Living to Please
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I. How to please God
I. How to please God
first recognize how he address them - “brothers” - in the family
asking and encouraging earnestly
not based on his authority, but in the Lord Jesus
if something be “in the Lord Jesus” then it is definitely pleasing to God. He at all times lived to please the Father and do His will
John 8:29 (ESV)
29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.”
following in John 8 is Jesus’ statement in John 8:31-32
John 8:31–32 (ESV)
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
So already we know that Paul has encouraged the Thessalonians as those in the family of God and sees his request of them as totally legitimate as it is in the Lord Jesus.
Received
take hold of/do what is taught in Jesus (words, commands, ways, heart)
Receiving the word is exactly what James 1:21-25 talks about.
James 1:21–25 (ESV)
21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.
24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
To receive teaching is to take hold of the implications and do them, believe them. It moves you to action.
“Tell me what to do!”
READ! LISTEN! STUDY! PRAY!
This is how. Take 1 Thess. 3:12 for example...
12 and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you,
how do you or how will we abound in love? First question, “What does the Bible say?”
1 Thess. 5:15; Matt. 7:12, 22:39; 1 John 4:20; 1 Cor. 13:4-7
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
What did you hear God’s word to say about this? Are you right? Do that!
In our context with a healthy local church, Bibles, study Bibles, Bible software, podcasts, YouTube, conferences, Sunday School, etc., if you are not being discipled, you do not want to be. And if you have been a Christian for some time and are not able to disciple, you do not want to.
In 1 Cor. 3 and Hebrews 5, Paul says the same thing to the people he is addressing who find themselves in that situation - not discipling and therefore not being discipled
When you have a teaching/learning relationship that is unhealthy, you have the stronger frustrated and impatient with the weaker due to their ignorance and slowness in the Word, and you have the weaker frustrated and impatient with their lack of knowledge in comparison to the stronger.
Whats the problem? No humility, no patience, and namely - no love. Why?
Lesson 1 in learning Christ is learning His love
Discipleship happens when love drives the teaching and the receiving.
Paul is underlining his whole letter with love. His love for them causes his earnestness in prayer for their growth, and efforts for their growth.
Therefore, walking to please is receiving His word and doing it
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, commenting on the end of the Sermon on the Mount says, “Those who treat the Word of Jesus any other way except by acting on it assert that Jesus is wrong…The word that I do not want to do is no rock for me on which I can build a house.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship
Rabbis used the hebrew word halak to describe how to behave/walk. The Halakah is what the Talmud and Mishnah are in Judaism. Oral tradition about how to behave/walk.
Paul is using a synonomous term but with a different purpose - to please God. Not for fulfilling oral tradition for morality’s sake.
If you go back to 3:12 you will notice that Paul understands how the walking to please is possible - the Lord.
He is comfortable calling for faithful obedience while knowing that only God can do it (1 Thess. 5:24). How then does this work? He is calling them to realize more and more of what is theirs in Christ. Namely His Spirit (pleasing to the Father) and access to the Father.
So you are lacking in your knowledge and walk, do you ask for what you lack?
Matthew 7:7–11 (ESV)
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?
10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?
11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Those who do not want anymore of Jesus word are the foolish. Luke 20:40 and Matt. 22:46 - These groups did not ask Jesus anything else. They did not want anymore.
Sometimes after asking, they are angered to the point of seeking to harm Him - Luke 20:19
Asking more questions then is not necessarily the answer. Cultivating a curiosity through studying the Word will bring more questions if you desire to know and be known.
A hearts desire to know and be known makes for a fruitful disciple.
II. How you Know how to please God
II. How you Know how to please God
v.2 Paul calls them into account for the knowledge and wisdom that has been imparted to them already.
In other words, v.1 is legitimate because v.2 has happened.
What did you receive?
What did you receive?
MacArthur points out that they would already know, through OT scriptures and Paul...
to confess sins regularly, to pray continually and trust Him, to pursue humility, to be content with God’s will as it is revealed in His word, to be willing to suffer for His name, to evangelize the lost, to celebrate the Lord’s table, to care for and love one another, to honor God in their marriages and families, and to be diligent and fruitful in all avenues of service.
Where did you receive it?
Where did you receive it?
You and I have pages of this knowledge and revelation to know who the Lord is and what pleases Him. Gospels, Epistles, OT. We have the Word of God.
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Just a few verses later in Ch. 4, the implication for Timothy as the one teaching is to “Preach the Word.”
Hebrews 1:1–3 (ESV)
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,
2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
To please God, look to Jesus, listen, and follow.
To please God, look to Jesus, listen, and follow.