The Best Way of Living

In one of my Social Science classes which revolves around Political and Social Philosophy, we dabbled on and on about what the best kind of life a man could live and how he goes about attaining that.

So we discussed the concepts and ideas that Plato, Aristotle, and indirectly, Socrates, suggested, observed, and reflected upon.

We looked at Plato's The Republic and we are currently tackling Aristotle's The Politics, both of which try to elucidate what are the necessities for an established, well-rooted society that would make way for the best kind of life.

Plato suggested that philosophers must be kings since it is reason that governs the soul of these type of people.

He stratified the society in such a way that the characteristic that rules within a person's soul is the basis on classifying the citizens of the society into three groups namely: the Rulers or Guardians, the Auxiliaries, and the Laboring Class.

Aristotle, on the other hand, described certain political associations that would give order to society and placed emphasis on the family whereas Plato was for the abolition of the family due to reasons of his own. Aristotle believed that the rule of the many which he called 'polity' is the best constitution or political arrangement that should govern a society.

Though these ideas have greatly influenced Western philosophy and are considered to be a great inheritance from the West in terms of governance and leadership, there is no doubt in my mind that the ideas of these philosophers lack something very significant to achieve what they aim for.

I believe that it is impossible for man by his own devices and abilities to live the best kind of life, much more to create a perfect, self-sufficient society. I believe what we need to do is to live not for ourselves or for others but we must first live for Jesus and submit our lives to Him.

I believe that only Jesus can provide for us the best kind of life since the Bible is very clear about what His promises are to us. John 10:10 says that Jesus came so that we will have life and have it to the full and John 6:35 tells us that Jesus will give us our needs to satisfy our soul.

Moreover, Jesus says in John 15:5 that we are nothing apart from Him. The moment that we start to depend on our own abilities, our lives will start to crumble and become meaningless because essentially it is God who enables us to do what we can do and gives us everything that we need.

So if we depend on ourselves instead of depending on God, we are basically saying that we do not need God and this is an arrogant and foolish act because we are nothing without God.

Every day, we have to recognize that our lives come from God and that everything we have was not merited by our own hands but because of God's love and supplication in our lives.

We need to be grateful to God for all that He gives us and praise Him when we have none and when we face trials just as Job praised God when everything was taken from him saying, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked will I depart.

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised." This is the attitude that we should have in all things.

The best kind of life can only be found in Jesus and only by following Jesus through faith and obedience to His promises and commands are we able to live a life that is pleasing to God which God will find favor upon and bless us with the best gifts from heaven.

I believe that this is the life that we must strive for, a life not for the acquisition of wealth or for the appraisal of men but a life to please an audience of the One and True God.