Some people dismiss the idea of pleasing God, they think it is the idea of trying to curry God’s favour by our actions. They point out we can never reach a perfect standard so we are condemning ourselves to an exhausting treadmill chasing after something we cannot attain. We need simply to trust God and give up the idea of pleasing Him they say. It’s certainly possible for some kind of reliance on our own works to creep into the Christian life. Others know that sin taints all we do and so it can never be perfectly pleasing to God, we are just not able to do that. So should we give up on the idea of pleasing God? Not according to the New Testament, which has a lot to say about it as our great aim (2 Corinthians 5:9) in everything (Colossians 1:10). We are to live in such a way as pleases God (1 Thessalonians 4:1) constantly trying to learn what is pleasing to Him (Ephesians 5:8-10). In an unrenewed state, we are unable to please God (Romans 8:8) but that implies that we can please Him (Luke 1:30; Hebrews 11:5). This is the whole purpose of sanctification that God works within us so that we do that which is pleasing to Him (Hebrews 13:20-21). We do not need to pit pleasing and trusting God against each other since trusting God enables us to please Him (Hebrews 11:6). It is because we are accepted in the Beloved (if we are true believers) that we seek like Him to always do what pleases God out of love. But what does pleasing God involve?

One passage tells us a lot about this because it presents us with someone who did indeed please God from a renewed heart transformed by saving faith. We do not know much about Enoch but this is the great thing we do know. William Gouge explains what we need to please God from Hebrews 11:5-6 in this updated extract.

1. We Need Dedication to God

The particular person here commended is Enoch. This is a Hebrew name, derived from a verb that means to dedicate, and may be interpreted, dedicated. His condition fitly corresponded to his name; for of all the patriarchs he was most especially dedicated to God. The testimony of his walking with God and of God’s taking him to Himself gives evidence of this. Others had the same name, such as Cain’s first son after whom he named a city that he built (Genesis 4:18). Abraham’s grandchild by Keturah (Genesis 25:4 and Reuben’s eldest son also had this name (Genes 46:9). But it is clear the one meant here is the one which was the seventh from Adam and was taken by God. The same faith previously spoken of-a justifying faith, resting on the promised Messiah-is certainly meant here.

2. We Need Saving Faith

Hebrews 11:6 has a special reference to the last clause of the previous verse, “he pleased God”. The main point is that Enoch pleased God by faith. The argument is made from the impossibility of its opposite. It is impossible without faith to please God. Therefore Enoch, who had this testimony that he pleased God, had faith. Faith in this place is to be taken as it was in the first verse and in the other verses following after it. In all those places it is taken, as here, for a justifying faith, as the effects of it in this verse prove.

We are so corrupt by nature in soul and body, in every power and part of either, and so polluted in everything that passes from us that it is not possible in and of ourselves to do anything that is acceptable to God. But faith looks on Christ, applies Christ and His righteousness, and does all things for God in the name and through the mediation of Jesus Christ. Thus, by faith, we please God. Out of Christ, which is to be without faith, it is impossible to please God. This manifests an absolute necessity of faith.

To please implies that something is done that finds acceptance with the one to whom it is done either in the action or the person doing it. God is the One whom we all ought to please. There are four things required to please God; all of them are accomplished by faith and nothing else.

(a) The person that pleases God, must be accepted by God (Titus 1:15; Genesis 4:4).

(b) The thing that pleases God must be in harmony with His will (Hebrews 13:21). The apostle exhorts us for this reason to “prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God,” (Romans 12:2).

(c) The manner of doing that which pleases God, must be with due respect to God as follows:
– In obedience to God: because He has commanded it. We must say like Peter, that we do it because He has ordered it (Luke 5:5) This is to do it “for conscience’ sake,” and “for the Lord’s sake,” (Romans 13:5; 1 Peter 2:13).
– In humility, denying ourselves, and all self-conceit as Paul who said “Not I, but the grace of God which is with me,” (1 Corinthians 15:10).
– In sincerity, as having to do with He that searches the heart (Isaiah 38:3).
– in diligence: like the two faithful servants with whom the Lord was well pleased but not like the slothful servant (Matthew 25:20)
– in cheerfulness (2 Corinthians 9:7).
– in our callings (1 Corinthians 6:17).
– in constancy (Hebrews 9:38).
– in assurance, that God, who accepts the person, accepts also the work that is done. This is how Manoah’s wife inferred that God was pleased with what they did (Judges 13:23).

(d) The goal, which is God’s glory (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Faith is the means by which all these four aspects of pleasing God may be effected and accomplished.
(a) Faith in Christ makes the person accepted by God (Ephesians 1:12). (b) Faith makes men subject themselves to God’s will. (c) Faith makes people seek to do what they do to God in obedience, humility, sincerity, diligence, cheerfulness, orderly, constantly and with an assurance of God’s acceptance. All these may be exemplified in Enoch.
(d) Faith, of all graces, aims at God’s glory most. Abraham, was “strong in faith, giving glory to God.”

3. We Need to Trust God

The apostle proves the assertion that it is impossible to please God without faith. His proof is that those who come to God must believe that He is. The proof is applied to such as come to God. To come is used in a metaphorical way and includes those who have to do with God in prayer, in praise, or in any other service. That which is required of such as come to God, is, to believe that God is. It is vain for any to go to one whom they do not believe to be. But this is not simply and barely to be taken of believing in the being of God. It may be demonstrated that there is a God, and that God is by reason, and philosophical arguments.

This is an act of faith and it must, therefore, be more distinctly understood. It means that they believe He is the true God, the only true God, such a God
as He has revealed Himself to be. If we add the word God afterwards i.e. those who come to God must believe that He is God it will become clearer. God must be believed to be as He is, or as He has manifested Himself to be. Thus, Abraham believed God (Genesis 15:6). To believe God in any other way is to make Him an idol (Romans 1:21), to believe Him to be nothing (1 Corinthians 8:4). We must be informed about God as He has made Himself known to us in His Word. “Search the Scriptures;” they testify of Him (John 5:39). This includes the nature, persons, properties, and works by which He is made known to us in the Word. Otherwise, it will be altogether in vain to come to God.

4. We Need to Walk Before God Continually

Enoch pleased God. The word here is made up of the verb to please (Galatians 1:10) and a preposition that means well which adds emphasis. It implies that Enoch was very circumspect over himself and careful in all things to do that which was acceptable to God. That was pleasing Him well. This word is used in Hebrews 13:16 to show God’s approval of works of mercy. Enoch pleased God because he “walked before God,” continually (as the grammar of the Hebrew in Genesis 5 indicates).

Enoch always had God in his eye, whether alone, or in company, doing duties of piety or other affairs. This moved him to carefully and conscionably avoid what might be displeasing to God, and diligently do what was agreeable to the will of God. He had the testimony of men bearing witness to him and highly esteeming him. He had the testimony of God, by an inward witness of God’s Spirit in his conscience and by God’s approving him. Enoch in his lifetime prophesied of the coming of the Lord to judgment, Jude 14. This makes it clear that he had the day of judgment in his mind and in considering that, he was moved to seek to please the Lord well in all things.

5. We Need to Believe God is a Rewarder

Before God took him, Enoch did that which moved God to take him. It is in the past tense, he had pleased God. In his lifetime, before he received any reward, he did that which was acceptable to the Lord. Work must be done before the reward can be expected (see Hebrews 10:36). Faith brings a reward. Those who walk with God please Him. Those that please God will not lack testimony of it and will surely be rewarded. The evidence of his reward is that he was taken and was not found. The best livers are not the longest livers.

Believers can be sure of their reward. God is faithful (Hebrews 10:23); He will not fail to perform what He undertakes (Ephesians 6:8). God in His rewards considers what is fitting for His excellency to give, and accordingly proportions His reward. As a king in rewarding a faithful servant is not content to give him a little money but rather gives high honours and dignities (Genesis 41:41).

6. We Need to Diligently Seek God

Those who may expect reward from God, are those who diligently seek Him. Literally, this word means to seek out, to seek till one finds; to seek earnestly and diligently. This is how people are said to “seek after the Lord,” (Acts 15:17) and how the prophets sought after the salvation promised (1 Peter 1:10). To express the emphasis of this word the word “diligently” has been added in English. We are to seek Him with all our heart and soul (Deuteronomy 4:29) and those that seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing (Psalm 34:10). None but such should expect a reward from God. This should stir us up to use our best endeavours to find the Lord in such a way that we may rest on Him and make Him our reward (see Hebrews 4:11).

Conclusion

We please God by faith, submitting to His Word and will and believing what He declares, and He is who reveals Himself to be. We please Him when we glorify Him by faith We want to have access to Him, to experience His presence and to live as much as possible coram deo (before God’s face). So we seek Him out diligently until we find Him. We use the means He has appointed for us to seek Him. We want to please Him as much as possible. Paul says that when we are in the married state, we want to please our spouse in all things, not because we are fearful they will stop loving us but simply because we love them (1 Corinthians 7:34). It is the same spiritually for those who are joined to Christ in loving faith. We seek Him and seek to please Him because we believe that He is the rewarder of such and the reward we look for is more of His presence and ultimately that is in heaven itself, as Enoch found.

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