Test and prove what pleases the Lord.
Parallel translations
- WEB proving what is well pleasing to the Lord.
- KJV Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
- NKJV finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.
- NASB as you try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.
- NLT Carefully determine what pleases the Lord.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Children of light are to discern and do what pleases the Lord. Pleasing God is the aim that guides Christian living.
Overview
This verse states the goal of walking in the light: 'proving' or testing what is pleasing to the Lord. The Christian life involves active discernment of God's will in concrete situations. Rather than following a mere list of rules, believers seek to know and do what delights their Lord.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Rom 12:1–2Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
- Ps 19:14May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.
- Heb 12:28Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be filled with gratitude, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.
- 1 Pet 2:5you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
- 1 Pet 2:20How is it to your credit if you are beaten for doing wrong and you endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.
- 1 Th 5:21but test all things. Hold fast to what is good.
- Prov 21:3To do righteousness and justice is more desirable to the LORD than sacrifice.
- Phil 1:10so that you may be able to test and prove what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
- 1 Tim 2:3This is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior,
- Rom 14:18For whoever serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.
- Jer 6:20What use to Me is frankincense from Sheba or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please Me.”
- 1 Tim 5:4But if a widow has children or grandchildren, they must first learn to show godliness to their own family and repay their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.
- Phil 4:18I have all I need and more, now that I have received your gifts from Epaphroditus. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.
- 1 Sam 17:39David strapped his sword over the tunic and tried to walk, but he was not accustomed to them. “I cannot walk in these,” David said to Saul. “I am not accustomed to them.” So David took them off.
- Isa 58:5Is this the fast I have chosen: a day for a man to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the LORD?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Every spiritual blessing is 'in Christ,' the head over all things for the church, in whom Jew and Gentile are made one new man by his blood.
How Ephesians 5:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.