A Life Pleasing

For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask … that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him. (Colossians 1:9-10)

In speaking of walking worthy of the Lord and fully pleasing to Him, Paul certainly has Lord Jesus in mind, for we read in Colossians 1:19, “For it pleased the Father that in Him [Jesus] all the fullness of should dwell.” Jesus’ modus operandi was all about pleasing the Father:

• “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner” (John 5:19).
• “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 5:30).
• “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.” ” (John 8:29).

But perhaps Paul was thinking also of Enoch. The book of Genesis tells us about him:

Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. (Genesis 5:21-24)

Enoch walked with God all the days of his life. He did not die but was simply taken by God. This was very unusual and, unsurprisingly, a theology developed around it. The author of Hebrews sums it up this way:

By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. (Hebrews 11:5)

Enoch walked with God and had this testimony: He pleased God. Certainly, this was a walk worthy of the Lord — and with the Lord — but how did Enoch please God? It was by faith, as the author of Hebrews explains:

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Enoch believed God and because of that, God was pleased with him. In the Bible, faith is about believing what God has said. Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, rightness with God (Genesis 15:6). Hebrews 11 is full of Old Testament saints who pleased God by believing God.
It is by faith that Lord Jesus pleased the Father, believing everything He heard the Father say and do, then saying and doing it in agreement with the Father’s will. That is how Jesus operated in His divinity and His humanity, and that is how we live a life that is fully pleasing to God. By believing whatever He says and does, then speaking and living in agreement with it.

*For more about the pastoral prayers found in the New Testament, see Praying With Fire: Change Your World with the Powerful Prayers of the Apostles. 

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The Focus of Our Faith
Paul’s Letters to the Jesus Believers at Colosse
Bite-Size Studies Through Colossians
by Jeff Doles

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