For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bond servant of Christ.
~ Galatians 1:10
If there is anything I think we all should be careful about in this present world where the feeling of relevance and acceptance is as a result of the number of likes we get from people, it is the desire to be accepted or approved by people.
As humans, we have the natural tendency to want to be accepted by people, considering that God created us for fellowship. The need for caution when it comes to wanting to please people however, is basically because the enemy of our soul is aware of this fact and he uses that understanding to ensure that he fights us through the same people that we try to please.
We live in a time when the number of likes we get from ideas, pictures, thoughts, or anything shared really matters to us and makes us feel “liked” and accepted by others. When we get dislikes on the other hand, we feel bad and want to figure out how to work on ourselves, take down, if we can, what has been disliked or disapproved, not minding if the problem is with the dislikers and not us or what the dislikers chose to dislike.
When the opinion of others bother us so much that we feel terrible when we are disapproved, it points at the fact that we place value on what others have to say or think about us, which in a sense is not totally bad but dangerous because it can make us unconsciously give up what we stand for all in a bid to get the acceptance or approval of others. When we get to a point where pleasing men matters so much to us that we make our lives dependent on their acceptance, we can easily lose focus and get on the wrong track faster than we know it.
As much as others have the right to have their own opinion(s) about what you do, say or stand for, the real source of approval for you if you are truly walking in God’s will has to be God and God alone. Like I mentioned earlier, the enemy of our soul uses those around us to get us off the right track, distract us and disapprove of what we are doing or intend to do. We cannot afford to be ignorant of this fact because it sometimes comes as a sincere and sensible idea from people we trust and respect, which is why our ability to hear God clearly matters a lot if we do not just want to live life like others but want to fufill the purpose for which we exist. 1 Kings 13:11-25
Sometimes however, the plan of the enemy to get us off track comes as disapprovals, persecutions, or tongue lashing from the people we consider to be friends or foes. If we fail to pay attention to the one behind their action ( the enemy of our soul), we will either try to avoid the trouble we are getting from such people and as such give in to the pressures they throw in our direction and give up what we believe or we will try to defend ourselves and end up getting distracted, which ultimately will get the enemy what he wanted initially- distraction that makes you leave what you should focus on and go about putting your focus on irrelevant things, just so you can get people to like you. Jesus experienced this but He cared less about what anyone had to say and as such He did not try to prove to them that what they said about him was a lie, rather He focused on His divine assignment. Luke 11: 14-19
Sadly, we can experience this with friends, family, trusted or loved ones as well. The same people who have always agreed with your opinions can suddenly disagree with you and if you are a man pleaser and not a God pleaser, you will find yourself wanting to get them to agre with you or approve of you, even if it means you having to go contrary to what God wants.
After Jesus had performed the miracle of feeding about five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fishes, the people concluded amongst themselves that He deserved to be King and they planned to forcefully make Him a king, but because He was not after man’s approval or recognition, unlike many of us, Jesus went away from them to a place they had no idea of. John 6:1-15
The next day, the same set of people came to Him again but He was able to discern that their motive for seeking Him was wrong. As a result of this, He began to tell them about the need for them to set their priorities right by believing Him to be the One sent by the Father. Still wanting to eat bread like they did the previous day, they went on to talk about how God rained bread from Heaven in the days of Abraham. John 6: 22-32
Jesus went further to tell them that there is a true bread from Heaven and that it was not the one the people ate in the days of Abraham. Their response was ” Lord, give us this bread always.” When He eventually told them the truth about the true bread being Himself and that anyone who eats this bread will live forever, they got angry, believing He was calling them into cannibalism as a result of Him saying unless they eat his flesh and drink His blood, they have no life in them. It is recorded that this did not go down well with the listeners, so much that even some of His disciples stopped following Him after that time. Jesus was not moved by the reduction in the number of followers He had after speaking the truth that very day. John 6: 35-66
What if you were to lose several followers, say about five thousand or more, just like Jesus did, all because you want to stand for the truth? Will you uphold the truth and gladly get the dislikes and unfollowings or will you in a bid to maintain the likes or approval of men go ahead and diss the truth? Jesus did not just stand for the truth, He boldly stood for what He believed in and as a result did not beg others who were still with Him to stay, rather, He looked at them and said ” Do you also want to go away?” ( John 6: 67) He knew very well that if He ever loses everything and everyone in life, all He will ever need is God.
It is important we seek God’s approval above that of men because God is all that we need to live a victorious and truly fulfilling life.
Author Profile
- Temitope is the founder of thesoulmeal.com, an online platform that she shares with her God-given spiritual family and friends. She is a speaker, teacher and youth counselor. She is passionate about inspiring people to find their identity in Christ. Catch her interviewing inspiring leaders on Tongue of the Learned Podcast
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This is very profound. May we receive grace to please our creator alone in Jesus name.
Well said. Amen
Quite profound. May we receive grace to please our creator and be approved of Him alone in Jesus name.