What does the word "gar" (for/because) indicate in Hebrews 11:6?

Question

Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

I don't understand how the latter statement can imply the former. One is talking about the requirements to please God, and the other is talking about the requirements to come to God.

It would maybe make sense if there was a hidden implication "in order to 'please' God you must first 'come to' God", is that the implication of this verse?

EDIT:

As people seem to be misunderstanding what I'm asking, I'll try to explain a different way but I don't know if it will help.

If we know that "in order to do A you must first do B" and "in order to do B you must first do C" then we can logically deduce that "in order to do A then you must first do C".

But if we only know that "in order to do B you must first do C" then we cannot logically deduce that "in order to do A then you must first do C".

The verse seems to do this though, here:

• A = "Please God"
• B = "Come to God"
• C = "Have faith in God"

The "hidden implication" I referred to above is "in order to do A (please God) you must first do B (come to God)" - it's required for the logical deduction, but not explicitly stated in the verse.

Answer 1

So I gather the OP's issue with Hebrews 11:6 is that the connection between pleasing God and drawing near to God just isn't so direct if you are one reading this verse in isolation.

The concepts of faith, drawing near to God, and being pleasing to him are all linked together throughout the Old and New Testament, however, they are most proximately linked together just in the chapter prior to Hebrews 11:

38 but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”
-Hebrews 10:38

Notice that the objective state is to live and to do so by means of faith. The opposite condition is to shrink back and thus have God relate without pleasure.

So if the opposite of living by faith means to shrink back from God and be left without his pleasure, then the objective state of being alive by means of faith involves drawing near to God and having his pleasure.

Ultimately the concept of drawing near to God and being pleasing to him are just two ways of describing the same thing which is having a positive relationship with God.

You'll notice the context of Hebrews 10:38 is the day of judgment:

35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For,
“Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay;
38 but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”
39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. -Hebrews 10:35-39

The idea is to be ready for the judgment day. God is going to come whether you want Him to or not. Those who are able to draw near to God with confidence are those who have been drawing near to God throughout their lives and are thus confident that they will be met with God's pleasure. Those who shrink back have been shrinking back from God throughout their lives. They have no such confidence and there will be no love lost.

As wisdom hath said:

23 If you turn at my reproof,
behold, I will pour out my spirit to you;
I will make my words known to you.
24 Because I have called and you refused to listen,
have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded,
25 because you have ignored all my counsel
and would have none of my reproof,
26 I also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when terror strikes you,
27 when terror strikes you like a storm
and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
when distress and anguish come upon you.
-Proverbs 1:23-27

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
-James 4:8-9

Answer 2

I don't understand how the latter statement can imply the former. One is talking about the requirements to please God, and the other is talking about the requirements to come to God.

It would maybe make sense if there was a hidden implication "in order to 'please' God you must first 'come to' God", is that the implication of this verse?

The second clause is a complementary explanation to the first; it is explaining faith, it's not the condition for the first clause. Pleasing God is the same as coming near to him or seeking him. Pleasing or coming near to him is achieved through faith. The verse is talking about the most necessary or basic key to please God, that we must have faith in him or submit to his will. It is necessary to believe that he is, and that he rewards those who seek him.

Answer 3

The BLB offers a good literal translation of Heb 11:6 -

And without faith, it is impossible to please Him. For it behooves the one drawing near to God to believe that He exists and that He becomes a rewarder to those earnestly seeking Him out.

Thus, this verse states a simple fact - if we do not believe God exists and rewards those who seek after God, then it is impossible to please God!

That is, the second statement is a cause, or better, a prerequisite for the first. Thus, if one does not believe God exists, then one cannot order one's life in accord with God's character and requirements. The numerous examples in Heb 11 are marshalled as evidence of this fact.

MacLaren's sums it up this way:

THE writer has been pointing to the patriarch Enoch as the second of these examples of the power of faith in the Old Covenant; and it occurs to him that there is nothing said in Genesis about Enoch’s faith, so he set about showing that he must have had faith, because he ‘walked with God,’ and pleased Him, and no man could thus walk with God, and please Him, unless he had come to Him, and no man could come to a God in whom he did not believe, and whom he did not believe to be waiting to help and bless him, when he did come. So the facts of Enoch’s life show that there must have been in him an underlying faith. That is all that I need to say about the context of the words before us. I am not going to speak of the writer’s argument, but only of this one aspect of the divine character which is brought out here. ‘He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.’