Run With It: We Ought to Walk to Please God

Thursday, May 13, 2021

We Ought to Walk to Please God

1 Thessalonians 4:1 ESV

“Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.”

Walk to Please God

What is our walk? It is how we live our lives day in and day out, day by day, month by month, and year by year. It is our conduct, our speech, our attitudes, and our deeds (works). And it is what gives evidence to what we really believe, too, because we will live what we genuinely believe.

We are to walk to please God. Now, some folks will tell you that if you believe in Jesus, although that “belief” is rarely explained, that God is already pleased with you and that you don’t have to do anything to please him. But that is not what the Scriptures teach.

For, we are to find out what pleases him, and we are to make it our goal to please him. We are to live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work. And we are not to try to please people but God who tests our hearts.

As soldiers of Christ, we are to live to please our commanding officer. We are to do good and to share with others, for this pleases God. We are to keep his commands and do what pleases him. And if we sow to please the flesh, we will reap destruction, but if we sow to please the Spirit, we will reap eternal life.

[Rom 8:8; 2 Co 5:9; Gal 6:8; Eph 5:10; Col 1:9-11; 1 Thes 2:4; 1 Thes 4:1; 2 Tim 2:4; Heb 11:6; Heb 13:6; 1 Jn 3:22]

1 Thessalonians 4:2-8 ESV

“For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.”

Abstain from Sexual Immorality

These instructions give us a pretty clear picture of what it means to walk to please God. For, the will of God for our lives is for our sanctification, which is the process of making or becoming holy, set apart to God, and set apart (unlike, different) from the world, because we are being transformed into the likeness (similarity of nature) of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

And it is the will of God for us that we abstain from sexual immorality and that we control our own bodies in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like those who do not know God/Jesus Christ. And this involves not taking into our minds the lusts of the flesh via movies/TV, videos, books, magazines, games, and music. For, “garbage in, garbage out.”

For, we aren’t supposed to live like we did before we believed in Jesus, for by faith in Jesus Christ we were delivered from our slavery to sin that we might now become slaves of God and of his righteousness. By faith in Jesus Christ, we died with Christ to sin, so how can we live in it any longer?

So, if we are controlling our own bodies in holiness and honor, that means that we are going to walk in purity, faithfulness, morality, uprightness, godliness, propriety, and integrity. We will not tell or laugh at sordid humor. We will look away when faced with even partial nudity before our eyes.

We will not participate in anything or watch or listen to anything that is off color or that gives even a hint of immorality or that promotes or glorifies or romanticizes adultery or anything sexually suggestive or explicit in nature. We will dress modestly and carry ourselves with dignity and respect.

We will be passionate about our relationships with Jesus Christ and about obeying him, and about truth, and against lies and deceptions of the enemy which are leading many people astray. We will speak the truth in love, and we will walk the talk and not just talk the walk.

Do Not Wrong Others

The goal of all that we do to please God is love – love for God and love for our fellow humans and for our brothers and sisters in Christ. And this love is agape love which prefers what God prefers, which is what is holy, just, good, righteous, kind, truthful, faithful, pure, and moral, etc.

Therefore, if we are loving others with this kind of love, which comes from God, we are not going to deliberately sin against others, especially not habitually. For, love does no willful harm to its neighbor. We will not knowingly and premeditatedly do what we know will hurt another.

And this includes the fact that we will not lie to, cheat on, commit adultery against, slander, gossip against, steal from, manipulate, trick, trap, lead into sin, falsely accuse, hurt another’s reputation, turn others against those we don’t like, or in any way deliberately do what we know will injure others.

Therefore, if we disregard our Lord’s instructions to us, even though they may be passed down to us through other humans, we are not disregarding man/woman but God, who gives us the Holy Spirit to lead us and to guide us into all truth, and who strengthens and empowers us to live holy lives.

The Battle for Truth

An Original Work / May 18, 2013

Based off Malachi 1-4