Why please God?

What drives most people to do good things? Is it for the rewards? That would include applause from others, perhaps financial payback, or just the internal sense of feeling good about it. While those are normal reason, none of these are the motivations the Bible speaks of for doing good things.

I’m on this line of thinking because the verse today is about having the goal to please Christ, whether I am alive or not when He returns.

Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent from the body, to be well pleasing to Him. (2 Corinthians 5:9, italics are my insert)

Just before this verse, the Bible says that Christians know “that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord” and that “we walk by faith, not by sight.” He adds that, “We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”

Earthly illustrations pale, but I’m thinking how a bride prepares to be with her groom. She wants everything to be perfect. Her reasons are not so much for the praise he will give her, although that might factor in. Rather, she loves him so much that in her mind he deserves the very best that she can manage, including her own appearance and behavior.

In a similar way, wanting to be with Christ produces an ambition to please Him. I know that day is coming. I also know that He will evaluate my work, the good and the useless, and reward me accordingly, but it isn’t the idea of rewards that produces my desire to do my best. It goes deeper than that.

My devotional reading tells of a young man who asked, “How can you know if you are truly a Christian? How can you know if your decision for Christ wasn’t just an emotional experience?”

The answer is simple. If a person is forgiven and made right with God, and has experienced the new birth, then the deepest desire of their heart is to serve and to please Him. This is not from the old sinful nature, but flows from the new life of Christ that He puts in our hearts.

I desire to please God because Jesus lives in me. He gives me that desire. If I am walking with Him, I don’t have to weigh “should I or shouldn’t I?” or conjure up other reasons for obedience. The longing for holiness and a life that pleases Him will simply be there.