From karma and ethics to simple cultural expectations, no matter where you look there always seems to be an answer that addresses basic “goodness.” The internet brims and overflows with proverbs and maxims that speak to being a better human — “Just Be Kind.” But being a good person is not enough.
In fact, many and more completely misunderstand what Good & Evil really are and it’s for that very reason so many “good” people will one day wake up in Hell.
What, then, does it take? How can we please God, if being good doesn’t cut it?
What Is God Pleased With?
You may (or may not) have heard in times past that without faith, it is impossible to please God, or that the flesh cannot please God — “the flesh” being self-will. Both of these statements speak to how “good deeds” aren’t even on his radar and they both allude to what his true expectations are.
They speak to his ultimate desire for us: obeying God and doing our best to avoid sin — the “Works of Righteousness” so often spoken of in the scriptures.
If acting according to what we believe is “good” was enough, the prophet Isaiah wouldn’t have said, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way.”
God desires our reverence — to fear his name and not merely “follow the rules.” Just take a look at how God addressed Israel in Isaiah:
“To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?” says the LORD. “I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts. I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
David in the Psalms echoes this. “For you do not desire sacrifice, otherwise, I would give it. You do not delight in burnt offerings. No, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
But God said it best himself, “To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at my word.”
The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy. Psalm 147:11
It Takes the Fear of the Lord
Fear. Today that word brings unpleasant thoughts and negative emotions. In its original context, however, fear was a verb that meant to regard something or someone in reverence and awe. It’s exactly that kind of fear that applies to what God expects from us.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, after all.
We ought to do the will of the Father, as obedient children, trembling at his word in reverence to his divine authority. Not asking ourselves what society, our friends and family, or ethics and morals might dictate as being “good.”
When we act according to the will of God, asking ourselves — and seeking — what God is pleased with, we “find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man.”
So, What Brings God Pleasure?
When we abound in his will and his word — when we obey our Heavenly Father and grow as dear children — God takes great pleasure in us.
Just consider the Parable of the Talents.
When the servant received what her master had given her, she went and grew in what she received. When he returned and saw the growth she achieved, the Master said “Well done, you good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord” — enter into his pleasure.
God is pleased when we fear him — when we reverence him — and grow in his word and will.
Indeed, we are only ever truly “good” when we take what we receive from God, his Word, and abound in it.
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