Galatians 1:10 KJV
For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
The goal of every minister of Jesus Christ ought to be to be the servant of Christ. Paul says that if he had sought to please men he could not be that servant of Christ.
Not that we have to try not to please men. This is no command to be mean spirited, brazen and obnoxious. There is little room in Christian circles for that sort of person. Paul loved people. He nurtured and cared for them as a mother would her children. That ought to be the testimony of any true servant of Christ.
Nor does it mean that we must be thoughtless of others. David seemed to be given to thoughtfulness. Time and again he sought to show kindness, first to Saul, and then to those members of his family once Saul was dead. To reach out in gentleness and kindness to others is certainly no sorry quality.
It means that the true servant of Jesus Christ seeks to please Christ. His purpose is Christ and not people. Christ will send him to people and Christ, who is Himself meek and gentle, will certainly expect the same from His servants. But the servant of Christ has as his interest, Christ. It is He that he seeks to please. It is He that he seeks to serve. Whenever we get that mixed up, we are no longer serving Christ at all, but have become merely players in the religious arena.
For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
The goal of every minister of Jesus Christ ought to be to be the servant of Christ. Paul says that if he had sought to please men he could not be that servant of Christ.
Not that we have to try not to please men. This is no command to be mean spirited, brazen and obnoxious. There is little room in Christian circles for that sort of person. Paul loved people. He nurtured and cared for them as a mother would her children. That ought to be the testimony of any true servant of Christ.
Nor does it mean that we must be thoughtless of others. David seemed to be given to thoughtfulness. Time and again he sought to show kindness, first to Saul, and then to those members of his family once Saul was dead. To reach out in gentleness and kindness to others is certainly no sorry quality.
It means that the true servant of Jesus Christ seeks to please Christ. His purpose is Christ and not people. Christ will send him to people and Christ, who is Himself meek and gentle, will certainly expect the same from His servants. But the servant of Christ has as his interest, Christ. It is He that he seeks to please. It is He that he seeks to serve. Whenever we get that mixed up, we are no longer serving Christ at all, but have become merely players in the religious arena.
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