God’s Good, Pleasing, and Perfect Will

Romans 12:1-2

¹Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- this is your spiritual act of worship.  ²Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Part of a class I have been taking assigned Romans 12:1-2 to memorize.  I did a little investigating about this passage.  One of the phrases that caught my eye was in the second part of verse two where it says, “Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

According to the apostle Paul when I am “transformed by the renewing of my mind,” then I will be able to “test and approve what God’s will is.”  I was pretty confident when I first came upon this section that Paul didn’t mean that God was looking for my approval of His will.  What I found was that the use of the word “approve” means “to prove.”  But it made me wonder, do I approve of God’s will?  Do I view it as “good, pleasing, and perfect”?  Or do I just begrudgingly accept it?

As I started breaking down this part of the verse, I chose to look at good, pleasing, and perfect as separate entities.  When I studied good it was easy to follow the reasoning that since God is good, then His will is also good.  I likened it to my relationship with peas.  I know they’re good for me, so I eat them.  It doesn’t mean I have to like them though.  They certainly don’t please me, just like several of the circumstances in my life don’t delight me now.  None of that changes the fact that peas are good for me.  God’s will is good.

I also looked up the word perfect.  I could go along with the same line of reasoning that since God is perfect, then His will is perfect.  But I really liked one of the definitions I found in the Blue Letter Bible commentary.  It defined perfect as, “wanting nothing necessary to completeness.”¹  That brought home to me that since God’s will is perfect, it’s complete.  There is nothing left waiting to be done.  Like Goldilocks said, “It’s just right.”

You might have noticed that I skipped right over pleasing.  I have to admit that I still struggle with viewing God’s will as pleasing to my heart all the time.  In the King James Version instead of pleasing, it uses the word acceptable.  The same Greek word is used in Romans 12:1 when it says to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God.  One of the things I found out was that we please God there not because our sacrifice is so wonderful, but because of our attitude and offer.  If I follow that same line of reasoning, then God’s will is pleasing because of His attitude and offer.  He wants what is best for me and my loved ones.

That’s not so hard to swallow when life is rolling along fairly easily.  The sour taste enters when circumstances are difficult.  It’s tough to say with much conviction that God’s will is pleasing when you’re in the middle of mourning the loss of a loved one or looking at the prospect of other tough times of life.

I’m wondering if the apostle Paul wasn’t getting at the fact that when I live my life as a sacrifice to be used for God’s purpose, then my whole way of approaching my existence is changed.  I can understand what God wants for me and I can even view the lessons he has for me in my circumstances to further my maturity as good, perfect, and pleasing.

What I worry about though is that even if I know God’s will is good, perfect, and pleasing, do I embrace it that way?  Or am I grudgingly swallowing it like I do those peas?  I don’t know if I will ever like peas.  What  I am trusting is that someday I will be able to affirm not just as a concept, but in the tastebuds of my heart, that God’s will in all aspects of my life is good, perfect, and even pleasing, regardless of the circumstance.  I’m looking forward to that meal!