James Nisbet Commentary - 1 Thessalonians 4:1 - 4:1

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James Nisbet Commentary - 1 Thessalonians 4:1 - 4:1


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

‘
TO PLEASE GOD’

‘To please God.’

1Th_4:1

A truly human and familiar expression is this! In such language Scripture appeals to the common sentiments of our human nature. It is sometimes thought derogatory to the Divine Being that the thoughts and emotions of our human nature should be attributed to Him. But God made man in His own image, and we may to some extent reason from the human to the divine.

I. God’s condescension and grace.—It must be borne in mind that God has a right to our service and obedience. If He deigns to represent Himself as pleased when that which is His due is offered to Him, this is an attractive representation of His love and kindness for which we cannot be sufficiently grateful.

II. The standard of Christian excellence and virtue.—A scholar often feels how hard it is truly to please his master. The standard of the preceptor is so lofty compared with that of the disciple, that there is felt to be room for study, for aspiration, for endeavour, for progress. The godly man feels that to please God is something far beyond and above him. To serve God, to obey God, is to please God. It is an inferior and unworthy aim to endeavour to please man, an aim which may often lead astray, for man is but man. But the spirit and conduct that shall please God are in the highest degree admirable, and, indeed, morally perfect.

III. The motive of Christian conduct.—It is sometimes hard for every one of us to do what is right from a sense of duty. We are not called upon to act simply from that motive. We are not servants merely; we are sons. Remembering how much we owe to our Lord and Saviour, can we do other than desire to please Him?

Illustration

‘If we wished to sum up religion in one sentence, we might say that it consists in a settled and deliberate purpose to please God. The advocates of every religion will accept this account of what they are really aiming at in their religious efforts. In the Old Testament there is a passage which represents Balak coming to the Prophet Balaam with this question: “Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgressions, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” Now that seems to our eyes a very strange and repulsive conception of religion which these questions infer. In truth there is set out the current idea of pagan worshippers, and they accept the idea of God that paganism offered to its votaries. The Prophet makes answer to the questions by taking for granted this view of religion as essentially consisting in pleasing God; but he points out a very different source of information as to how man can please God. Not in the temper and cruelty of monarchs was the kind of worship found which would be acceptable to Him—there was a worthier and a nearer article of guidance which every man could consult, and which no man need misunderstand. “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” Not the things which impress you most in the public life of the world, but rather those which must command the veneration of your own higher nature. These words of the Prophet are to be your guidance, when you seek to form some opinion of the Soul and Character of God, and to determine the kind of worship acceptable to Him. Not without you, but within you is the Divine witness.’