What truly pleases the Lord?

Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him. Don’t participate in the things these people do. For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. (Ephesians 5:6-10)

The sins we excuse don't make them any less sins. They are still actions and attitudes God would have his children stay away from completely. When we engage with these sins, entertaining them and then eventually accepting them as 'okay' for us, we are only being deluded into believing the lies of our enemy, Satan. Sin is sin. That may be a hard pill to swallow, but it doesn't make it any less true.

Live as people of light by carefully determining what pleases the Lord and then living according to that plan. If the light of Christ truly dwells within us, we will be less likely to choose to compromise to sin, being convicted if we ever begin to entertain the ideals of this world or the sin that comes from such compromises. His light within us produces ONLY what is good, right, and true. Think on that one for a bit today. Are the actions produced within good, right, and true? If not, those actions need to be changed!

How do we determine what pleases the Lord? It might be easier to point out a few things that don't please him such as the sins of adultery, thievery, or even lust. It might be a little harder to recognize the 'inroads' into our lives that temptation has and the ultimate sinfulness that those inroads produce. If we truly want to know what pleases the Lord, we need to be asking him if certain thoughts, attitudes, and actions we are engaging in are honoring him, lifting up his holiness when we engage in them. If not, we need to be quickly rejecting them!

We might argue that some things are 'okay' for us, but for a 'weaker brother', they may not be. I would point out that if we feel that way, we might want to reconsider our actions. If we are doing things or acting in ways that may make our 'weaker brother' stumble and fall into sin, we might not want to engage in those actions! Just sayin!