1 Thessalonians 2:3-6 For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile:… This should be the supreme and controlling purpose of life. I. To PLEASE GOD IS POSSIBLE, because — 1. He has revealed what will please Him: His will in His Word. 2. We know this or may learn it. 3. His Spirit will help us if we seek His aid. II. To PLEASE MAN IS IMPOSSIBLE. 1. AS it is impossible to please all men, so it is almost as impossible to please one. The same man is different at different times. What may please him today may displease him tomorrow. 2. God has failed to please man even more signally than man himself. Chiefly see how He failed when He came in the likeness of man that He might purify him and fit him for heaven. 3. By seeking to please men instead of God, or more than God, men must doom the world to perpetual darkness and stationariness, or rather, as this is not possible, to sure retrogression and decay. How blessed, then, is the truth that it is easier to please God than man! (E. Mellor, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile:WEB: For our exhortation is not of error, nor of uncleanness, nor in deception. |
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