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‘That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing.’
Col_1:10
Christ pleased the multitude, and their testimony was, ‘Never man spake like this Man.’ What we have, then, to ask, is, ‘How did Christ please men?’ in order that we, by ‘pleasing,’ like Christ, may ‘walk worthy’ of Christ.
I. The first secret of ‘all pleasing’ is humility.—We almost always like a person who is really humble.
II. Another characteristic in Christ’s life, and it was eminently ‘to all pleasing,’ was His universal sympathy.—It was, humanly speaking, the spring of His power. It is the spring of all power to throw yourself into another’s mind, to look with another’s eye, to feel as with another’s touch; to do it both with joy and sorrow, with ignorance and learning, with dignity and debasement; and to express it by the countenance and the manner, as well as by the word, and by the tone, and by the accent; and, with all, to be always respectful in your sympathy—this is the capability to ‘please’; and this Jesus had without measure.
III. And we must add that potent and rare art of seeing the good in everybody—that sweetest flower of charity!—Christ had it in an unparalleled degree, and He owed to it, in an earthly sense, much of His influence. Is there anything in life so powerful? Is there anything so Christ-like? To see the germ of piety before it develops—the seed of good in a wrong action, the yet untold love, the bit of blue on a dark sky, the excuse upon everything, to magnify the right while you hide its bad—that was Christ! And he who knows how to do that ‘walks worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing.’
—
Rev. James Vaughan.
Illustration‘We are meant, says Bishop Moule, to think of the Lord’s will as an affectionate servant thinks of the wishes (not merely of the spoken or written-down orders) of the master, or the mistress, who has made the house of service a genuine home, and has almost hidden authority away in friendship. Even such an illustration scarcely satisfies the case. This “anticipatory obedience” is rather to be that of a devoted son to a parent, to a loving and beloved parent, to whom perhaps the son has not been always dutiful. How can he now do enough to undo that lamented past? How can he too much try, and delight, to obliterate the scars of past neglect by a present studious and watchful “meeting of the wishes”?’
‘That ye might walk worthy or the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.’
Col_1:10
I. Walking.—So we are called on to walk worthy of the Lord in all the little things of life: those which come closest to our hand, just within reach. Here is the difficulty. We can brace ourselves up for great events; but, while many Christians pass through great events, how they fail in little things, in what is called the minutiae of life!
II. Working.—‘Fruitful in every good work.’ Not engaged in every work only. You have to see that there is fruitfulness. Something in it, whether little or great, that will please your Heavenly Father.
III. Growing.—‘Increasing in the knowledge of God.’ You cannot increase in the knowledge of God unless your heart is under the guiding and teaching of the Holy Spirit continually. ‘If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine.’
Rev. Whitfield.
Illustration‘Laid on Thine altar, O my Lord divine,
Accept my gift this day for Jesu’s sake;
I have no jewels to adorn Thy shrine,
Nor any world-famed sacrifice to make;
But here I bring within my trembling hand
This will of mine—a thing which seemeth small;
And only Thou, dear Lord, canst understand
How, when I yield thee this—I yield mine all.’