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How to Please God

Enoch is one of the most intriguing figures in history because he is one of only two people to never die. To add to that, there isn’t much of an explanation as to how he left earth. Briefly mentioned in the Bible’s first genealogy, we simply read, “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him (Genesis 5:24).” 

 We get a few more details in the Hall of Faith, where in Hebrews 11:5 we see, “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.”

 

To be translated means to be “carried across,” as if God carried Enoch from this world to Paradise. All we know of Enoch is that he walked with God and he pleased God by faith. What does it mean to please God? I looked up the Greek word used in Hebrews 11:5 in three different Bible dictionaries, and there was no entry. 

 

So I consulted six different commentaries on the book of Hebrews, and none expounded on the phrase pleased God. It seems this is too important of a concept for the commentators to be so silent. I decided to search for other uses of this word in hopes of getting a good example of what pleasing God looks like, but this world only appears three times in the entire Bible, and all three times are in Hebrews. Two of those are in this passage, 11:5-6. The only other use is in 13:6: “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” 

 

Maybe none of the scholars felt the need to dig into the word please because it isn’t that complicated. We please God when we do good and share. That makes sense when we remember that Jesus said the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Enoch must have done that. 

 

In Genesis it also said he walked with God. That makes sense when we remember that Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart. 

 

Enoch pleased God because he loved the Lord and treated people the right way. That isn’t a deep concept, and should be considered basic Christianity. Are you pleasing God?  

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