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
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