Galatians 1:10b …for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ
I am a preacher, and that means I am privileged to communicate the Word of God to people on a regular basis. I have been privileged to be in two churches so far this week, and I look forward to being in additional churches in days to come.
When preachers preach, oftentimes they can preach for motives other than what should be driving their messages. For instance, if I feel insecure, then as I am preaching, I want the approval of people. I want them to agree with me and voice their approval or adoration. I’m not saying it is wrong if people do agree with what I am saying, but if that is the standard of success, I could be in trouble. If my pride is motivating my speech, then I need to show myself superior to people when I speak. I need to present myself in such a way that they know I am important and perhaps more important than they are. I can even be motivated by feeling responsible, as if the message belongs to me and I have to make something happen even if it is really God’s message and God is the power behind the message.
In Galatians 1, we read God’s Words through a preacher named Paul. He definitely faced a number of emotions as he talked to other people, and he had to come to grips with what was animating the message he communicated. In Galatians 1:10 he said, “For do I now persuade men, or God?” He is asking, “Am I trying to bring to my position or endear myself to God or to men?” He continues, “For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.” Paul is saying, “Look, if I am just trying to please people, including myself, by what I say, then I am not the servant of Christ. I am the servant of those people.” The reason for this is that you are serving the one you seek to please.
Think about the decisions you make on a regular basis. What is the driving force behind those decisions? If you take all of them and look at who you are trying to please, you have your finger on who you are actually serving. I can say I am serving God, yet even doing good things to serve God can be driven by trying to please myself or trying to please others in some way.
Paul gives us some indications of who it is we are to serve. In the first place, Paul was called by God. Verse 1 says, “Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;).” Paul was not called not by his own ambitions, but by the risen Christ. Unlike the other apostles, Paul had not seen Christ before the crucifixion, but he had seen the living Christ who appeared to him on the Damascus Road. Paul says that what he preached was not after man. He was called of God. So, the question is, “Who calls the shots for the decisions you make today?” You see, you are serving the one you seek to please. If God is calling the shots and He is the One who has called you, then He is the one you are to serve, the One you are to please.
In verse 11 we are reminded that Paul’s call was from God, but so was the content of Paul’s message. In verse 11 he says, “But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.” So, who fills your mind and mouth? Who receives the glory for the message that you give? Paul said, “To whom be glory for ever and ever,” speaking of the Lord, not of himself.
Paul says in verse 15, “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace.” God called him and God was the One Who gave the content. Sometimes Paul’s message did not please people, but Paul wasn’t concerned about that. What Paul was concerned about was that his content, the substance of his message, pleased the one who gave him the message, and that is the Lord.
Finally, you see that Paul’s counsel came from the Lord. Verse 16 says that he “conferred not with flesh and blood,” but by “the revelation of Jesus Christ,” as he says in Galatians 1:12. What Paul did was a result of the counsel, the guidance and direction, of the God Who had called him. His call was of God, his content, the gospel, was of God, and the counsel he received was of God.
Who calls the shots in your life? Who fills your mind and your mouth? Who gives guidance? With whom do you confer? With whom are you in conference on the decisions that you make each day? Ultimately, you can only serve one. You are serving the one you seek to please. God is the One Who called, the One Who empowers, and the One Who seeks to give you counsel and guidance in your life today.