Pleasing God and not Men

Galatians 1:10 “For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.”

Pleasing God exclusively is a very hard task especially for Christian workers. But, this message applies to everybody including believers where we make many decisions in our life where it requires to please men more than God. First and foremost, we are bondservants. We chose not to have a life of our own and have given everything to Christ. Bondservants unconditionally serve their masters. Our case is even more important we are representatives or lights that are expected to reflect Him. Both ministers and believers have this responsibility. Since we are working to the world for Christ, our bond has to be clearly seen in our work. In Ephesians 6:6 we see the word bond servants again but here, we are given as an example to slaves.

In John 12:43 onwards, we can see Jesus crying out for people who after seeing and receiving miracles, did not believe Him because of their need to please men. Verses 44 to 50 are a clear answer to this problem from Christ. First, He sets a model that He transfers all credits and faith to the Father. Jesus does not claim anything here. If we imagine this sentence in the tone as Jesus said, we can understand how Jesus claimed credits to the Father.  And this is not just faith, vision is also included. Christ had the submission to completely display the Father instead of Himself. Third, Jesus claims the authority was given by the Father. That is faith, vision and obedience are all expected to be diverted to the Father. Jesus could easily forward all his benefits to the sender even after being the one who suffered for us.

The instruction is the focus on the purpose and not men in between. This is the reason that Jesus does not condemn those who reject, but just saves those who come towards Him. He prioritizes salvation first and mentions that there is a time when condemnation will come, but let us focus on the job. If we focus on condemning people or shattering their faiths by proving our authority, God is not pleased. That is why Jesus when saw that men were trying to please each other, fist He shattered His own authority for us to learn.

In verse 50, we can see eternal life as a commandment given to Jesus and he follows this commandment only. We have always been seeing this as a blessing, but if this was the commandment and in line with the love God with all our heart, mind and might command, we can see that this is God’s eternal plan that we would live with Him filled with love for eternity. This is the ultimate purpose and Jesus was sent with this plan to be executed. But, we are deviating by trying to please other men. See, when Jesus says that we are seeing the Father by seeing Him, He says that this vision of ours is not real. That is why the law is not real but caters to the temporary world. That’s why Paul goes to the extent of calling the Galatians as foolish who are looking at temporary things, plans and still hoping for eternity. Eternal life is the commandment that pushes us towards pleasing God.

According to John 5:44, believing in Jesus and seeking men’s honor cannot happen together. If we really believe Jesus is the son of God and has come to prepare a greater honor for us, we would start giving all our trust in Him and will not align with the desires of the world. In verse 43, Jesus says that pleasing men will take us towards accepting a lot of false preachers. This was the problem with Jews, early church believers and even believers today. When they keep following men, they set standards for leadership in terms of authority, elocution and wisdom. But when Christ came, it was hard for them to accept because these standards prevented them. They had been searching scriptures for eternal life but they led towards Jesus and still they rejected. The culprit is worldly wisdom which seeks human acceptance and leads to false honor which is complete failure.

And in Luke 16:15, Jesus makes it clear to law keepers that they are just keeping them outwardly clean to show themselves off. God hates this because Satan has been successful in making them understand that it is enough to enjoy honor from men. Inner cleansing is required and the characteristics should start from within.

For ministers, Paul displays him as a model in 1 Thes 2:4-6 where every word we speak or submit would have one single motto which is to please God. The reason is that we are entrusted with the gospel which was conceived with a heavy price. This responsibility requires us to submit one hundred percent that the self will not be displayed or seek honor among men.