“Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

Galatians 1:10 NIV

The above passage reads simple enough. However, nothing is more difficult to apply it in real life. Do you spend your time trying to please everybody? Recently, I could not agree with a person who declared that his policy is to please everyone. Paul had to speak harshly to the Christians in Galatia because they were in danger of doing just that, “pleasing men”. He did not apologize for his straightforward words, knowing that he could not serve Christ faithfully if he allowed the Galatian Christians to remain on the wrong track.

Whose approval are you seeking, others or God’s? Let us pray that Jesus holds our hands and bless us with the courage to seek His approval above anyone else’s.

Paul emphasized this in other Epistles too. In Ephesians 6:7 he wrote, “Serve wholeheartedly as if you were serving the Lord, not men;” and in Colossians 3:23 we read, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,”

I have struggled to apply this all through my life, especially at work and in the church. It becomes even more challenging when you are serving the Lord and people oppose you. I have held the view that no matter whom you work for, what work you do, or who works for you, the One you ultimately should want to please is your God in Heaven, Jesus Christ. When the voice of worldly wisdom is heard above God’s still small voice by people, you are painted all wrong. They quickly try to debase you and bring obstructions of authority in your way. I have heard people say, “oh, he is a law unto himself,” (sorry buddies I try to follow what I learned from the Gospel teachings). Or, “he has an attitude.” (My way or the highway? Again, sorry, I don’t want to take the highway to hell.”)  When the going gets impossible, I hear Jesus telling me, “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town,” Matthew 10:14, and I quit. When I do that, they accuse me of quitting at the drop of a hat. See how difficult, this world makes it for you to follow the path shown by Christ?

Are you seeking to please God? Do you even need to try to please God? Some preachers say, “That’s wrong! Don’t try to please God! God is already fully pleased with you as you are!” That contemporary Christian maxim sounds wonderful, but if it’s true, then why did Paul say in Galatians 1:10 that he was seeking the approval of God?

I have found that many Christians experience a pendulum effect in their relationship with God. They swing from grace to condemnation and back again. Sometimes we feel God’s absolute love for us and at other moments we doubt His unconditional kindness. No wonder critics term Christians as oxymoronic!

Christian ministers aim to help those who are suffering from this vacillating spiritual experience, and that is a good thing, (and that’s partly my goal too). However, the way to help those on the pendulum is not to push them back in the other direction, but to pull them over from a groundless existence where circumstantial inertia has its way in their lives and to plant them on the unshifting ground of God’s Word.

The Bible is a solid footing that teaches us the contours of our relationship with God. In the same letter of Galatians, God can teach us that we are declared righteous solely by faith, “we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16), and that we must seek to please Him.

The Lord stabilizes our hearts in these truths by combining these ideas in just one sentence, “be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities, you will never fall” (2 Peter 1:10). God loves us, and we seek to please Him. It is not one or the other.

The same dual dynamic is true in our covenant relationship with God. When we received Christ, we pledged to serve Him, not just receive our eternal inheritance. Paul understood this relationship with God, and so must we if we are to have a mature relationship with our Lord and be “a servant of Christ.”

May God help us be free from this vacillating spiritual pendulum, “no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14). Instead, let’s be grounded in His truth and love, and so seek to please our God who died for us. Amen

Anand Peter