Ephesians 5:10: “Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.”
What do you think when you read that sentence?
It sounds as if knowing what pleases God is a difficult puzzle, but we are responsible for figuring it out. We are to try, try, try to solve that puzzle using all our intellectual abilities; then we can live a life that God will commend.
But that is not what the Apostle Paul is saying.
The single Greek verb rendered “try to discern” was used of testing a precious metal to see if it was genuine. So think of “try” in that sense: “Test every action, every thought, every desire with the question: Will this please Jesus? Will this glorify God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit?”
Furthermore, in this passage the Apostle makes clear that answering that question is not difficult! God doesn’t give us a complex mystery that we must solve in order to know what pleases Him. Instead, He tells us clearly what pleases Him.
Consider Paul’s exhortations in the surrounding context. The overarching command is found in Ephesians 5:1-2: “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us.”
It pleases God for us, as His children, to display His character.
Paul then builds on the picture of us as God’s children by calling us children of light:
At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true) (Ephesians 5:8-9)
Our key verse above follows immediately.
In Jesus, we are God’s children; we are children of light. And as children so often display the character of their parents, we are to display that family likeness of God, of light. This isn’t difficult to discern; it is a “fruit,” growing out of the identity God has granted us.
Perhaps to keep us from thinking that it is difficult, the surrounding passage fleshes out the details of what this means, both negatively and positively:
- You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds…. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. (From Ephesians 4:17-19)
- Put off your old self … put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (From Ephesians 4:22-24)
- Let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor (Ephesians 4:25)
- Be angry and do not sin … and give no opportunity to the devil (Ephesians 4:26-27)
- Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up … that it may give grace to those who hear (Ephesians 4:29)
- Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God (Ephesians 4:30)
- Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice (Ephesians 4:31)
- Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32)
- Sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you…. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, … but instead let there be thanksgiving (Ephesians 5:3-4)
- Be filled with the Spirit addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Ephesians 5:18-21)
The Apostle then goes on to speak of how we imitate God in marriage, with our children, and in our places of work.
Therefore, God has communicated clearly what pleases Him. Furthermore, He has made us a new creation, granting us His Spirit, so that, filled with Him, we can both know and do what pleases Him.
Our responsibility then is to stop and think! Don’t just go along with the crowd. Don’t just go along in the rut that has characterized your past. Don’t give in to the lie that you cannot change. Rather: Test each thought. Test each action. Test each attitude. And in dependence on the indwelling Spirit, put on that new man and be imitators of God, as beloved children.
