The Greek areskeia refers to the desire or effort to please — to accommodate oneself to another's wishes. It can be used positively (pleasing God) or negatively (people-pleasing that compromises truth).
Areskeia appears once in the New Testament in Colossians 1:10, where Paul prays that believers 'live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way' (areskeia). Here the word takes on its highest positive sense: the Christian life oriented entirely toward pleasing God rather than people. This contrasts with the negative sense of people-pleasing that Paul rejects in Galatians 1:10: 'If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.' The goal is not human approval but divine pleasure — the Father saying 'This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased' (Matthew 3:17).