As a Christian, falling into the trap of pleasing people can be easy. In essence, people-pleasing and approval-motivated leadership are one critical area that can lead to the loss of happiness and joy in a Christian if left unchecked. In Luke 6.26, the bible teaches that “There’s trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them.” It shows that the aspect of pleasing people will never bring anything positive in return, but in most cases, it would be the source of trouble and unhappiness, which is against the purpose that God had intended for us. It can be presumed that it’s difficult to understand when one is pleasing God and when they are pleasing people. The events that take place mean that a tangible way to please God is through the services, preaching to the people, and being a good leader. In the same case, most Christians would be in confusion when they think that people’s approval is equal to God’s approval. In this sense, the challenge will be playing by the crowd and ignoring the harder path of Godly leadership. Most Christians would have a hard time discerning whether they are pleasing God or seeking the congregation’s approval. In Galatians 1:10, Paul quoted, “Am I now trying to win the approval of people, or of God? … If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ” giving directions to confused Christians and the path they should take.
It would be argued that not all-people pleasing is terrible and unhealthy to the Christians. In the book of Corinthians, Paul has expressed his opinion on the freedom that a minister should have as they preach the gospel of good news of Christ. Paul had indicated that God had given pastors special privileges such as being treated with respect and enjoying their work’s spiritual fruits. However, some of the responsibilities that pastors have could counterbalance what Paul states. Corinthians 9:19-23, Paul has expressed that he may be free and belong to no one. Still, at the end of it all, he has to make himself a slave to everybody as a way of winning them to the kingdom of Christ. He says that to the people under the law, he had to be under the law too to win them, which would insinuate pleasing them. It means that he pleased them by being on their side. He says, “To the weak, I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means, I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel that I may share in its blessings.” The scripture shows that Paul supported people-pleasing when it only supported preaching the gospel and winning souls to Christ. When there was nothing to gain, he would shun away from pleasing people, as expressed in Galatians 1:10.
Most Christians will turn to pleasing people for fear of rejection. Since people are sinful in nature, they will be battling for the approval of the people. In addition, there will be confusion that doing good to the people would lead to more love and approval from the community. However, the truth about love and rejection is that no all people will like everybody, but in a Christian’s life, those that matter will never stop loving them despite what they go through. Fundamentally, the love of God for the people will never waiver and will never be influenced by anything that happens on earth. The trap of pleasing people will always be there, but obeying God is the way to avoid it. Securing and understanding the relationship that a person can have with God is essential in dealing with the fear of pleasing people. In 2 Corinthians 5:9, the bible has expressed that the desire to obey God is the key to avoid pleasing people since pleasing God would be the priority.
When Christians get confused about pleasing people and pleasing God, there will always be the fear of failure. People will be driven by the need to have the people’s approval, which would be a way to define their success. At this stage, Christians would be drifting from the worship of God to worshipping idols in people. Self-centered and people-centered worship would make people drift away from God, whereas they would be thinking that is a commendable attribute since they are serving people. The bible states that finding and knowing the truth would set people free. In people-pleasing, Christians should understand that success in the kingdom of God is doing what would make God happy and what would please men.
In closing, pleasing people is an attribute that Christians should avoid. All the days that people have on earth should be used to please God and win souls in the Kingdom of God. Through serving Christ, Christians will find contentment, peace, and success compared to the results when they please people. In essence, there is freedom in pleasing God and slavery in pleasing people.
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