Paul wrote, “Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God” (1 Thess. 4:1).
One of the most difficult things anyone can do is to walk to please God. Let me explain myself. The world is packed full to the brim with churches that make being a Christian as easy as ordering fast food. Formulas range from “ask Jesus into your heart and that’s all folks”, to “you are saved because chose you and it doesn’t matter one tiny bit how you live–because if you are one of the chosen–then you are saved”.
Yet when we read scripture we get a different story. Walking to please God is not easy, because for one thing, all the denominational churches will become your enemies. To please God we must live holy and blameless. To please God we must abstain from sexual immorality, from adultery, from the everyday filthy language. We must seek the will of God, which is our sanctification, we must be holy as He is holy, putting all manner of sin away from us. To make certain your spirit, is aligned with God’s will concerning everything you read, you watch, and do. Make war against the television—which society is used by our enemy the devil, especially focused at our young people. Reality shows like Too Hot to Handle, Love Island, Big Brother, The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Or cartoons, the Family Guy, the Simpsons… “Family Games Shows”, like Survivor, Hell’s Kitchen, or the RuPaul’s Drag Race that has nothing whatsoever to do with drag cars racing. Shows, that portray adults as fools, pour filth down the throats of young people, attitudes of laziness, sensual dress, introduce homosexuality as normal, and sensual relationships between the unmarried, drugs, alcohol, and disrespect for God just to name a few.
Since these things are so accepted by the masses, if you walk to please God, then people will look at you as though you have lost your mind. You’ll be badgered, ridiculed and shunned. But then, every child of God that lives to obey the word of God knows about that as our Lord and Kings said, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you” (John 15:18), or “And you will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved” (Matt. 10:22).