When you choose to please God above all others, that does not give you license to go out with a chip on your shoulder and a haughty attitude where you try to irritate and offend people...just to prove a point. We all know the kind of people I’m talking about.

We are admonished to ‘speak the truth in love’ (Eph. 4:15), and when correcting others who are in error...do so with a ‘spirit of meekness, considering ourselves lest we are also tempted’ (Gal. 6:1)

There will never be a shortage of people, especially ‘religious’ folks...who will take exception to what God has to say and be offended by His word. We see that repeatedly throughout the gospels when Jesus spoke the word, as with His followers in the Book of Acts.

Speaking from personal experience, I can assure you this is an area that anyone who shares the gospel of Jesus Christ on a regular basis has to watch their attitude carefully, and examine heart motives. We are not here to ‘win battles and prove points’; on the contrary, we are sent to say what God says with the hopes that people living in darkness will hear and respond accordingly...and come to the light of truth and be ‘saved’ (1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9). Even Peter got a little quick with the sword one time trying to defend Jesus and cut off a soldier’s ear in the process. We can easily do the same with a fleshly attitude when it comes to handling the ‘sword’ of God’s word.

But the other ‘ditch’ countless numbers of ‘preachers’ can fall into, is being more concerned about NOT...offending folks, or upsetting ‘influential’ church members when it comes to sharing what God’s word has to say. Paul warned Timothy of a day coming when there would be no shortage of these types either (2 Tim. 4:3-4). Pleasing men and seeking their approval above God’s is a terrible bondage to be ensnared by.

We’ve been studying what it means to make it our aim to please God since we are admonished to find out what is acceptable to Him...and then do it (Eph.5:10). Hopefully you are caught up from the last two days of postings here. I made it a point early on to distinguish the difference between ‘pleasing’ someone and ‘appeasing’ them. And I cannot underscore enough, the importance of making it our aim in life to want to please God, and/or to be ‘found pleasing’ to Him.

There is an interesting passage found in 1 Cor. 10, where Paul is pointing back to that first generation who were delivered from Egypt and were making their way through the wilderness to the ‘promise land’. He refers to this account for ‘our example and warning’ (6,11), stating that with most of these people...”God was not well pleased with them, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.”(5)

I have to ask something here- Has God not always been a ‘God of love’, or was this some new ‘makeover’ He had after Jesus arrived on the scene? We certainly like to portray God as ‘loving and merciful...and good’, and He certainly possesses all of these attributes; but we also know that God ‘never changes’ (Mal. 3:6), and that He is the ‘same yesterday, today, and forever’ (Heb. 13:8). Paul exhorts us to ‘behold the goodness and the severity of God’ (Rom. 11:22) so is it not reasonable to ask and want to investigate...for what reason was God not ‘well pleased’ with the majority of those people whom He delivered from bondage?

Take a moment and read through the ‘indictments’ made by God in 1 Cor. 10:6-10. Are not some of these sinful acts just as prevalent today in our world, and yes...in our ‘churches’? Do people still not ‘lust after evil things’...and love other things more than they love God, which is what idolatry is? Seems I read somewhere of a people who have a ‘form of godliness’.... while becoming lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God’ (2 Tim. 3:1-5). And the list goes on there in 1 Cor. 10...explaining why some 23,000 people ‘fell’ because of ‘sexual immorality’. But wait...surely that does not happen today in our churches, does it? And what happened to those ‘grumblers and complainers’ Paul points out in vs. 10; what were they ‘destroyed’ by? And why is Paul pointing all this out again (11)?

Let’s be honest here...that group of folks sure sounded like they were ‘in the flesh’, does it not? Does the writer in Hebrews not point out how they “always go astray in their hearts” (3:10)? Does Paul not also command us to ‘flee from idolatry’...lest we ‘provoke the Lord to jealous anger’ (1 Cor. 10:14,22)?

Yes, we are indeed admonished to ‘find out what is acceptable and pleasing to God...and then do it. And this you can be sure of...those who remain ‘in the flesh’ or ‘carnally minded’...cannot please God and actually make themselves ‘hostile’ towards God (Rom. 8:7-8). Now this is where it can get tricky, because we can be quick to say that nobody can be ‘spiritually minded all of the time’, which is where Paul says we find ‘life and peace’ (5-6). So are we guilty then of being ‘double-minded’? And what did James have to say about ‘double-minded’ people? (James 1:7-8)

I know Paul called out some ‘carnal babes in Christ’ early on in 1 Cor. 3:1-3, and he sure was not ‘cooing’ over those ‘babes’ either. In fact, he had some strong words of warning for them in his second letter (2 Cor. 12:20-21) and how they better get it together. One of my driving concerns that has kept me focused on some very specific matters here in my daily postings these past five years...is we have underestimated (due to a lack of knowledge) just how serious God was, and is...about us dealing with this ‘flesh nature’. Paul makes it quite clear that ‘those who continue to live this way will NOT inherit the kingdom of God! (Gal. 5:19-21). And ‘those who belong to Christ have put this nature to death’, once and for all! (Gal. 5:24).

Do you know what pleases God? The same thing that has always pleased Him- when we do what He asks of us. “ Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever! “ (Deut. 5:29)

“IF you love Me, keep My commandments.” – Jesus (John 14:15).

It might be time to once again, revisit the story of King Saul who failed to fully obey God, and figured that simply ‘appeasing’ Him with a spectacular ‘worship service’ would work just as well. Boy...was he ever wrong! Join me tomorrow?