Flying Purple People Pleaser | Manlihood Spiritual Sunday

You’re not gonna make everyone happy.

More accurately – there will always be someone who doesn’t like you or what you have to say.

Paul wrote a letter to the church in Galatia, which is in what is now known as Turkey. That region had been populated by “Gallic Celts.” Christianity was spreading across the Roman Empire, and even into the fringes.

Paul was issuing a rebuke to the church, who had started to listen to preachers who told a much different story of Jesus, of redemption, and it was causing dissension in the church.

For the record, the spurious information being taught was that in order to be right with God, these barbarian turkish celts were going to be required to follow Jewish customs. They were taught that they couldn’t eat cheeseburgers, bacon, or pork rinds, had to cut the foreskin off their penis, and any number of other rules that were not meant to apply to them.

Paul had enough – Jesus was never meant to be just for Jews. Jesus never told people they had to become Jews. To follow Jesus, no one was required to follow a bunch of laws and customs just to fit in. Anyone could come to Jesus. And a life changing relationship with Jesus is meant for all people, regardless of race or culture.

That’s the context – but the verse that jumps out to me is this:

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Galatians 1:10

Let’s get this straight right here and now.

We can live our lives trying to please people.
We can do everything in our power to try to make people like us, or make people happy.
We can follow all the rules, dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s, and we’re going to find out a very hard truth.

You will never please all the people.

There will always be someone who will have expectations of you that are not reasonable.
There will always be someone who will talk about you.
There will always be someone who wants you to look, act, or talk a certain way.

While there is a degree to which we should try to get along with people, and a degree to which we should build a reputation, and love and serve people…  the honest truth is – it’s God’s opinion of us that matters, and no one else’s.

Do the right thing because you want to honor God, not because you are worried what someone will think.

Do the right thing because God tells you to, not because man tells you to
Do not strive to please men.

Strive to please God.

Manlihood.com provides personal development for men. Our goal is to help enrich men’s lives and to help them become better men. We believe spirituality is an essential part of that component. We understand that not everyone subscribes to a judeo-christian belief system, but we know that a large part of our audience is encouraged to be better men through the paradigm that we share. Our hope is that all men can see and learn to experience fulfillment through faith in Christ, but we also know that not everyone will. Our secondary hope is that by sharing these Spiritual Sunday posts, that even those who may not agree, would be able to at the very least, understand our mindset, and possibly even find something helpful and applicable to their lives. We’re not banging on our Bible or cramming Jesus down anyone’s throat. We are simply processing these experiences through the lens of faith, and inviting all to look with us.