Living to Please God While Waiting for the Lord

Ἀρέσκω means to please, satisfy, or act in a way found acceptable by another. Herod is pleased by a dance and makes a reckless promise, showing that pleasing a ruler may feed vanity and injustice. The Jerusalem congregation is pleased with a wise proposal that protects unity and service. Paul places the decisive contrast between life in the flesh, which cannot please God, and devoted concern for the Lord.

The verb does not define the standard of approval; the person pleased and the reason for approval must be named. Christian faithfulness is not indifference to others, yet it refuses to make human satisfaction the controlling measure when God's will is at stake.

Parangelia means an order, charge, instruction, or authoritative directive. Jerusalem's rulers use it for their prohibition against apostolic teaching, but Paul uses it for instructions given through the Lord Jesus and for the charge entrusted to Timothy. In 1 Timothy, the goal of the instruction is love arising from a pure heart, good conscience, and sincere faith.

The word therefore does not make every command righteous merely because an authority issues it. Its source, content, goal, and conformity to Christ matter. Christian leaders transmit the Lord's teaching as stewards; they may not attach divine force to personal preferences or use a charge to override truth, conscience, lawful protection, or accountability.

θέλημα (thelēma) names a will, desire, intention, or what someone purposes and wants carried out. The noun can refer to God’s will, human resolve, bodily desires, or even the devil’s will, so it is not automatically a sacred term. In the Lord’s Prayer, disciples ask for the Father’s will to be done on earth as in heaven. In Gethsemane, Jesus brings a real human desire before the Father and yields Himself to the saving path appointed for Him.

John’s Gospel identifies the Father’s will with the Son’s keeping and raising of those given to Him. Paul states plainly that God’s will includes the holiness of His people, and Hebrews says believers have been sanctified through Christ’s once-for-all offering according to that will. Scripture therefore uses the noun for commands already revealed, saving purposes accomplished in Christ, intentions that govern action, and desires that may resist God.

It should not be reduced to a hidden blueprint for personal decisions or invoked to excuse passivity, abuse, careless planning, or fatalism.

ἁγιασμός is the noun form of hagiazo (to sanctify, to set apart as holy). It names the process and state of being set apart for God — becoming increasingly conformed to the character of the Holy One to whom one belongs. The -mos suffix in Greek indicates a process or result: hagiasmos is both the act of sanctifying and the resulting state of holiness. The local NT index currently counts about 10 occurrences, concentrated in Paul's ethical exhortations and in Hebrews 12.

First Thessalonians 4:3 provides the clearest NT statement of hagiasmos as God's will: 'For this is the will of God, your sanctification (hagiasmos): that you abstain from sexual immorality.' God's will is not first a specific vocational direction for your life — it is your hagiasmos. The person asking 'what is God's will for my life?' is already given the answer in the area that matters most: God's will is that you become holy. The specific directions follow from that basic orientation.

Romans 6:19-22 provides the logic of hagiasmos in Paul's wider argument. Having been freed from sin and made slaves to God, the result (karpos — fruit) is hagiasmos, and its end is eternal life. Paul's 'once / now' contrast: once you gave yourselves over to impurity and lawlessness, now give yourselves over to righteousness 'for hagiasmos.' Sanctification is the direction of the new life — not a new form of bondage but the organic fruit of belonging to God.

First Corinthians 1:30 gives hagiasmos its Christological anchor: Christ was made for us 'wisdom, righteousness, sanctification (hagiasmos), and redemption.' Sanctification, like righteousness, is received in Christ before it is worked out in practice. This is the NT's distinctive contribution: hagiasmos is not first a human achievement but a status given in Christ and a process worked in those who belong to Him.

Hebrews 12:14 issues the most direct call: 'Pursue peace with all men, and the hagiasmos without which no one will see the Lord.' The radical claim: seeing God is conditioned on hagiasmos. This is not a salvation-by-works claim; it is a description of the direction the genuinely saved person moves. The one who belongs to God moves toward holiness because God is holy, and seeing God is the orientation of one who is being conformed to His character.

For the preacher, ἁγιασμός is the word that names the goal of the Christian life in the NT. Not merely forgiveness at the start, not merely glory at the end, but the transformation that happens between those two points — the becoming-holy of people who belong to a holy God.

Porneia names sexual immorality and, in prophetic and apocalyptic contexts, figurative covenant unfaithfulness expressed as idolatrous immorality. The New Testament uses the term plainly and seriously without voyeurism. Jesus locates sexual immorality among the sins that come from the heart. Acts includes abstaining from sexual immorality in instructions to Gentile believers.

Paul confronts public sexual immorality in Corinth, commands believers to flee it, and grounds holiness in the body belonging to the Lord. Ephesians says such sin must not even be named among the saints as fitting conduct. Revelation uses the word for Babylon's corrupting immorality and idolatrous seduction. The word therefore requires moral clarity, gospel hope, and pastoral care: it names real sin, calls for repentance, and must never be handled with shame-driven spectacle.

τιμή carries two related meanings in the NT: value or price (the economic dimension) and honor or respect (the social and moral dimension). Both are present in the NT, and the movement between them is often theologically significant — what something costs reflects what it is worth, and what is worth most deserves the most honor.

First Corinthians 6:20 and 7:23 both use the economic sense: 'you were bought with a price (times).' The price paid for the believer is the blood of Christ, and the implication is that the person's body, life, and allegiance are not their own to dispose of as they please. Being bought at great price creates a claim on the person: they belong to the one who paid for them. This economic use of time carries enormous ethical weight: the body matters because it was bought at the highest price; decisions about the body are therefore not private but relational.

Romans 12:10 applies time in the community context: 'Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor (time).' The competition here is in generosity of honor — a reversal of the normal human competitive drive to accumulate honor for oneself. The community of Christ is to be a place where people compete to give honor rather than to get it. The related Philippians 2:3 ground ('count others better than yourselves') provides the christological rationale: the mind of Christ is oriented downward, toward honoring others above self.

First Peter 3:7 uses time for the honor due a wife: 'husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor (time) to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life.' The honor-command is grounded in co-heir status — both husband and wife share equally in the inheritance of life, and that equal standing grounds the obligation to honor.

The Revelation doxologies give time its eschatological height: 'Worthy are you to receive glory and honor (time) and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created' (4:11). The ultimate time belongs to God — and the community's practice of giving time to one another is preparation for and reflection of the eternal orientation toward the One who is worthy of all honor.

For the preacher, τιμή is the word that names both what Christ paid for us (a price of infinite worth) and what we are to give one another (honor that exceeds what we seek for ourselves).

The Greek noun epithumia combines epi (upon, intensifying) with thumos (passion, impulse), giving the sense of a strong desire directed toward something. The word is not inherently negative in the Greek lexical tradition — it can describe any intense longing, including positive ones. Jesus uses it positively in Luke 22:15: 'I have earnestly desired (epithumia epithumesa) to eat this Passover with you.'

But in Paul, and especially in Galatians 5 and the broader NT moral vocabulary, epithumia often carries negative weight. The reason is not that desire itself is wrong but that the desires of the fallen human nature (sarx, flesh) are consistently oriented away from God and toward self. Galatians 5:16-17 presents the organizing conflict of the Christian life: the desires of the flesh (epithumiai tēs sarkos) fight against the Spirit, and the Spirit fights against the flesh.

These two are in fundamental opposition. The life of faith is not the elimination of desire but the transformation of its direction — away from what the flesh craves and toward what the Spirit produces. The NT's negative use of epithumia exposes a consistent diagnostic: what does the heart move toward when unguided? The flesh's desires are listed in Galatians 5:19-21 as a catalog of what emerges when the self is sovereign.

The Spirit's fruit in Galatians 5:22-23 is the counter-list of what emerges when God governs the heart. Epithumia is thus the presenting symptom of the flesh's reign — and the gospel is the announcement that this reign has been broken.

πλεονεκτέω (pleonekteō) means to overreach, exploit, defraud, take advantage, or gain at another person’s expense. In 1 Thessalonians, the verb belongs to a warning against violating or exploiting a brother in a sexual matter, where desire cannot be separated from another person’s holiness and the Lord’s judgment. In 2 Corinthians, Paul warns that Satan can outwit a church through a failure to complete discipline with forgiveness and comfort.

He also repeatedly denies exploiting the Corinthians, including through the coworkers he sent, placing financial and ministerial conduct under scrutiny. The verb is relational: one party seeks more by diminishing another’s freedom, resources, body, trust, or spiritual good. It does not require that exploitation look openly violent or that the exploiter admit greedy intent.

Scripture therefore calls churches to examine consent, money, authority, secrecy, retaliation, and benefit. Yet allegations also require truthful process; Paul’s denials belong to a pattern of transparent conduct and accountable partners, not to a leader’s demand for unquestioned trust.

Atheteō means to reject, set aside, nullify, or disregard something with a claim upon the person. Herod does not want to break his oath before his guests, though keeping that rash promise results in John's murder. Religious experts reject God's purpose for themselves by refusing John's baptism. Jesus says the one who rejects Him and does not receive His words will be judged by that same word.

Paul announces God overturning the wisdom of the wise, and he refuses to nullify God's grace by making righteousness depend on law. The verb does not make every refusal rebellious or every human commitment binding. Its force depends on what is rejected and whose authority stands behind it.

φιλαδελφία compounds philos (love, affection) and adelphos (brother), producing the characteristic affection of siblings for one another — the warm, familial love that marks those who belong to the same household. In Greek culture, philadelphia named the natural love of biological siblings. In the NT, it is redirected to the community of those who share the same heavenly Father and the same elder brother, Christ — the love that belongs to the family of God's children.

Romans 12:10 calls for philadelphia as the relational quality of the community: 'Love one another with brotherly affection (philadelphia). Outdo one another in showing honor.' The pairing is significant: philadelphia is not a policy or a community rule but a relational warmth — the genuine, familial affection of siblings for one another. And it is immediately connected to the time (honor) instruction: the philadelphia-love expresses itself specifically in preferring to give honor to others rather than to seek it for oneself.

First Thessalonians 4:9 makes one of the most remarkable statements in the NT about philadelphia: 'Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God (theodidaktoi) to love one another.' The community's philadelphia is Spirit-taught, not institutionally produced. God Himself has been the teacher of this love, and its fruit is visible.

Hebrews 13:1 issues the simplest possible command: 'Let brotherly love (philadelphia) continue.' The word 'continue' (meneto — imperative of meno) implies it is already present and must not be allowed to lapse. The philadelphia in view is concrete: hospitality to strangers (v. 2), care for prisoners (v. 3), honor of marriage (v. 4). The love is not abstract but expressed in specific practices.

For the preacher, φιλαδελφία is the word that names the family-warmth of the church — not the professionalism of a good organization but the affection of people who actually belong to one another.

ἐργάζομαι (ergázomai) means to work, do, practice, or carry out. Its moral force depends on the work named. Jesus warns that some who call Him Lord are workers of lawlessness, directs hearers not to work merely for perishing food, speaks of doing the works of the One who sent Him, and receives deeds of love. Paul contrasts wages owed to a worker with grace credited apart from works.

The verb therefore neither despises ordinary labor nor makes labor a path to self-justification. Christians work because God made embodied service meaningful, because love serves neighbors, and because Christ sends His people into His Father's purposes. Yet no amount of work earns the gift of righteousness or replaces the Son's gift of eternal life. A faithful study asks: what work is being done, under whose authority, and is the text speaking of vocation, evil practice, Christ's mission, loving service, or wages and grace?

The distinction is especially important for those whose lives are crowded with work. Jesus does not invite indifference toward food, family, vocation, or neighbor. He exposes work that treats temporary provision as the ultimate good, and He directs attention to the Son who gives life. Paul likewise can honor labor and still refuse the conclusion that righteousness is a wage.

The church should therefore receive ordinary work as a place for love, justice, skill, and witness, while resisting both workaholic self-worth and spiritualized neglect of practical responsibility. In that posture, labor becomes a grateful response to God rather than an altar on which identity, family, health, and mercy are sacrificed.

Koimao means to sleep, and in several New Testament settings it becomes a reverent way to speak of death. The word does not deny that death is real, painful, or an enemy. It also does not treat death as harmless sentiment. Its pastoral force comes from the resurrection horizon. Jesus says Lazarus has fallen asleep, then goes to wake him. Stephen falls asleep after entrusting himself to the Lord.

Paul says David fell asleep after serving God in his generation, and then contrasts David with the risen Christ. In 1 Corinthians and 1 Thessalonians, believers who have died are described as those who have fallen asleep because Christ has been raised as firstfruits. The word therefore helps readers speak honestly about death while refusing hopelessness.

ἐλπίς names hope as promise-grounded confidence in what God will bring to completion, not as wishfulness or a general positive attitude. In the Pastoral Epistles, Christ Jesus Himself is called our hope, eternal life is promised in hope by the God who cannot lie, believers await the blessed hope and appearing of Christ, and justification by grace makes them heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

This makes hope personal, doctrinal, and future-facing. It is personal because Christ is our hope. It is doctrinal because it rests on God's truthful promise, grace, resurrection, and eternal life. It is future-facing because it waits for what is not yet seen and for the appearing of our great God and Savior. Christian hope therefore strengthens endurance, worship, holiness, and patient ministry because God has promised the end in Christ.

ἀνίστημι (anistēmi) means to cause someone to stand, to stand up, to rise, to get ready and act, or, in resurrection settings, to raise or rise from the dead. The verb can mark a simple narrative transition: a person gets up to speak, travel, obey, or return home. In Jesus’ parable, the lost son says he will get up and go to his father, so the physical action carries out a repentant resolve but does not by itself mean repentance.

The same verb bears much greater weight when God raises Jesus from the dead, when Peter commands Tabitha to get up after praying, when Jesus promises to raise believers on the last day, and when the dead in Christ rise at His return. Context must distinguish ordinary standing, restored earthly life, Christ’s once-for-all resurrection, and the future resurrection of His people.

Acts 2 makes God the acting subject and Jesus the crucified One whom death could not hold. Acts 17 presents that resurrection as God’s public assurance that the appointed Judge will judge the world in righteousness. John 6 joins future raising to looking to the Son and believing in Him. First Thessalonians places the rising of the dead in Christ within the Lord’s descent and the church’s consolation.

The verb does not turn every call to “rise” into a resurrection promise or guarantee immediate recovery from illness, grief, poverty, or oppression. Nor does it reduce resurrection to renewed motivation. ἀνίστημι helps readers hear the difference between standing up within mortal life and God’s decisive act of raising the dead, with Christ’s bodily resurrection as the gospel center and His people’s future rising as covenant hope.

Παρουσία (parousía) means presence, arrival, or coming. It can describe the welcome arrival of an ordinary person, as when Titus comforts Paul, and it becomes a major term for the future coming of the Lord Jesus. The disciples ask about the sign of Jesus' coming; Paul prays for holiness at His coming with all His saints; James commands patient endurance until the Lord's coming; John urges believers to remain in Christ so they may stand confident rather than ashamed at His coming.

The ordinary use guards against treating the noun as a coded timetable. The eschatological uses describe personal arrival and resulting presence, not merely an inward idea or a recurring historical influence. Each passage emphasizes a different response: discernment, holiness, patience, steadfast communion, confidence, or warning.

Harpazo names forceful taking: to seize, snatch, carry away, or catch up. The word can describe destructive theft of the kingdom word, attempted political force toward Jesus, a wolf's attack on sheep, divine protection that prevents anyone from snatching Christ's sheep, the Spirit carrying Philip away, believers being caught up to meet the Lord, and rescue imagery in Jude.

Its forceful character is important, but its moral meaning changes by subject and context. An evil one can snatch away the word, but no one can snatch Christ's sheep from His hand. God can also carry or catch up according to His saving purpose.

παρακαλέω means to urge, appeal, exhort, encourage, comfort, or summon alongside, with the exact nuance supplied by context. In the Pastoral Epistles, the word is a practical ministry verb. Paul urges Timothy to remain in Ephesus to confront false doctrine, urges prayer for all people, tells Timothy to appeal to an older man as to a father, commands him to encourage faithful servants, tells him to encourage in preaching with patience and instruction, and tells Titus to encourage others by sound teaching and to encourage and rebuke with authority.

The word is not merely emotional comfort and not merely hard command. It describes speech that comes alongside people with truth, authority, patience, respect, and doctrinal substance. παρακαλέω is one of the words that keeps pastoral ministry from becoming either harsh control or vague affirmation. It is truth applied to people for faithful response.

ἁγιασμός is the noun form of hagiazo (to sanctify, to set apart as holy). It names the process and state of being set apart for God — becoming increasingly conformed to the character of the Holy One to whom one belongs. The -mos suffix in Greek indicates a process or result: hagiasmos is both the act of sanctifying and the resulting state of holiness. The local NT index currently counts about 10 occurrences, concentrated in Paul's ethical exhortations and in Hebrews 12.

First Thessalonians 4:3 provides the clearest NT statement of hagiasmos as God's will: 'For this is the will of God, your sanctification (hagiasmos): that you abstain from sexual immorality.' God's will is not first a specific vocational direction for your life — it is your hagiasmos. The person asking 'what is God's will for my life?' is already given the answer in the area that matters most: God's will is that you become holy. The specific directions follow from that basic orientation.

Romans 6:19-22 provides the logic of hagiasmos in Paul's wider argument. Having been freed from sin and made slaves to God, the result (karpos — fruit) is hagiasmos, and its end is eternal life. Paul's 'once / now' contrast: once you gave yourselves over to impurity and lawlessness, now give yourselves over to righteousness 'for hagiasmos.' Sanctification is the direction of the new life — not a new form of bondage but the organic fruit of belonging to God.

First Corinthians 1:30 gives hagiasmos its Christological anchor: Christ was made for us 'wisdom, righteousness, sanctification (hagiasmos), and redemption.' Sanctification, like righteousness, is received in Christ before it is worked out in practice. This is the NT's distinctive contribution: hagiasmos is not first a human achievement but a status given in Christ and a process worked in those who belong to Him.

Hebrews 12:14 issues the most direct call: 'Pursue peace with all men, and the hagiasmos without which no one will see the Lord.' The radical claim: seeing God is conditioned on hagiasmos. This is not a salvation-by-works claim; it is a description of the direction the genuinely saved person moves. The one who belongs to God moves toward holiness because God is holy, and seeing God is the orientation of one who is being conformed to His character.

For the preacher, ἁγιασμός is the word that names the goal of the Christian life in the NT. Not merely forgiveness at the start, not merely glory at the end, but the transformation that happens between those two points — the becoming-holy of people who belong to a holy God.