This is a very strongly worded sentence. Paul says, “In addition to all that I have just written, I beseech you, and I exhort you… “I exhort you – not in my authority as an apostle, but in the Name of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ… “It is your duty, as children of God, to PLEASE your Heavenly Father. “I beseech you to abound more and more in those things I have taught you – PLEASING the Lord.”
For a few minutes this evening let’s think about this Biblical exhortation about “pleasing God.” And we’ll start by considering the verb “to please.” The Greek word “aresko” (ar-es’-ko) is translated 17 times only in some form of this word “to please.” But – it is not always referring to pleasing God, and therein is half our message for this evening. In addition to “aresko” in the New Testament, different forms of the English word are found about 170 times in the Old Testament. So “to please” is a common verb in God’s Word.
I may be wrong, but it seems to me that this is one of those root words. By that I mean, it doesn’t come FROM any other English word, but rather, it PRODUCES other words. It is a word which we have to learn from scratch. Our mothers probably taught it to us. To “please” someone, says Webster, is to “to excite AGREEABLE sensations or emotions; to GRATIFY.” Our English word comes from Latin; it is not a Hebrew or Greek word transliterated into English. And Webster dedicates two full columns to the word and its cousins. Those cousins are: “pleasant” and “pleasure.” By definition, a “pleasant” person pleases us, and “pleasure” is the state of being pleased. Some of the second cousins include: “pleasurable,” “pleasance,”and “pleasurist” – someone devoted to worldly pleasure.
Here in our scripture, you might say that Paul summarizes our Christian responsibilities with the idea of “pleasing God.”
Sadly, there are those who seek pleasure in pleasing other gods and other things.
Do you remember when the Lord said, “Ye cannot serve GOD and MAMMON.” In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said to us, “No man can serve TWO masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.” Related to serving one or two people is an attempt to please those people. And in this light, Paul said in Galatians 1 – “Do I seek to PLEASE men? If I yet PLEASE men, I should NOT be the servant of Christ.” Of course, usually there is nothing wrong with wanting to please our spouse or our boss. But if in pleasing anyone else, we are displeasing God, then we are in disobedience and sin.
Here is an example: Christian evangelists who strive to serve two masters in their witnessing. They attempt to make the sinner comfortable in his sins before leading him to the Saviour. They spray cheap cologne all over the gospel, thinking that they make it pleasant to the unbeliever, when in fact they make it offensive to both men and God. Paul said, “As we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; NOT as PLEASING men, but God, which trieth our hearts.” Certainly we don’t want to deliberately offend people, but we shouldn’t dangle a worldly carrot out before their eyes to draw them into the gospel. That is not pleasing to the Lord.
Additionally, one reason some people seek to please others, is because it pleases themselves. Some make themselves feel good by trying to make others feel good. Like the class clown who does his best to make people laugh, because in their laughter he feels good.
Romans 15:1 – “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak NOT to PLEASE ourselves.” I know that this may sound a little contradictory to what I just said, but the context is different. Verse 2 – “Let every one of us PLEASE his neighbor for his good to edification. For even Christ PLEASED not himself; but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.” By what criteria should we analyze our pleasure-giving? Paul tells us to USE THE SAVIOUR. When did the Saviour ever act out of some selfish manner? For example, when did He turn away from a teaching opportunity in order to take a nap? Did He feed His disciples or Himself, before He fed the 5,000 or the 4,000? And then, of course, there was His sacrifice. Was the Lord looking forward to the glory He had with the Father at the time of the Creation? Yes He was, but was He anxious to “get it over with” so He could move on? No. If Christ had chosen to please Himself, there never would have been a means for our salvation. And remember, we didn’t deserve salvation, and still, Christ died because of our needs. Obviously, the Lord was surrendered to the will of the God-head. He was lead of the Spirit. He would not listen to the dictates of His own sinless flesh.
In contrast to Him, there are ourselves and our neighbors. Romans 8:8 – “They that are in the flesh cannot PLEASE God.” I wonder how many people have visited our services, heard what hymns we sing and how we sing them, and even if they stayed to the end of the sermon, they had already determined never to return? Their flesh had been teased and tickled with other church’s worship – like a rock music concert goer. And they want to continue to please the flesh. Or their hearts don’t want to hear old Biblical terms, like “repent” and “Be ye holy, as God is holy.” They were not willing to please God.
Don’t confined your picture to unbelievers, because Christians are just as guilty. For example, we can try to serve God in the strength of our own flesh rather under surrender to the Spirit. And Hebrews 11:6 reminds us “without faith it is impossible to PLEASE God.”
Now, quickly, let’s leave these negative thoughts and move on to the positive
What are some of those things which PLEASE GOD?
Thinking back to last Sunday morning, Solomon pleased God by putting others above himself. When his father, David, died, the weight of the kingdom and the leadership of that kingdom, fell on Solomon. There were important decisions to be made about the nation’s enemies, and some people lost their lives. Those judgments weighed heavily on the young man. We are told that Solomon loved Jehovah, and in I Kings 3:4 he went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices to God. “In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, Ask what I shall give thee.” Notice the open-ended offer – “Ask what you will, and I will give it to you.” First, Solomon thanked the Lord making him king, and then he confessed his youth and inexperience. He pointed to the nation of Israel in its size and variety and requested – “Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad; for who is able to judge this thy so great a people.”
“And the speech PLEASED the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.” This request pleased God. In human terms – it excited gratifying sensations in the Lord. Solomon possessed the omnipotent God’s unlimited “carte blanche,” through which he could have possessed anything – even to astronomical wealth. But he laid aside any personal blessings and chose blessings for others – and for the Lord Himself. And in this we are told that the Lord was pleased. As I said earlier the Lord is pleased when we put others before ourselves.
From where do you suppose Solomon received this giving, self-sacrificing attitude? Was it from David? In Psalm 69, David referred to something else which pleases God. In verse 29, he said, “I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall PLEASE the Lord, better than (the sacrifice of) an ox or bullock…” Just as in an ideal chocolate chip cookie there must be the perfect balance of ingredients, in the saint there needs to be good balance. And thanksgiving is one of those ingredients.
David gives us, here, the opportunity for really good gospel message. As it has from the days of Adam and Eve, our salvation from sin requires an outside sacrifice. But today, if we drenched our parking lot or our auditorium flood with the blood of bulls and goats, the Lord would turn His back on us in disgust. Such sacrifices would NOT please Him. The one perfect sacrifice has already been made. It was back at Golgotha in the death of the Lord Jesus. And for the Christian today, what the Lord wants to hear over and over again is: “Thank you. Thank you.” Our honest, humble thanksgiving honors the Saviour and pleases God.
And speaking about the Saviour, there was a day when God the Father looked down from Heaven and was so moved by what He saw, He said, “this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well PLEASED.” The ideal for pleasing God is seen in the person of the Son of God. He is our example; our standard. We are to be like Christ. “Christlikeness” is a word, or maybe two words, which should describe all of us who claim to be Christians. And going back to the day Jesus was baptized, I think God is pleased in seeing His obedient children.
Some people try to make Christlikeness more difficult than it really is. At what point did the Father say that Son pleased Him? Was it when He multiplied the fish or raised the dead? Was it He made the Jews angry with Him, preaching the truth? When God declared His pleasure with the Son, it was not after Jesus’ resurrection or His ascension. It was expressed at the time Jesus dedicated Himself to do the Father’s will – fulfilling all righteousness.
Some people make Christlikeness to be the successful application of a long list of detailed details. But here, the Father was pleased with the Son because He dedicated the remainder of His life to doing the Father’s will. And He began to do it. God was well aware that Jesus had lived thirty years of a sinless life, but this wasn’t the key to His pleasure. It sounds somewhat foolish to say it, but the father was pleased in the Son’s surrender to His will.
That may sound foolish when said in regard to Christ the Son, but it is a perfect way to put it in regard to us. Do you want to please God? Then fulfill your responsibilities as the Lord has laid them out before you. It may not be your responsibility to preach from a pulpit, but as a church member you have other various responsibilities. And the Lord is pleased when you fulfill them. It may not be your responsibility to feed the world, and you can’t personally preach the gospel to every creature. But it is your responsibility to leave your two mites in the treasury to help others. You have not been requested by God to become a secluded monk or cloistered nun. But you have been chosen to represent Him before the world. Doing that pleases Him.
Concluding with where we began: “We beseech you, brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus Christ as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to PLEASE God, so ye would abound more and more.”