as you try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.
Parallel translations
- WEB proving what is well pleasing to the Lord.
- KJV Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
- BSB Test and prove what pleases the Lord.
- NKJV finding out what is acceptable 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, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
- Ps 19:14Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, Yahweh, my rock, and my redeemer.
- Heb 12:28Therefore, receiving a Kingdom that can’t be shaken, let us have grace, through which we serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe,
- 1 Pet 2:5You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
- 1 Pet 2:20For what glory is it if, when you sin, you patiently endure beating? But if, when you do well, you patiently endure suffering, this is commendable with God.
- 1 Th 5:21Test all things, and hold firmly that which is good.
- Prov 21:3To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to Yahweh than sacrifice.
- Phil 1:10so that you may approve the things that are excellent; that you may be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ;
- 1 Tim 2:3For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior;
- Rom 14:18For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.
- Jer 6:20To what purpose comes there to me frankincense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.”
- 1 Tim 5:4But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn first to show piety towards their own family, and to repay their parents, for this is acceptable in the sight of God.
- Phil 4:18But I have all things, and abound. I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things that came from you, a sweet-smelling fragrance, an acceptable and well-pleasing sacrifice to God.
- 1 Sam 17:39David strapped his sword on his clothing, and he tried to move; for he had not tested it. David said to Saul, “I can’t go with these; for I have not tested them.” Then David took them off.
- Isa 58:5Is this the fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to humble his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under himself? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Yahweh?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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.