Pleasing (ἀρέσκω) expresses the concept of acting in a fawning manner to win favor or to act in a way that is pleasing. Therefore, it has a negative, flattery, and a positive, pleasing, side to its meaning.
On Herod’s birthday, Herodias’ daughter danced before Herod and his guests to please him, instigating a response from him that resulted in a promise of a reward. This allowed Herodias to have John the Baptist put to death for calling out Herod’s unlawful act of being with her (his brother’s wife), for she had already instructed her daughter to ask for his head when the King offered her whatever she wanted because she pleased him, Matthew 14:6.
At the beginning of the Church, before the complete revelation concerning the Church was given, the first assembly in Jerusalem faced an issue with the care of the widows among the Hellenistic Jews. This issue required substantial attention and would impact the disciples’ ability to minister to the saints. To address this, the disciples called the multitude together to discuss selecting men who would handle the day-to-day affairs of the assembly, including ensuring that all widows were adequately cared for. This solution would allow the disciples to focus on ministering the Word instead of serving tables. The proposed resolution pleased the multitude, creating the position of Deacon, Acts 6:5.
The desires and works of the flesh cannot please God, for they are carnal in nature and, therefore, hostile to God, Romans 8:8. Because God imputes Christ’s death and resurrection to us, we are able to walk in newness of life, free from slavery to the sin nature, Romans 6:5-6. However, when we try to live the Christian life through law, the result is bondage to the sin nature instead of freedom because the sin nature deceives us through the law, producing dead works in our lives, Romans 7:9.
For a Christian, anything that is done that is not out from faith is sin. Therefore, a person who believes that what type of food they eat may defile them before God, if they partake of that food are sinning, for they knowingly violate what they believe is God’s standard for them, Romans 14:23. However, in Christ we are free from every aspect of the law and, therefore, what we eat does not impact our relationship with God. Instead, food should be taken with thanksgiving and supplication, 1 Timothy 4:4-5. Since we are all part of one body, the stronger in the faith, the ones who understand the elementary principles of the world: touch not, taste not, handle not, do not produce a righteous life, are not to please themselves; instead, they are to bear the scruples of the weaker brother, not causing them to stumble or be scandalized, Romans 15:1.
Within Scripture we find that a lifestyle lived out from faith with a mind that is framed on the things above produces conduct that is pleasing to God, 1 Thessalonians 4:1. The ways of the Gentiles are cast off and our bodies are held in proper honor and set apart, abstaining from fornication, for God has not called us to impurity, but to sanctification, 1 Thessalonians 4:7.
