100 Bible Verses about Pleasing God Rather Than

1 Thessalonians 2:4 ESV / 25 helpful votes

But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.

Galatians 1:10 ESV / 23 helpful votes

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Proverbs 29:25 ESV / 13 helpful votes

The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.

Colossians 3:23 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

Ephesians 6:6 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,

Ephesians 5:8-10 ESV / 10 helpful votes

For 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), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

Romans 12:1-2 ESV / 10 helpful votes

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Acts 5:29 ESV / 9 helpful votes

But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.

Proverbs 16:7 ESV / 9 helpful votes

When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

Colossians 3:22 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.

Ephesians 5:10 ESV / 8 helpful votes

And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

Romans 12:2 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12:1 ESV / 7 helpful votes

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Hebrews 13:16 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Hebrews 11:6 ESV / 6 helpful votes

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Hebrews 11:5 ESV / 6 helpful votes

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.

Colossians 1:13 ESV / 6 helpful votes

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,

Romans 8:8 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Galatians 2:20 ESV / 5 helpful votes

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

John 15:19 ESV / 5 helpful votes

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

John 12:43 ESV / 5 helpful votes

For they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

Isaiah 2:22 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?

Galatians 1:6 ESV / 4 helpful votes

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—

2 Corinthians 5:9 ESV / 4 helpful votes

So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV / 4 helpful votes

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Romans 12:12 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Proverbs 29:26 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Many seek the face of a ruler, but it is from the Lord that a man gets justice.

Psalm 149:4 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation.

Psalm 147:10-11 ESV / 4 helpful votes

His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.

Psalm 51:16-17 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Psalm 19:14 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

1 John 3:22 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

Hebrews 13:20-21 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Hebrews 11:5-6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Titus 2:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Colossians 3:20 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

Colossians 2:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

Colossians 1:27 ESV / 3 helpful votes

To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Philippians 4:13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Philippians 2:12-16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

Philippians 2:11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Galatians 6:1-18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load. ...

Galatians 5:22-23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Galatians 1:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—

2 Corinthians 7:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

Romans 12:3-8 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; ...

John 8:29 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.”

Matthew 10:28 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Zephaniah 3:17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

Hosea 6:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Ezekiel 33:11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

Jeremiah 1:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

1 Chronicles 29:17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. In the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things, and now I have seen your people, who are present here, offering freely and joyously to you.

Revelation 4:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

1 John 1:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

2 Peter 3:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

1 Peter 1:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,

James 5:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

James 4:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

James 2:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.

Hebrews 13:15-16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

2 Timothy 2:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

1 Timothy 5:3-5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day,

1 Timothy 2:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling;

1 Thessalonians 4:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.

Colossians 1:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

Colossians 1:9-10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

Philippians 4:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

Philippians 2:2-3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Philippians 2:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Ephesians 1:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

2 Corinthians 8:21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For we aim at what is honorable not only in the Lord's sight but also in the sight of man.

1 Corinthians 15:12-16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.

1 Corinthians 10:33 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.

1 Corinthians 9:19-23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

1 Corinthians 6:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Romans 15:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

Romans 14:17-18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.

Romans 12:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.

Romans 8:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

Acts 4:19-20 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

John 5:44 ESV / 2 helpful votes

How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

John 5:30 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

John 5:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.

John 3:16-17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Luke 16:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

Luke 6:26 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

Luke 3:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

Luke 3:1-38 ESV / 2 helpful votes

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, ...

Mark 12:33 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

Matthew 17:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

Matthew 6:24 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Malachi 2:13-14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And this second thing you do. You cover the Lord's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

Micah 6:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Amos 1:1-15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. And he said: “The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the top of Carmel withers.” Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron. So I will send a fire upon the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad. I will break the gate-bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of Aven, and him who holds the scepter from Beth-eden; and the people of Syria shall go into exile to Kir,” says the Lord. ...

Daniel 9:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate.

Ezekiel 18:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?

Isaiah 1:11-13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.

Proverbs 15:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is acceptable to him.

Proverbs 12:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.

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