I was having a discussion with a friend of mine this week. We were talking about whether God can be in any way pleased with a non-Christians action. My position is that while it is true that non-Christians are capable of actions that appear "externally" good, because there heart is at emnity with God, God can be in no way pleased at all with them. My friend's position is that while non-Christians are at emnity with God, when they, for example, do a kind act to another person, God will be in some sense pleased or happy with them. I'm pretty certain (almost absolutely) that this isn't correct, but I'm planning on bringing this subject up again with my friend because it seems like such a core component of Christianity, so I wanted check and make sure I'm not missing something. The main verses I'm relying on to support my position are

the latter half or Romans 1, Romans 3:10-18, Romans 8:5-8, Hebrews 11:6.

I'm sure there are a lot of other places that speak on this subject too. The Romans 8 and Hebrews 11 passage are pretty clear in my opinion. I don't understand how a Christian could read those verses and still think non-Christians are capable of doing anything that pleases God in any way.

John