READING: Acts 14:21-28, Galatians 1:1-3:23
I begin today’s devotion with a painful admission. As a young pastor—untrained, even undiscipled—I learn two things quickly: (1) how much being a “popular” preacher meant to me, and (2) how easy it was to get enamored with pleasing people. Never would I have said that I didn’t want to please God, but I confess that I got caught up in the power of popularity and promotion. Those latter two goals often lead to preaching a weakened gospel that is hardly the gospel at all.
Paul knew this struggle and refused to give in to it. He who had focused on pleasing Jewish religious leaders by killing Christians prior to his conversion changed his tune once he met Christ. No longer did he seek to please men, but he instead sought to please only God. He had no interest in marketing the gospel message to gain a following; after all, that message called for self-surrender and self-denial that hardly would have been popular.
While Paul indeed sought to become all things to all people in order to reach some, never did that choice mean compromising the gospel to gain a following. Rather, he understood what one commentator today has concluded: “Serving Christ and pleasing humanity are mutually exclusive alternatives.”* On this Lord’s day, please the Lord!
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Where are you most tempted to please people rather than God?
DAILY PRAYER: “God, grant me grace to stand for You alone.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Galatians 3:24-6:18, Acts 15:1-21
