Pleasing the Lord

Do you have a main goal for your life? If so, how would you summarize it? What is the dominant thought that drives your daily actions? According to Jesus’ apostle Paul, it’s fairly simple to boil down the reason for our existence: to please the Lord. When Paul explained to the Thessalonian Christians why he and his fellow workers spoke the good news of Jesus, he said “we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts” (1 Thessalonians 2.4). He instructed the Ephesian congregation to “try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord” (Ephesians 5.10). To his young co–worker Timothy he said: “Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him” (2 Timothy 2.3–4). And other examples of this language abound in Scripture.

We are hardwired to please. Making our goal to please fellow humans, however, is a futile quest. We humans often do not understand ourselves or others very well, because it is impossible for us to perfectly read hearts like God does. Our emotions towards others (and ourselves!) are often volatile. So why would we look to each other for approval when it lies on such an unstable foundation?

Jesus provides our example of how to please the right person. In the course of his ministry, Jesus disappointed many of his fellow humans! Common Jews quailed at his difficult teachings, as when he told a synagogue audience to eat his flesh and drink his blood to have life. Jewish religious leaders were deeply offended by his disregard for their human traditions and his persistent love for outcast people. King Herod and the Roman leadership were disappointed by the un–kingly manner in which the King of the Jews presented himself. Even Jesus’ closest disciples were sometimes shocked by his behavior, as when he chose to converse with a Samaritan woman at a well.

None of these various opinions of his friends and enemies swayed Jesus’s actions or affected his thoughts, however. His single focus was to please the One who sent him to earth. “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise” (John 5.19). As the painful end of Jesus’ life drew him to the cross, not even his own preferences dictated his course of life. “For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, ‘The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.’ ” (Romans 15.3). Are we prepared to follow Jesus to this extent? Are we ready to receive the bitter hatred of the world so that we

can pour our lives out in love as we fix our eyes on Jesus?

Nathan Combs