“June 11, 2024 - We Make It Our Aim to Please Him”

Monday, June 10, 2024

We Make It Our Aim to Please Him

Reading:  2 Corinthians 5:6-10
    
    Paul explains how the hope of a future resurrection and superior body enables him to persist through his trials.  “So we are always of good courage.  We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight”(2 Cor 5:6-7).  Throughout this text Paul plays with the picture of being “home” or “away.”  While we remain “at home in the body,” living in our current state, we experience the tension of being away from Jesus.  At present “we walk by faith, not by sight”—a perspective that even the apostles shared.  Faith animates our behavior because “we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen”(2 Cor 4:18).

    This, of course, is not our preference.  “We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord”(2 Cor 5:8).  Even if it means the interruption of life as we know it, living in Jesus’ presence remains our greatest desire.  But how do we live in the present tension?  “So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil”(2 Cor 5:9-10).  Whatever our state, our consistent goal is “to please him”—both now and later.  Part of the motivation here is the awareness that we await a future appointment with Jesus at his judgment seat, where he will evaluate all our works.  We want to please him because the prospect of being judged a sinner and condemned by Jesus is unspeakably horrific.  

    “We make it our aim to please him” is a tremendous summary of Christian living.  We do not seek to please ourselves by only choosing our words, actions, and relationships based on our preferences.  We seek to please him, submitting our thoughts and pursuits to his will.  But longing to please Jesus also means that we are not just avoiding his wrath.  We want to delight him by serving him in ways that truly fulfill his will for our world.  

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One Thing to Think About:  What is the difference between avoiding someone’s anger and seeking to please them? 

One Thing to Pray For:  The confidence to always be “of good courage” like Paul
 

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