A short article entitled “Pleasing God” appeared in Lively Hope in the late 1980s. It starts with this statement: “One of the ways we know that we are truly saved is that we want to please God.” We know how to be saved - believe in God and in His only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ! Romans 10:9 emphatically states “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved”.  It is simple – “believe in thine heart” - and this confession of faith must be made deep in our hearts.  It must come about with admission of our sinful state, accompanied by true repentance and real confession of our sins and followed by our profession with our whole being of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ! 

I would like to further share my thoughts about this article for our edification.

How do we know we are saved? When we are truly saved we would want to please God. When we believe in God and want to please Him it is analogous to a young man following in love with a young woman, or vice versa. This young man or woman will try his or her best to please the other. So, when we fall in love with God we want to please Him.

There are many ways to please God. I have covered the following in the previous article:

1. When we love Him with everything we have in our possession!

2. When we abide in Him, we study His Word and pray to Him.

3. When we obey Him.

4. When we trust in Him.

5. When we thank Him.

6. When we want to know more about our Lord Jesus Christ.

7.When we are faithful in our church attendance.

8.When we are kind to others.

9.When we forgive others, even our enemies.

There are other ways to please God:

10. When we maintain a stable good and godly family.

Long lasting marriages are uncommon nowadays. Divorces are on the rise. To succeed in a marriage there is a lot of hard work – it involves God and our attitude and relationship with Him, and the willingness to compromise, be patient, tolerate, and meek with each other. Always remember that our “God is not the author of confusion, but of peace,” (1 Cor 4:33). Therefore, we have a duty to maintain peace within our own family. Without peace there is no family stability. When there is no stability, children will be become a source of unwanted attention and irritation. No one is perfect and quarrels do happen (and sometime saucers do fly) between husband and wife. If there is any strife, as believers, remember this “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:” (Eph 4:26). Get over the strife and make peace before the day’s end.

Husband has a duty to love his wife and children. “Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence:” (1Cor 7:3a). “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;” (Eph 5:25) and “be not bitter against them” (Col 3:19). The wife should also reciprocate “and likewise also the wife unto the husband” (1 Cor 13b). Then, this is the part that does not go down well with many women nowadays –“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord” (Eph 5:22). Furthermore “Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing” (Eph 5:24). This is God’s way of an ‘order system’ for family unity and stability.

The husband must be “Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;” (1 Tim 3:3-4). He must also not be lazy, refusing to work and subjecting his wife and family to abject poverty and despondency. It is his duty to support the family “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel” (1 Tim 5:8). He is “the head of the wife” (Eph 5:23) and thus the head of the family “even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body” (Eph 5:23). Even though the husband is the head, he must not mistreat his wife and children.

“Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged” (Col 3:21), “but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph 6:4). Children are also commanded to “obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right” (Eph 6:1). How do fathers bring the children “up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord”? Here is the answer - “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates” (Deut 6:4-9). Parents are to teach their children about God and His Word – that is what the Word of God says! Sunday school teachers can only complement the teaching of God’s truth. It will be a mistake to leave the responsibility of religious training of the children to the Sunday school teachers, and leaders of the church. The lack of such sound teaching has let many “Christian” countries into moral decay and the rejection of everything of God.

Redeemed parents must thus seek to please God by maintaining the stability and godliness of the family unit. Parents have no option but must work together in unity to bring up their children in the fear of the LORD, otherwise they will be akin to a car parked on a hill and the moment the brakes are released the children would be like this car running down the slope to disaster! Parents will be running after them and lives may be ruined.

11.When we do good works.

 When we are saved, we would want to do good works. Faith in God without good works “is dead”. James the writer of the Epistle that bears his name gives an excellent account about this - “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works” (Jas 2:14-18). It is our duty to do good works – helping those who are in need, visiting and caring for the sick and the lonely, and a willingness to go beyond the call of duty. There are many people in every church who need help and it will certainly please God if we do. Sometimes, this may be an inconvenience, but “This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men” (Titus 3:8), and importantly we become good examples to non-believers and we glorify God the Father by our good works. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matt 5:16). We must do good works because of our faith, and not to do good works to increase our faith in God! Faith is most important!

This article will be continued in the near future.

I trust this has been of help and edifying for you.

May God bless you all.

Elder Michael D Lee

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