Living To Please

Living to Please

We instructed you how to live in order to please God.

1 Thessalonians 4:1

IN WORD We know we aren’t saved by our ability to please God. We understand that God is satisfied by our faith, not our works. But Paul, the great apostle of grace through faith, also spoke a lot about obedience. In 1 Thessalonians, he actually spoke of ways to please God through behavior.

We want to please God, of course, and we know our obedience falls short. Coming to God on the basis of works makes for a frustrating relationship; it’s never perfect. Even so, God is intensely concerned with what we do, and how we live has everything to do with what we offer Him. It’s not about earning His favor but about giving Him our best. Our worship is shaped not only by what we feel or what we say, but by how we behave. Our works can honor God.

That’s important to know in a culture that doesn’t give much attention to obedience. Rules, in our day, are considered relative, always subject to interpretation. Even in the church, we emphasize faith more than obedience, and we’re right to do so. But nowhere does the Bible tell us that our obedience becomes irrelevant. James is emphatic that faith without works is dead—not even faith at all. That makes a lot of sense. If we say we believe that Jesus is Lord and then fail to act as if He is, we have made a significant statement. We have demonstrated that our words don’t mean very much.

IN DEED Is obedience a part of your worship? Do your beliefs have implications for your behavior? More pointedly, when your desires and your Lord contradict each other, which do you obey? Your behavior is the final word on what you really believe. No matter how strongly you feel a love for God, and no matter how deeply held you think your faith is, if it doesn’t result in action, it’s an illusion.

Jesus said the same thing: “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15). In other words, if you love Him, you will also love His words, and His words will guide your life. And that is immensely pleasing to God.

The best measure of a spiritual life is not its ecstasies but its obedience.

—OSWALD CHAMBERS