Every Moral Decision Is Personal

We are hopelessly social creatures. Even if you don’t think you are social, the fact is you are. For instance, yesterday I was addressing my neighbors here on the Bill Rice Ranch. There were probably thirty or more of my neighbors arranged in rows before me and I said, “The very place you are sitting and the very people with whom you are sitting are a testament to the fact that we are all social creatures.” Even if you say, “I am trying to get as far away from people as I can,” that is a reaction that is social, a reaction to other people.

Because that is true, the way we think about the decisions we make is important. We can make our decisions based on what is true or we can make decisions based on who has said what we hear. For instance, in Galatians 1, the Apostle Paul is addressing people who were slipping away from the gospel. They were slipping away from the person of Jesus Christ and the plan that God the Father had given. In verse 6 Paul says, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel.”

Every moral decision is a personal decision. I don’t mean it is something you personally make. I mean that God takes it personally. That means every moral decision, every decision with regard to what conforms to principles of right or wrong, is personal. Are you persuaded by argument or are you persuaded by people? We all wish we were persuaded by logical or theological arguments, but we are oftentimes persuaded by people. People-pleasers cannot please God.

In verse 10 Paul says, “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.” People-pleasers can’t please God. Some people know they are people-pleasers by temperament. Other people are proud of the fact that they don’t care what people think, and that can be dangerous in its own way. All of us are aware of where we are in regards to other people, whether it is a position or a place. Pleasing people will change your beliefs or render your beliefs meaningless. Either trying to please people will change what you believe or it won’t matter what you believe because you are not going to live in those beliefs for fear of other people. We can even be careless with the gospel, the most fundamental thing about how we can have peace with God, if we are more concerned with pleasing people than we are with pleasing God.

Paul says in Galatians 1:11, “But I certify you brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. For ye have heard of my conversation.” He goes on to give his own personal testimony, which was very powerful. We could say, “Being a people-pleaser is not my problem.” We should be gracious, but all of us, even if we don’t think of ourselves as people-pleasers, probably do more than we realize in relation to how it will put us with other people. Let me encourage you today to make the one person that you please God. It is easy to say. It is a cliché, but make that the goal, making the one person you please to be God.

First, it is God who called you. In verse 1 Paul says, “Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.)” So, God called us. In verse 8 he says, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” Those are strong words.

Sometimes we think, “Well, no one thinks an angel has appeared to them.” I beg to differ. There are a lot of false religions that have an angel story, a story of transmission from heaven through an angel to the person who wrote the book augmenting the Bible or whatever it may be. We may think they are crazy, but I’m not sure they didn’t see an angel. The devil is an angel of light. So, God is the one who called us, not an angel or another person, and God is the one to be pleased.

Second, God gave His Son. Galatians 1:3 says, “Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins.” God gave His Son. Christ gave Himself. He is the one we should please. God is the one who called us, not a man. God is the one who gave us salvation, not a man or an angel. Jesus Christ is the very personification of the gospel, the good news, that God has given us.

That is why in verse 6 Paul says, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him.” This is not from a code of conduct or a body of doctrine per se, but from a person, from God the Father who sent His Son. You see, it is God who gets the glory for salvation, not a man or an angel. Paul says in verse 5, “To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” God the Father receives that glory.

In verse 24 he says, “And they glorified God in me.” That means it was because of him. So, God called, God gave, and God is. Who gets the credit for the ideas that you hold? Is it a man, an angel, or is it God? You and I are serving the one we try to please. Do I seek to be approved by people? Am I trying to accommodate people or God? Paul says, “Do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”

No matter who you are or what you do, you are ultimately serving the one you try to please, and every moral decision I make is about where I am with the Lord Jesus Christ. Every moral decision is personal. It is not just a matter of what I believe, but ultimately a matter of who.