People say Christianity is not about rules, it’s about relationship. There is some truth to that, but you can’t have a mutual loving relationship without rules. You can be legally married, in a lifetime covenant, and if you don’t abide by some rules, your relationship will suffer. Your goal in marriage should be your spouse’s pleasure, not yours, and it is the same in your relationship with God. Jesus was born sinless, but He remained sinless because He lived to please His Father, not Himself, or anyone else.
If your focus is on the rules though, you won’t be operating from love. It will feel like an obligation to be fulfilled, a checklist to be marked off. We do have an obligation and a duty in a marriage and in our relationship with God, but that cannot be our motivation.
Here is another downfall to focusing on rules.
Say a line was to be drawn on the ground and you were told that if you cross that line you will destroy your life, it would be wise to stay away from the line. But the enemy of our soul wants to steal, kill and destroy. He will try to convince you to wonder why the line is so bad, what’s on the other side that I can’t have. Curiosity can kill more than a cat.
If your focus is on the relationship, your attention is drawn to their heart, what makes them smile. This is what draws them to you. And this is how Jesus lived.
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 NKJV
This really takes effort on our part to do this. And it is a constant battle to not want to please your self, your flesh, rather than living to please Him. The real battle is how you think. Here’s how a modern translation clarifies it.
Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.
Romans 12:2 TPT
The good news is that with our relationship with God, He actually gives us the desire to please Him AND the ability to please Him.
For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.
Philippians 2:13 NLT
Living to please God is the key to a life well lived. Below are just a few more scriptures for further study.
So whether we live or die we make it our life’s passion to live our lives pleasing to him.
2 Corinthians 5:9 TPT
And try to learn [in your experience] what is pleasing to the Lord [let your lives be constant proofs of what is most acceptable to Him].
Ephesians 5:10 AMPC
Since we first heard about you, we’ve kept you always in our prayers that you would receive the perfect knowledge of God’s pleasure over your lives, making you reservoirs of every kind of wisdom and spiritual understanding. We pray that you would walk in the ways of true righteousness, pleasing God in every good thing you do. Then you’ll become fruit-bearing branches, yielding to his life, and maturing in the rich experience of knowing God in his fullness!
Colossians 1:9-10 TPT
Rather, we have been examined and approved by God to be trusted with the good news, and that’s exactly how we speak. We aren’t trying to please people, but we are trying to please God, who continues to examine our hearts.
1 Thessalonians 2:4 CEB
Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live in a way that pleases God, as we have taught you. You live this way already, and we encourage you to do so even more.
1 Thessalonians 4:1 NLT
It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying—“he disappeared, because God took him.” For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God. And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.
Hebrews 11:5-6 NLT
and those who are in the flesh [living a life that caters to sinful appetites and impulses] cannot please God.
Romans 8:8 AMP
Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Hebrews 13:20-21 NASB
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