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“how you ought to walk and to please God” (1 Thess. 4:1, NKJV)
One of the glories of the gospel is that we stand clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. God, the holy judge, looks upon us and not only declares us to be without the guilt of sin, He also regards us as righteous in His sight because of the perfect obedience of His Son credited to us. In that sense, we could not be more pleasing in His sight.
Why then does the apostle speak of how we “ought to walk and to please God”?
There are those who say that any such talk of pleasing God is an affront to the gospel. But the gospel is the gospel of the kingdom. Our lives in Christ are driven by the law of love that knows and obeys our Lord Jesus. It works itself out in our lives in greater devotion to God, dying to sin and living to righteousness, not for some sort of religious tally sheet but in relationship with our God. We look at life asking ourselves if our actions, attitudes, and ambitions will please our Heavenly Father who has made His will known to us in His word.
This new orientation to life is reflected in Paul’s prayer for the Colossians.
“For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” (Col. 1:9–14)
Notice in Paul’s prayer the work of God to deliver us from the dominion of darkness and establish us in the kingdom of life and light. He expresses that kingdom in terms of His beloved Son, our Savior. Jesus is the point of reference for all that Paul said in the prior verses of his prayer, including living lives “fully pleasing” to Him.
We don’t live in conformity to God’s will in order to enter His kingdom but because we are part of His kingdom. Paul put this indicative/imperative this way in his letter to the Ephesians: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord” (Eph. 5:8–10). We are light; therefore, we are to be light, living consistently with our new identity in Christ.
In his letter to the Thessalonians Paul uses the same word for “pleasing” that he used in his prayer for the Colossians. “Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God” (1 Thess. 4:1).
Our obedience as Christians is not some sterile duty. We obey in relationship to and relationship with the Father, in the model of Jesus.
Those who oppose any notion of law-keeping or required obedience as contrary to the gospel of grace entertain a warped and stunted view of the gospel. The very heart of discipleship is transformative by denying self and living for Christ. Making disciples involves teaching them to obey all that Jesus has commanded.
Paul goes on to connect pleasing God with the commandments of Christ. “[F]or you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus” (1 Thess. 4:2).
God’s work of power and grace in our lives brings us not only to a new position but also a new practice. Kingdom practice, under the lordship of Jesus Christ.
How does the idea of pleasing God transform your Christian walk?
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
