Please (699) (areskeia) means a desire or willingness to please, an endeavor to please, complaisance (disposition to please or comply), obsequiousness (marked by or exhibiting a fawning attentiveness). Areskeia is the desire to do something that produces satisfaction. Areskeia was used especially in public documents, descriptive of exceptional public service or expression of devotion. Interestingly, the root word areskos is combined with the Greek word for man (anthropos) to describe a "man pleaser". How would you describe yourself: "Man pleaser" or "God pleaser"? One of the chief aims of our life should be to seek to please God and to do so because we love Him Who first loved us (1Jn 4:19), for true love obeys. Everybody lives to please somebody. So the question is - Who are you seeking to please? Pleasing God ought to be the major motive of the Christian life. Children should live to please their father, and even more so should spiritual children seek to please their Father Who is in heaven. The Holy Spirit “is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Php 2:13-note). Enoch walked with God (the Greek Septuagint of Gen 5:22 says "Enoch was well pleasing God"), and before God called him to heaven, Enoch “obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God" (He 11:5-note) What a testimony! Our Lord Jesus, the One we are to imitate and Who now indwells us in Spirit, while on earth as Man said "I always do the things that are pleasing to Him." (John 8:29). Pleasing God means much more than simply doing God’s will. The half hearted prophet Jonah illustrates that it is possible to obey God and yet not please Him, for Jonah did what he was commanded, but his heart was not in it. (see Jonah 4:1ff) God blessed His Word but He could not bless His servant, Jonah. So Jonah sat outside the city of Nineveh angry with everybody, including the Lord! Our obedience should not (be) by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. (see note Ephesians 6:6) It is well-pleasing to God when we present our bodies to Him as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1 see note) and when we live so as to help others and avoid causing them to stumble (Romans 14:18 - note). God is pleased when His children separate themselves from the evil around them (Ephesians 5:10 - note), as well as when they bring their offerings to Him (Philippians 4:18 -note). He is pleased with children who submit to their parents (Colossians 3:20 - note), as well as with saints who permit Jesus Christ to work out His perfect will in their lives (Hebrews 13:20-note; Heb 13:21 - note). Paul summarized what the goal should be for every saint Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. (2Co 5:9) Micah sums it up beautifully in the OT writing He has told you, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8) One of the tragic paradoxes in many modern evangelical circles is the emphasis on “spiritual knowledge” and “Christian service” without connecting these matters to purity of personal character (eg, holiness, godliness). God builds character before He calls to service. He must work in us before He can work through us. Knowledge, conduct, service, and character must always go together. We know God’s will that we might obey it; and, in obeying it, we serve Him and grow in Christian character. While none of us is perfectly balanced in these four factors, we ought to strive for that balance. BEARING FRUIT IN EVERY GOOD WORK: ergo agatho karpophorountes (PAPMPN): (John 15:4-5, 15:8,16 Ro 7:4; 7:5;15:26, 27, 28 Gal 5:22,23 Eph 2:10; Php 1:11; Titus 3:1,14; Heb 12:11; 13:21; James 3:17 2Pe 1:8) Spurgeon calls us to observe that... “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful” Paul would have us producing the best fruit. Without knowledge we cannot be fruitful; at least in the points whereof we are ignorant we must fail to bring forth fruit. Therefore would he have us to be right well taught, that we may abundantly produce fruit unto God’s glory. He says, “fruitful in every good work”; and this means much. He desires us to be as full of good works as we can hold. Some are hindered in this because they do not know how to set about holy service. How can a man be fruitful as a preacher if he does not know what to preach? True, he may preach the elementary doctrine of the cross, but even that he will be apt to set forth in a blundering manner. For certain, a man cannot teach what he does not know. The zealous, but untaught man, would be much more fruitful if he had a clearer understanding of divine things. In daily life, if in knowledge you are ignorant as to the things of God, you will be ready to become the prey of any false teacher who may chance to pick you up. In hundreds of ways ignorance will make you run risks, lose opportunities of usefulness, and fall into dangerous mistakes. Knowledge is food to the true heart, and strengthens it for the Lord’s work. Oh, to have knowledge placed like good soil around the roots of the soul, to fertilize the mind, that thus the clusters of usefulness may be as large as those of Eshcol: beautiful, plentiful, sweet, and fall. May our Lord, the King of Israel, to Whom the vineyard belongs, receive an abundant reward for all His labor for the vines which He has planted. There is another note in this verse, which I beg you to notice. Paul would have them cultivate a comprehensive variety of the best things. He says- “Fruitful in every good work.” Here is room and range enough- “in every good work.” Have you the ability to preach the gospel? Preach it! Does a little child need comforting? Comfort it! Can you stand up and vindicate a glorious truth before thousands? Do it! Does a poor saint need a bit of dinner from your table? Send it to her. Let works of obedience, testimony, zeal, charity, piety, and philanthropy all be found in your life. Do not select big things as your specialty, but glorify the Lord also in the littles- “fruitful in every good work.” You never saw in nature a tree which yielded all sorts of fruit, and you never will. I have seen a tree so grafted that it produced four kinds of fruit at one time, but I remarked that it was a poor business in reference to two of the varieties; for one of the grafts, more natural than the others to the parent stem, drew off the most of the sap, and flourished well, but robbed the other branches. The second sort of fruit managed to live pretty fairly, but not so well as it would have done on its own stem. As for the third and fourth, they were mere attempts at fruit of the smallest size. This tree was shown to me as a great curiosity; it is not likely that practical gardeners will be encouraged by the experiment. But what would you think of a tree upon which you saw grapes, and figs, and olives, and apples, and all other good fruits growing at one time? This is the emblem of what instructed believers will become: they will produce all sorts of goodness and graciousness to the honor of their heavenly Father. I have no doubt that you will naturally abound most in certain good works for which you have the largest capacity, but still nothing ought to come amiss to you. In the great house of the church we want servants who will not be simply cooks or housemaids, but general servants, maids of all work, prepared to do anything and everything. I have known persons in household employment in England who would not do a turn beyond their special work to save their masters’ lives: these are a sort of servants of whom the fewer the better. In India this is carried to a ridiculous extreme. The Hindoo water-bearer will not sweep the house, nor light a fire, nor brush your clothes-he will fetch water, and nothing else: you must, therefore, have a servant for each separate thing, and then each man will do his own little bit, but he will not go an inch beyond. When we enter into Christ’s church we should come prepared to wash the saints’ feet, or bear their burdens, or bind up their wounds, or fight their foes, or act as steward, or shepherd, or nurse. It has been well said that if two angels in heaven were summoned to serve the Lord, and there were two works to be done, an empire to be ruled, or a crossing to be swept, neither angel would have a choice as to which should be appointed him, but would gladly abide the will of the Lord. Let us be equally prepared for anything, for everything by which fruit can be produced for the Well-beloved. Why is it that some are not fruitful in this comprehensive way? Because they are not filled with knowledge in all wisdom. When a man says, “You ask me to do the lowest work! Don’t you know that I am a man of remarkable ability who should have higher work to do?” I venture to assert that he is an ignorant man. Self-assertion is ignorance on horseback. You have probably read of a certain renowned corporal in the American service a century ago. A general, as he rode along, saw a body of men endeavoring to lift timber. They were shorthanded, and the work lagged, but their famous corporal stood by ordering them about at a magnificent rate. The general passed and said, “Why don’t you lend them help and put your shoulder to it? “Why, sir,” said the great little officer, “how can you think of such a thing? Do you know who I am? I am a corporal!” The general got off his horse, pulled off his coat, and helped to move the timber, and by his judicious help the soldiers achieved their task. Then he turned to the high and mighty gentleman and said, “Mr. Corporal, next time you want a man to do such work as this you can send for me: I am General Washington.” Just so the Lord Jesus Christ if He were here would gladly do a thousand things which His poor little servants are too great to touch. I know you, dear brother, you are too experienced, too old, too learned to help the Sunday school! I know you are too respectable to give away a tract! Pray get out of such ignorant ways of thinking, and ask to be useful in all possible ways. If you have done a little, do much; if you have done much, do more; and when you have more, ask for grace to proceed to the highest possible degree of usefulness for your Lord. (See the full sermon - Spiritual Knowledge: It's Practical Results) "Copy and paste the address below into your web browser in order to go to the original page which will allow you to access live links related to the material on this page - these links include Scriptures (which can be read in context), Scripture pop-ups on mouse over, and a variety of related resources such as Bible dictionary articles, commentaries, sermon notes and theological journal articles related to the topic under discussion." http://www.preceptaustin.org/colossians_110.htm#PLEASE%20ARESKEIA