READ:
Galatians 1:10b
10b Do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
EXHORTATION:
Christianity is not about following any man-made philosophical system or way of life. Neither is it about winning the approval of men at any cost. The Christian ministry’s main concern is to follow Christ and please God.
The Gospel that Paul preached was “according to the will of God” (Galatians 1:4). He warned the Galatian Christians that those who preached a different Gospel from what they had heard from him were attempting to “pervert the gospel of Christ” (Galatians 1:7). He even pronounced them as “accursed”! “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8-9). The apostle’s pronouncement of curse on the perverters of the Gospel proves abundantly that he was not a man-pleaser.
In fact, he repeatedly condemned such who perverted the Gospel. Paul was firm in guarding the truth: “And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage: to whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you” (Galatians 2:4-5). He was uncompromising when it came to false teaching – “he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be” (Galatians 5:10); “I would they were even cut off which trouble you” (Galatians 5:12). Evidently, Paul was not a flatterer. He was not the kind of preacher who cajoles a congregation by playing on their vanity.
Many churches nowadays, being driven by the marketing principles of the secular world, have sought to be “seeker-friendly”. Such churches do not take firm doctrinal positions based on God’s Word. They view strong doctrinal convictions as unhelpful to the growth of the church. Neither do they rebuke worldliness and sin among their people. Any man-pleasing approach that compromises the biblical truths is contrary to the service of Christ. Man-pleasers are not Christ-pleasers. Anything that pleases man which displeases the Lord is accursed conduct in the Christian ministry. Thus Paul advises us, “Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart” (Ephesians 6:6).