MEN-PLEASERS VS GOD-PLEASERS
You will have to make a decision at one point or the other either to ‘hurt’ God and please men or please God and hurt men’s feeling.It doesn’t matter whether you are a man of God,child of God,bond servant of God,Primate,Lord Bishop etc! If you don’t,you may end up making a shipwreck of your faith.
Apostle Paul had to make this decision and many others:
Suffice to say that it is nearly impossible on this earth to simultaneously please God and all men! You may only succeed in pleasing God and some very few people.However even God can’t satisfy all men at the same time: He causes rain to fall on the earth ,someone out there is complaining. He withholds rain, another person is grumbling.
Anyway let’s study four different options available to choose from when it comes to pleasing God or men.
It is either:
1)You displease God and displease men :
Example: David
He slept with Bathsheba and masterminded the killing of her husband thereby displeasing God and causing harm to an innocent man
“…But the thing David had done displeased the Lord”-2Sam 11:27b
God sent Nathan to David with these words: “Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites”-2 Sam 12:9
There are many people who still choose this option today.They know deep in their hearts that they hurt God and men with their ways of lives.It is high time they repented.
2)You displease God to please men:
Example: Jewish leaders and King Saul
“Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue;for they loved human praise more than praise from God.”-John 12:42-43
These leaders were more afraid of the Pharisees than God.They were men-pleasers.
King Saul chickened out under pressure when Samuel delayed his coming to make sacrifice.Saul ended up carrying out an unlawful sacrifice which displeased God though it pleased the men around him.
“Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash, then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.”- 1 Sam 13:11-12
When men threaten you and you know you will end up displeasing God it is better to remember this next verse:
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.-Matt 10:28
3)You please God but displease men:
Example: Joseph
“…My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God? And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.”-Gen 39:9-10
This is the decision that separates boys from real men: When you take a stand to please God in the face of free opportunity to ‘hurt’ God and please men.
Another example: “Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings!- Act 5:29
Christians like these are rare these days.Men of God that will preach without ulterior motives are also scarce! Men and women that will stand for God without compromise to accommodate human suggestions are few!
“On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.”-1Thess 2:4
4)You simultaneously please God and men:
This is literarily impossible! It is a pity that people try to achieve this feat but end up in messy situations.
The way God and money are two masters,the same way God and men are two masters that can’t be pleased or worshipped at the same time.
“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
For those who still want to please both God and all men,please read what Jesus said about Himself:
‘For John the Baptist didn’t spend his time eating bread or drinking wine, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon.’
‘The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’-John 7:33-34.
If you are frugal with money ,people will talk! If you are a spendthrift ,they must have something to say! If you are humble,they will criticise you and call you imbecile! If you wear good clothes to church ,they will pick on you.If you decide to wear only one trouser/blouse because you are always giving to people,your case will make it to their gist headline news!
The central truth is this: Do whatever you know pleases God.If you desire a day everybody will agree with whatever you are doing then you will never amount to anything in life.
It is better to hurt feelings of men than to displease God.Though it is not easy considering that people would raise eyebrows and feel disappointed in you.Never mind provided God is not disappointed in you.
Stay blessed!