We read from 1 Thessalonians 2: 4, don’t please mortals, but please God who tests our hearts. Pleasing mortals means putting mortals above God. God has told us what we must not do so we cannot blame him on the Day of Judgment for failing to qualify for his eternal kingdom.
Why we must not please mortals
When we please mortals we elevate them to God’s pedigree and that is a sin of disrespect. Mortals are even lower than angels let alone God. We also read from Hebrews 2: 7, 9, you (God) have made them (mortals) for a little while lower than the angels. David also wrote in Psalms 8: 5 yet you have made them a little lower than God. It is a sin to please mortals rather than God.
Mortals are sinners but God is righteous and holy. We are to please the holy one and not sinners who are accountable to him. Paul wrote in Romans 3: 10 “There is no one who is righteous, not even one. We cannot please sin yet displease righteousness. Mortals cannot always be trusted but Jesus will never fail. Isaiah 49: 15 states, can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. The kindness from mortals is fleeting but Jesus’ is eternal, John 3: 16-17.
The days of mortals are not guaranteed but God has no end. Psalms 103: 15 states, as for mortals, their days are like grass; they flourish like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. Christ Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever, Hebrews 13: 8. We recommend to all that we must not please mortals but God through Christ Jesus. Isaiah 40: 8 says the grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever. God must be first with us.
How do we please God?
Jesus said in Matthew 6: 33 strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. We please God when we obey his word. Exodus 19: 5 says now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine.
God repeated in Jeremiah 7: 23, “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you. If we displease him we will face the consequences of death. Romans 6: 23 says for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. God said in 1 Samuel 2: 30, ‘for those who honour me I will honour, and those who despise me shall be treated with contempt. Thus says the LORD God ALMIGHTY!
The surest guarantee to please God or not to please mortals is OBEDIENCE to God. There is nothing purer than obeying God’s word. 1 Samuel 15: 22 says to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. Are we ready to please God rather than mortals?
Prayers
Dear Lord Jesus, we thank you for reminding us of what can destroy us. Please heal our disobedience and our love for ourselves rather than for you. Help us to put you first in our lives in every circumstance rather than mortals whose destiny is in your hands. Come into our hearts by your grace as our personal Lord and Saviour. We have prayed in your blessed holy name, Amen!!
0 Comments