Pleasing God or Humans?

Galatians 1:10-12 BSB (Berean Standard Bible)

 

“10Am I now seeking the approval of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. 11For I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached was not devised by man. 12I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.”

 

As Followers of Christ

 

As followers of Jesus Christ our goal should always be to please our Lord and not the flesh. This doesn’t mean that we do not do what brings us pleasure, as long as it is not contrary to the will of God, but that our central focus in life is to please the Lord in all that we are and do and say, that it might bring glory to God. Our focus in life should not be on pleasing the flesh and to seek after human approval. Especially those of us who are in full-time Christian ministry, we should not do what we do for human approval.

 

Called of God

 

For example, I am called of God to write down what I am learning from Him during my times with Him each day in His word and to post these writings on the internet so that “a herald may run with it.” I am writing under the direction and leading of the Holy Spirit and not from my own flesh. The Lord leads me each day in where to read in the Scriptures and as to the message He wants me to receive and to share each day. And these messages are not always going to meet with all human approval. Many of them will not.

 

But I must write what the Lord leads me to write even knowing that some people may object, and they may criticize me, or they may want nothing to do with me because I am just too weird or too radical for their comfort zone. I must write what the Lord leads me to write even if people attack me and falsely accuse me of wrong because they disagree with me. But many times their disagreements are with what the Scriptures teach on various subjects because they are buying into the lies of what the enemy is teaching.

 

My Goal in Life

 

But if my goal in life was to say what I know people like to hear so that they would like me, then I would not be a servant of Christ. If my goal in life was to gather around me a large following, and so I said what itching ears want to hear rather than what they need to hear, then I would cease to be a servant of the Lord. I must speak the truth of God’s word, even the hard truths that many do not want to hear, for the salvation of human lives from sin that they might have eternal life with God, in truth and in righteousness.

 

I must be a diligent student of the Scriptures who seeks to know and to understand what they teach so that I am sharing the truth of God’s word with the people of the world and not the lies which are so popularized today. And I must be willing to speak on difficult topics which many do not want to hear, because the truth needs to be taught. For so many people professing faith in Jesus Christ are believing the lies which make them feel good, and many of them are continuing to walk in sin and not in obedience to God.

 

The Scriptures Teach

 

But the Scriptures teach that if any of us would come after Christ that we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin and to self and to suffer for the sake of righteousness), and follow our Lord in obedience to His commands. For the grace of God is not permission to keep on sinning without conscience. The grace of God is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we await our Lord’s return for His faithful bride (see Titus 2:11-14).

 

For by God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in Him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s commands. We are no longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (see Romans 6:1-23).

 

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

 

Pleasing God or Humans?

An Original Work / September 11, 2026

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

 

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer

 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

 

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

 

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

 

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

 

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

 

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg

 

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