Are you pleasing God? I didn’t ask if you were loved by God. All men are loved by God. Being loved really only defines you as a part of humanity for which Christ died. The question is, are you pleasing Him?
That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; (Col 1:10)
Paul exhorts the believers to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. There are words in this verse that make some uncomfortable: ‘worthy,’ ‘pleasing,’ ‘work.’ You may say, “I thought this was a done deal!” “I thought that God’s love made me worthy and pleasing and that there was no more work, only rest.”
Yes, faith in Christ has made you righteous. His imputed righteousness has made you worthy, and our right standing before Him requires no work. But that is speaking of our spiritual condition. What about our life in this world? Are we free to do as we please with no thought for how we live our lives as His children?
. . . that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, (Phil. 2:15)
In this world God desires that we be blameless in the midst of a fallen world. This is not speaking of our spiritual condition before Him, but rather of how we actually live. God has equipped us for holy living. God wants us to do the right thing in order to be pleasing unto Him. This is not a ‘love’ issue. As parents we love our children, but our children may not always please us in their behavior.
Even Jesus was aware of the relationship between God’s presence in His life, and His actions.
And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him. (John 8:29)
Jesus pleased God, not only because God was His Father but because of the things which He did. We are pleasing because of what Jesus has accomplished for us, but we should also be pleasing in how we represent our Father in this world.
Lively Hope 