Pleasing God - Pt. 1

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

There are 3 main points I want to unpack from this portion of Scripture. 1) The supreme aim of the Christian Life; 2) Everything else rendered insignificatnt; and 3) The ambition / motivation towards this supreme aim.

1. The Supreme aim of the Christian life (Verse 2 Corinthians 5:6 - 9)

2 Corinthians 5:6–9 ESV

So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

How long he will continue to live at home in the body or whether he will soon die and be away from the body are matters which he cannot determine. But what he must determine is how he will live. Paul states that it will always be his aim to please the Lord.

The Supreme aim of the Christian life is to please the Lord.

Aim- What are you aiming at? What is the aim of your life that you know whether or not you hit it. “A fanatic is a person who, having lost sight of his goal, redoubles his effort to get there.” The fanatic runs around frantically getting nowhere. He is a basketball player without a basket, a tennis player without a net, a golfer without a green.

Some people aim to be successful, some people aim to be rich, famous, comfortable, happy, accepted, etc.

The only acceptable and non-negotiable aim for the believer is to PLEASE GOD.

Dig a bit deeper into this word - AIM - The word here used (φιλοτιμούμεθα, from φίλος and τιμὴ, loving honour) means properly to love honour; to be ambitious. This is its usual classical signification. In the New Testament, it means to be ambitious to do any thing; to exert one’s self; to strive, as if from a love or sense of honour. As in English, to make it a point of honour to do so and so.—Robinson (Lex.); see Rom. 15:20; 1 Thess 4:11. It means here, that Paul made it a point of constant effort; it was his leading and constant aim to live so as to be acceptable to God, and to meet his approbation wherever he was.

This [Supreme Aim] became the fixed principle of his soul and very purpose of his life. Everything therefore had to adhere to this FIXED principle and purpose.

What are these principles and purpose that are pleasing to God?

Speaking boldly the gospel (3:12; 4:1, 13; 5:20; 6:7, 11)

Taking with good courage the suffering that ensues (4:7-12, 16-17; 6:4-5, 8-10)

Living by faith, fully confident of the resurrection (4:13-14, 17-18; 5:7)

Avoiding the taint of idolatry (6:14-7:1)

Bringing glory to God (4:15)

By living out the message of Christ’s reconciling death (5:19-21)

Which leads to the 2nd point that Paul leads us to after revealing the supreme aim of the christian life…

2. (2 Corinthians 5:10 - 11 )The insignificance to which it reduces all external things. The supreme aim of the Christian life re-orients our aim from pleasing others or even ourselves.

2 Corinthians 5:10–11 ESV

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.

Therefore, knowing the fear of the lord… We act. Which is in contrast to the world system of acting in response to the fear of man. The Fear of the Lord is greater than the fear of man. According to Paul’s train of thought here, it would seem that if I did not have pleasing God as my supreme aim then I would not have “The Fear of the Lord”

Not fear as in terror but fear as in a “worshipful deep reverence and awe” of Him.

Many have a greater reverence for what people think about than what God thinks about.

There is coming a day when we stand before him and we will then realize (if we don’t now) that nothing else carries the significance of living pleasing to God.

When we live to please people, we will live a life of compromise which is the opposite of speaking the gospel boldly and depending on God and pleasing him. And when we live a compromised life - we lose the very salt and light necessary to persuade people to believe in the Lord.

Galatians 1:10: For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Paul is reminding us that we answer to the Lord for what we do. We answer to the one who not only sees all according to the flesh but actually sees and tests the hearts. As we will see in Point 3 - the motivation is behind the lifestyle is what God tests.

1 Thessalonians 2:4: For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, 4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.

2 Corinthians 5:12-13: We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. 13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.

The underlying reason why the apostle behaves as he does is not because of a theory, not because of fear of judgment, but because of love.

3. What is the Ambition / Motivation of This Supreme Aim? Why Obey & live a life pleasing to the Lord?

The underlying reason why the apostle behaves as he does is not because of a:

Not Fear of Judgment

Romans 8–16 for You Why Obey?

1. Our motivation will lose its power over time. Fear as an emotion is very draining. It moves you to great feats at first, but eventually it is exhausting. People who live in great fear experience a numbing effect after a while. Slowly, one becomes too tired to care, indifferent to what happens. Fear-based religion therefore often tends to be short-lived.

2. Also, fear-based obedience has a great deal of trouble with repentance. When we are motivated by fear, we believe that somewhere there is a “line”; if we sin too much, we cross it, and God will condemn us. But we don’t know where that line is. As a result, repentance is not a sweet thing but very bitter. We don’t have the security to admit our sins for fear of reprisals from God, so we do a lot of rationalizing and blaming.

3. Fear-based obedience will always make it difficult to endure suffering or troubles. The fear-based person will either think: God is paying me back! God has abandoned me! Maybe I crossed the line this time … or: This isn’t fair! I obey so that God will bless me, so that these bad things won’t happen! In other words, despair or bitterness will be the result of suffering if one’s Christian life is fear-based.

Not Theory

Its not just a bed-time story, its not just something he agrees with.

This is based on a real-life event that has changed the universe and calls us to action.

Romans 12:1-2: NIV: Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

In light of the mercies of God… the only response is a giving of entire self to him in sacrifice. We aren’t called to simply just agree, we are called to respond with action.

What is the fuel, the motivation to live a live pleasing to God? If not Fear nor theory? Then what?

(2 Corinthians 5:14-15) Love is the WHY, Love is the fuel

2 Corinthians 5:14–15 ESV

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

Not the love for Him but the love from Him.

This life of living for him, pleasing him isn’t even one that we could boast about. When we stand before him being labeled a faithful servant - we cant boast about that or take credit, that’s why we cast our crowns before His feet.

Because the very fuel to accomplish the Christian comes from His love for us.

The only sufficient motivation for not being burnt out or the power to endure sufferings, or to live a life of repentance is the love of Christ.

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Oh saints, I pray you see that this is not some religious obligation or have-to’s but a life of get-to. A life motivated, controlled, moved by the love of Christ.

Paul does not explicitly state what “pleases the Lord”, however, we can infer from the rest of his letter’s context that it comprises:

Speaking boldly the gospel (3:12; 4:1, 13; 5:20; 6:7, 11)

Taking with good courage the suffering that ensues (4:7-12, 16-17; 6:4-5, 8-10)

Living by faith, fully confident of the resurrection (4:13-14, 17-18; 5:7)

Avoiding the taint of idolatry (6:14-7:1)

Bringing glory to God (4:15)

By living out the message of Christ’s reconciling death (5:19-21)

We labour. The word here used (φιλοτιμούμεθα, from φίλος and τιμὴ, loving honour) means properly to love honour; to be ambitious. This is its usual classical signification. In the New Testament, it means to be ambitious to do any thing; to exert one’s self; to strive, as if from a love or sense of honour. As in English, to make it a point of honour to do so and so.—Robinson (Lex.); see Rom. 15:20; 1 Thess 4:11. It means here, that Paul made it a point of constant effort; it was his leading and constant aim to live so as to be acceptable to God, and to meet his approbation wherever he was.

II Corinthians & Galatians Chapter 5

It is because this has become the fixed principle of the soul; the very purpose of the life; and this principle and this purpose will adhere to him, and control him wherever he may be placed, or in whatever world he may dwell.

New Testament VII: 1–2 Corinthians Departing or Staying

CHRYSOSTOM: Departing is not good in itself, but only if it is in God’s grace. Likewise, staying here is not the worst of evils, unless we are offending him.

I once read the following definition of a fanatic: “A fanatic is a person who, having lost sight of his goal, redoubles his effort to get there.” The fanatic runs around frantically getting nowhere. He is a basketball player without a basket, a tennis player without a net, a golfer without a green.

Kingdom Come / Will Be Done (Sides of the same coin)

Doing the Will of God is Pleasing to God

Romans 8:7-8

Submission to the will & ways of God please God

Jesus was told twice that He was well pleasing to God.

Matthew 3:17

Matthew 17:5

I have often said that God was pleased before Jesus had done anything significant such as a miracle, etc.

But in reality - Jesus had been doing the significant - submitted to the Father’s will.

Many don’t make it out of the quiet time

Jesus’ goal/aim never changed, stayed the same “Your Kingdom come, Your Will Be Done” in the shadows and in the spotlight.

John 14:19-21

How do you read this?

We obey His will from the love we have for Him, which comes from the love He has for us.

The Gospel is transformative.

It turns our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh and we are then filled with the love of God. -Romans 5:5

This transformed heart by the love of God gives my life a new aim/new goal.

Galatians 2:20

Spirituality can be a cheap substitute for true righteousness

The Messiah’s love makes us press on.

Paul for Everyone: 2 Corinthians The Messiah’s Love Makes Us Press on (2 Corinthians 5:11–15)

‘I may sometimes seem as though I’m out of my mind, but if that’s the case it’s because I’m working for God, not for you! But sometimes I am deadly sober and serious, and that’s when I have to deal with you! But underneath it all is the love of the Messiah.’ The underlying reason why the apostle behaves as he does is not because of a theory, not because of fear of judgment, but because of love.

Paul for Everyone: 2 Corinthians The Messiah’s Love Makes Us Press on (2 Corinthians 5:11–15)

The Messiah has loved me, he says in Galatians 2:20, and given himself for me; nothing shall separate me from the Messiah’s love (Romans 8:35). The Messiah’s love gives me new energy, it urges me on, it impels me forward. That’s what all love does: it constrains us, forces us to do things. If you want to be free from all constraints, learn to live without love! And the love of the Messiah is what the gospel is all about; the summary at the end of verse 15 looks straight across to the summary of the gospel itself in 1 Corinthians 15:3–4 (‘the Messiah died for our sins … and was raised …’). The gospel is not just a mechanism for getting people saved. It is the announcement of a love that has changed the world, a love that therefore takes the people who find themselves loved like this and sends them off to live and work in a totally new way.

The energy to get up and go on as a Christian, as one who works for the gospel, therefore, comes not from a cold sense of duty, not from a fear of being punished if you don’t do your bit, but from the warm-hearted response of love to the love which has reached out, reached down, and reached you. It may, of course, make you do things in ways that surprise or even shock other people. The gospels are full of that sort of thing; so is the story of Paul’s life. But, as he now goes on to say, if a new world has come to birth, you wouldn’t expect it to look exactly like the old one, would you?

Word Pictures in the New Testament 2 Corinthians 5:9

We make it our aim (φιλοτιμουμεθα [philotimoumetha]). Old and common verb, present middle, from φιλοτιμος [philotimos] (φιλος, τιμη [philos, timē], fond of honour), to act from love of honour, to be ambitious in the good sense (1 Thess. 4:11; 2 Cor. 5:9; Rom. 15:20). The Latin ambitio has a bad sense from ambire, to go both ways to gain one’s point. To be well-pleasing to him (εὐαρεστοι αὐτῳ εἰναι [euarestoi autōi einai]). Late adjective that shows Paul’s loyalty to Christ, his Captain. Found in several inscriptions in the Koiné period (Deissmann, Bible Studies, p. 214; Moulton and Milligan’s Vocabulary).

Word Studies in the New Testament Chapter 5

14. The love of Christ. Christ’s love to men. See on 1 John 2:5.

Constraineth (συνέχει). See on taken, Luke 4:38; Acts 18:5. It is the word rendered I am in a strait, Philip. 1:23. Compare Luke 12:50. The idea is not urging or driving, but shutting up to one line and purpose, as in a narrow, walled road.

Word Studies in the New Testament Chapter 5

9. We labor (φιλοτιμούμεθα). Used by Paul only, here, Rom. 15:20 (note), 1 Thess. 4:11. Labor is a feeble translation, not bringing out the idea of the end contemplated, as the motive of the toil. Rev., we make it our aim.

Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the New Testament Chapter 5

Paul had been accused of being mad (see Acts 26:24) since he went to such extremes to win men to Christ. But the controlling power of his life was the love of Christ. This does not mean Paul’s love for Christ, although certainly that was there. It means rather the love Christ had for Paul. The apostle was so overwhelmed by Jesus’ love for him that to serve and honor Christ became the controlling motive of his life. He describes in vv. 14–17 this love that led Christ to the cross to die for sinners. Why did He die? That we might live through Him (1 John 4:9); that we might live with Him (1 Thes. 5:10); and that we might live for Him (2 Cor. 5:15). There can be no selfishness in the heart of the Christian who understands the love of Christ.

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