The Bible reveals how to please God, which starts with knowing Him and surrendering to Him. When we accept Christ as Lord, we receive the Holy Spirit, who also helps us know what pleases God.
The Bible reveals how to please God, which starts with coming to know His character and how He wants humankind to live. According to Scripture, two ways people come to know the Lord are through His creation (Psalm 19; Romans 1:20) and His Word (Psalm 119:105; Romans 15:4; 2 Timothy 3:16–17). But the whole of Scripture points toward the most significant way God revealed Himself to humanity: His Son, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1–3; Colossians 1:19–20). Jesus is not only our Savior; He is also our model for pleasing the Father (Matthew 17:5; John 14:21; 1 Thessalonians 4:1). But people cannot please God through their own strength because we are inherently sinful (Genesis 8:21; Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:12), as recorded throughout the pages of Scripture (Genesis 6:5; Genesis 18–19; 1 Corinthians 6:8–11). Instead, we are saved from the slavery of sin by Jesus (John 14:6; Hebrews 11:6). Christ’s righteousness was imputed to us when He died on the cross (Romans 3:22–24; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:8–9). Thus, the Bible indicates salvation is based on grace alone, not works (Romans 3; Ephesians 2). Rather than showing that we can work for our salvation, the Bible teaches that good works are a result of salvation (Ephesians 2:8–10; Titus 3:5–8). When we accept Christ as Savior, we receive the Holy Spirit, who works to transform us so that we can live lives pleasing to God (Romans 8:9–11; 2 Corinthians 3:17–18; Philippians 2:12–13). Because the Spirit works within, allowing us to know and love God, we seek to glorify Him in how we live (Philippians 2:12–13; 1 Corinthians 10:31). The Bible teaches that we can please God by walking in accordance with His Word and emulating His Son through the power of the Holy Spirit.
“You can’t please everybody!” We all know this adage and may even say it. But that doesn’t stop some of us from trying to do it anyway. We soon learn, though, that the saying we parroted is, in fact, true. We can’t know what everyone wants, and even if we did know, people are too different for us to make them all happy. Our goal shouldn’t be to please everyone, but to please just One: God. In fact, pleasing the world is often at odds with pleasing our Lord. The world tells us to “look out for number one,” do “whatever makes you happy,” and “grab the gusto while you can.” But the Lord wants us to sacrificially love others as He did (Philippians 2:3–4), deny ourselves (Matthew 16:24), and understand how fleeting our earthly life is (Luke 12:19–21). That truth may not be a big selling point for Christianity, but it provides a contentment that far exceeds what the world offers. As the Holy Spirit sanctifies believers, we come to value pleasing the One who knows us like no other. To know what pleases Him, we have to know Him. We do this through considering His creation, reading and meditating on the Bible regularly, and praying; the Holy Spirit reveals the truth to those who seek it (Matthew 7:7; John 16:13). We can’t please everyone—and we shouldn’t want to—but the Bible teaches that we can please God by walking in accordance with His Word and emulating His Son through the power of the Holy Spirit.