Living for Christ is to please God not to seek the approval of people to be Christians

Galatians 1:10-24

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.
Click for a description of the image of the beast.

“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 bondservant of Christ. But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Galatians 1:10-12

Paul started by asking the Church of the Philippians if they were thinking that he was trying to win the approval of people or God. That is the question we all must ask ourselves, are we trying to be accepted by today’s society or is what we do focused on pleasing God? Like Paul, we must be able to answer that if we were trying to please people then we would not be living for Jesus Christ.

Today’s culture lives for the atheistic entity that gives them what to think, feel, say, and do, which opposes belief in God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. As Christians, we make known the Gospel of Christ, which is not given to us by flesh and blood but is given by the Holy Spirit of God through Jesus Christ. “A person who isn’t spiritual doesn’t accept the teachings of God’s Spirit. He thinks they’re nonsense.” 1 Corinthians 2:14 What we have in the spirit is something that cannot be given or taught by people, it comes when in our heart we say that Jesus is truly the Christ and Son of God.

“For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.” Galatians 1:13-14

Paul was in his early 3o’s when his conversion happened by meeting Jesus Christ. Before that, he was following the teachings of flesh and blood through Judaism, and he persecuted Christians, had them murdered, and tried to destroy the growth of the Gospel of Christ. Paul was so successful in Judaism and persecuting Christians that he was promoted beyond those in the same league as himself, he was a Pharisee of all Pharisees. Paul is an example of having a true born-again experience, with a change of heart towards Jesus Christ, His followers, and Christianity as a whole.

Every one of us who have experienced being born-again through Jesus Christ has a similar experience to share as Paul. I was about 20 years of age when I gave my life to Jesus Christ [I’m about 66 now], I broke away from past friends, quit going to places I once frequented, began to have a love and positive attitude towards those I once tried to avoid etc. Before Christ, I loved living in the shadows, being unnoticed by “polite society”, and truly loved the darkness more than light. Now, my Lord Jesus has made me the light of the world and those living in darkness, like I once did, do not want me within their friendship circle. As the Holy Spirit says, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” James 4:4

“But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.” Galatians 1:15-17

How many of us, when we came to Jesus Christ, can say we had no connection to a church at that time? With Paul’s conversion, he had a personal experience with Jesus Christ, and he never saw a leader of the Church, and never needed to talk it over with someone else. That was true for three years, as Paul grew in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit working within his heart and spirit. In fact, Paul went to Arabia and then returned to Damascus, [Paul was converted on the road to Damascus.]

Paul is an example that coming to Jesus Christ isn’t about depending on leadership of a manmade church, nor about asking others how to be a Christian. Being born-again is all about what we know in our heart about the change that has happened the moment we gave our life to Jesus. We don’t need church leaders or anyone else to explain the change that occurred in our heart and mind. We could go for years and years, a whole lifetime, sharing our born-again experience to others without ever needing to validate our Salvation with another human being.

“Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. (Now concerning the things which I write to you, indeed, before God, I do not lie.)” Galatians 1:18-20

Three years after Paul’s conversion, he went to Jerusalem where he personally met Peter, the leader of the Church of Christ. He also met James [who wrote the book of James], the brother of Jesus, and never met anyone else. Paul was living for Jesus Christ for three years before he ever met a Church leader or any other prominent member of the Church, Paul had Jesus Christ, the true head of the Church.

“Afterward I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ. But they were hearing only, “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy.” And they glorified God in me.” Galatians 1:21-24

The news of Paul’s conversion reached the Churches of Judea, that he was once an enemy of Christianity but now preaches the Gospel of Christ. As born-again followers of Christ, what more could we ask than that people hear of our conversion and really knows the before-and-after difference in our life? Even so, Paul would want the Churches to not just know the difference Christ made in his life, but to come to walk with Jesus Christ in a more complete way, which is what all the letters of Paul are all about.

---

“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:11