Pleasing God Rather Than Man
"...we
are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts." - 1 Thessalonians 2:4
The above
statement made by Paul is simple enough to understand. We all as Christians would like to
be able to say these words as well. As I have seen, there are two different motives for
making such a statement.
There are some
who claim to please God, and not man. These people, I would say, do it from an attitude of
arrogant independence. They say, "I obey God, and only God". But do you know
what they are really saying? They are saying, "I don't want to listen to anyone or
co-operate with anyone. I would rather just do my own thing." Doing my
own thing, is a phrase that has come out of the hippie movement of the sixties. It
is a form of rebellion. People who are like this spiritualize their rebellion by
saying they are God pleasers, rather than man pleasers. They want to be like Paul
when in reality they are not.
Paul had
nothing like this in mind when he made this statement. Paul was saying that he pleased
God. Paul was saying that he was a servant of God. He laid down his own independence in
order to follow the Lord. Part of following the Lord, part of pleasing God was giving
himself to others. Paul served man.
By pleasing
God he could properly serve man. This is not arrogant independence. This is true
servanthood.
We can ask
ourselves, who do we serve? Do we say we please God yet use this as a disguise to please
ourselves? Do we say that we serve others but in reality simply give into their wishes for
us? Or, do we indeed please God by obeying Him and serving others out of a pure heart.
Paul was a man
of strength. He was not swayed by other men's thinking. He was meek, which means that he
knew how to be gentle, yet strong. He was man enough to serve men, yet not be unduly
influenced by them.
To please God
and not man is to do what Jesus did. He laid aside His own will to please His Father and
to love mankind. There was no hint of arrogance, no hint of selfish independence.
In this verse
Paul goes on to say that "God will test our hearts". The Lord knows our true
motives, and it is He to whom we will answer to.
Are we easily
swayed by other people's opinions, or by the Lord's thinking? By being secure in Him, can
we properly serve those whom He has put before us?
There
is a big difference between serving man and pleasing man. Thus the people who use
this scripture the right way are those who are secure in the Lord. They do not bow
down and always please man. They please God, and then serve man from a pure heart.
They serve man because they want to please God.
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