is my custom, I am posting the first part of the article here and linking to the site that published the piece so you can read the rest of it. (At the site, Logos puts in the links to their other resources, not all of which I go along with. I’ve taken them out here, but you will find them at the website.) The section that discusses the purpose of our lives is included here in its entirety.

What Are Humans For? (& Why AI Can Never Take Your Place)

Technology pessimists are saying that “AI will kill us all.” To me, technology optimists are even scarier, believing that AI will eliminate our need to work, think, create, communicate, learn, invent, and have relationships. Either scenario would end humanity as we know it.

To make sure we are using emerging technology–including AI–to benefit humanity, rather than to eliminate humanity, we need to think through both the purpose of technology and the purpose of human beings.

What Humans Are For

The first purpose statement given in the Bible for human beings occurs at the very beginning of our creation:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Gen 1:26).

That God made man “in our image” is connected to man having “dominion. . .over all the earth.” Just as God has dominion over all that He created, so, in a far lesser way, does man have dominion over the earth and its other inhabitants. God exercises His dominion, in part, by means of human beings. The Hebrew word translated as “dominion” refers to royal authority, not exploitation or tyranny. The nature of human dominion over the natural order is indicated in the next chapter, in which humanity is put to work: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it” (Gen 2:15).

This purpose statement defines humanity’s purpose towards the created order. Later, though, the Bible lays out the purpose of human beings in relationship to God and to each other.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” says Jesus. And “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt 22:37, 39). This teaching is repeated in Mark 12:28-31 and Luke 10:27.

Jesus has pulled together two teachings repeated multiple times in the Bible. The part about loving God with all of your being is reiterated with variations no less than six times in the Old Testament (Deut 6:5, 10:12, 11:13, 13:3, 30:6; Josh 22:5). Significantly, Jesus adds to the Old Testament lists “mind.” We are to love God with our minds, as well as with our hearts and souls, opening up the intellectual pursuits to the Christian life. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” is repeated as a separate phrase five times throughout the Bible (Lev 19:18, Matt 19:19, Rom 13:9, Gal 5:14, Jas 2:8).

Together, Jesus says, these two statements sum up everything that God requires of us. “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt 22:40).

These two commandments also connect to other teachings in God’s Word. How, exactly, do we love God? The Apostle John explains: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (John 4:10). We don’t love God in our natural, sinful condition. But because of His love for us and the gift of His Son, who atoned for our sins, we cannot help but love Him.

How, exactly, do we love our neighbor? Just as the Gospel, which we receive by faith, enables us to love God, it also enables us to love our neighbor. John continues: ” Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us” (John 4:11-12). Because of our faith in Christ’s propitiation for our sins, God dwells in us. Therefore, God expresses His love for our neighbors through our love for our neighbors.

Thus, the two commandments come together and are resolved and fulfilled through the Gospel. Faith works through love (Gal 5:6), both love of God and love of neighbor. “We love” them both “because he first loved us” (John 4:19).

Vocation Is How We Live Out That Purpose

If you put together those three Biblical purposes for human life– dominion over creation, love of God, and love of neighbor–you get the doctrine of vocation.

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