"Furthermore, then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more." (1 Thess 4:1)
"When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him." (Prov 16:7)
How often do people use God to justify their actions when really they only want to please themselves? People have an agenda to carry out to achieve their own ends and invoke God to back them up in it. But who are they seeking to please - themselves or God?
Proponents of homosexual rights invoke Jesus as never having mentioned the subject. Well, if they're going to bring God into the discussion then they have to seriously consider the whole package, not just the part that agrees with their agenda. Who are they trying to please - themselves or God? If you say you want to please yourself, that brands you right off. And as soon as you say you're trying to please God you have no ground at all left to stand on - you have to acknowledge what the Bible says about such things.
When people ask me if I think this or that is wrong I'm going to answer "who are you seeking to please - yourself or God?" I think that if we are seeking to please God, then the rug gets pulled out from under us if we're pushing our own thing.
I have to look at myself and the things I do. I have to ask if I'm trying to please myself or God. There are things God allows me to do but they don't necessarily please Him. I have any number of leisure-time pursuits that are harmless in themselves and which I can justify by saying "I won't go to hell if I do this," or "God knows my heart," or any number of things like that to get my own way. But am I seeking to please God? That's a whole different story.
Jesus did only those things that pleased the Father, never His own will. I want to be like Jesus.
