Are You Pleasing God or Pleasing Man?

​We really resent the idea when someone says, “Do as I say, but not as I do.” Our walk should match our talk. I’ve discovered that our beliefs and doctrines are what we say we believe. But our actions are proving what we actually believe. Galatians 2 tells the story of when Paul had to confront Peter because his actions didn’t line up with his stated beliefs.

Galatians 2:11–14 (NLT)
11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. 
12 When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. 
13 As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 
14 When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions?
 
Galatians is written very early in the history of the church. It's one of the oldest books in the New Testament. Acts 10 records the story of how God used Peter to get the message of the gospel to Cornelius, a Gentile. Peter has a vision where God lowers a sheet with unclean animals that Jews would not dare eat and tells Peter to eat. Peter responds, "Nothing unclean has touched my mouth." God says, "Don't call unclean what I have cleansed." He leads Cornelius's people to find Peter, and God leads Peter to go talk to Cornelius's household about Jesus. Cornelius is a Gentile, not a Jew.

Before this time, virtually everyone who was a Christian was first Jewish. They thought that in order to be a Christian, you had to be a good Jew first. You had to follow the Jewish Old Testament, the laws, and the commands. For instance, the Sabbath laws, the food dietary laws, and the laws related to the circumcision of males.

Peter was struggling with this. He was supposed to lead this Gentile to faith in Jesus, and then he finds out that God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). He realizes that the same gospel is for both Jew and Gentile. The Holy Spirit filled the Gentiles, and Peter said, "We've got to baptize them." They don't have to be Jews, they don't have to be circumcised, and they don't have to follow the laws and the codes and the conduct of the Jewish people.

Ultimately, Peter would recognize that his ministry was primarily to the Jews and Paul's ministry was primarily to the Gentiles. So, Peter already wrestled with this and already received it from the Lord. This is the context in which we find Paul and Peter in Galatians 2. Peter visited Antioch, where he met some of the Gentile believers. He had no problem associating and eating with these Gentiles until some men from the Jerusalem church came.

Galatians 2:12 says, "But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore." James was the half-brother of Jesus and the pastor of the church in Jerusalem, where there were a lot of Jewish-grounded believers. Verse 13 says, “[E]ven Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.” The word "hypocrite" refers to someone putting on a mask. We think of actors who present themselves one way on stage, behind a mask, but are another way off the stage. Peter knew that Jews and Gentiles come to faith in Christ the same way and are saved from their sins in the same way, yet he became a hypocrite. He was afraid of these Jewish Christians who would think that eating together with Gentiles would be a violation of God’s law.

This fear caused him to slowly back away from his fellowship with the Gentile Christians, and he began to eat only with the Jews. Paul reminded Peter that Jesus had created one family in Christ and tore down the barrier between Jews and Gentiles. There was no separation between them, and yet Peter was drawing a distinction between them. Peter was, in fact, ostracizing an entire group of God's family because he was intimidated by the crowd. Proverbs 29:25 says, “The fear of man is a snare,” and Peter had been caught in that trap.

Well, we may not have problems like these, but we can still apply this passage. Today, there are people who say that they are Christians and they know the truth of God's word, and yet then they pull back from those convictions that they once held dear. Parents are vulnerable to this when their child grows up and begins to believe things that are different from what they were taught in the home. The parents were teaching God’s Word, but now the children are “enlightened”. The parents taught right from wrong, but now the child says, “Mom, Dad, I don’t think that’s important anymore. Don’t you know that there are different perspectives on those Bible verses?” Or, they may say, “I went to this church in college, and they taught something very different than what you taught me.” They may go on to quote their professors in psychology, sociology, or world religions.

The parents, though they know their Bibles, are tempted to soften their convictions or try to find a compromise in their own minds because they are afraid of being ostracized by the people that they love. Remember, “the fear of man is a snare.” Instead, their discussions should include, “I love you too much to stay silent about this. The Bible has not changed. God has not changed His mind.” Then they can proceed to quote Bible verses and help their adult children with the questions that their professors have asked. When God’s Word is clear, God’s people should be clear. When thinking about this story, there are three challenges to consider:

First, build your faith and your doctrine on the Word of God. You would think this sounds simple enough, yet most believers can recount a story of someone who claims to be a Christian backing away from plain, easy-to-comprehend doctrinal ideas from God’s Word. This happens simply because it is no longer socially acceptable. It’s not because God’s Word has changed or that it is now difficult to understand. We should not retreat from what we know to be right.

Second, this truth will not make you popular with the world, but it will make you pleasing to God. God’s Word often goes against the grain of this world system (2 Corinthians 4:4), which makes it unpopular with this world, maybe family members, or maybe friends. But staying faithful to God’s Word will make you pleasing to God. Who do we want to please - others or God?

Galatians 1:10, just one chapter earlier from where we’ve been reading, says, "I am no longer trying to please people. I am trying to please God. If I were still pleasing men, then I would not be the servant of God." Paul might have added, “If I were trying to please men, I wouldn't confront Peter to his face over this hypocrisy that he knew better.” The truth will make us unpopular with this world, but it will make us pleasing to God. One verse of scripture to hold on to or pray over yourself and your children is 3 John 1:4, which says, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." God's greatest joy is when his children walk in truth, not when everyone thinks well of us. Jesus says, "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, For so did their fathers to the false prophets” (Luke 6:46).

Third, you are not alone when you stand on God's word. In 1 Kings 19, the prophet Elijah was depressed. He was running for his life, when God asked him, “Where are you?” Elijah says, “I've been serving You, but I'm alone. I'm by myself. No one else is standing for you like me.” God’s Word to Elijah is what God wants to tell us as well. God says in 1 Kings 19:18, “I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal.” He’s encouraging Elijah to keep standing. He is telling Elijah about the 7,000 who are faithful to Him. Elijah doesn’t see them. Perhaps they are the silent group in Israel, but they still have a backbone and have not bowed to the prominent pagan idols in the land.

Do you feel alone when you are standing faithful to God at work, at school, or in your everyday lives? The devil wants to isolate you. He wants you to think that if you stand for God's Word, you'll be all by yourself. The devil would love to convince you that you are in the minority and that you are fighting a lost cause, but Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” One day in glory, may God say to us, “Well done, you good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21).

Do we want the popularity of the crowd, or do we want to be well pleasing to God? Are you building your faith on God’s Word or the lies of this world? Imagine Paul telling Peter, “It doesn’t matter if people that you love tell you that you shouldn’t be eating with the Gentiles. God showed you that He shows no partiality. He taught you that we are all one big family in Christ. Live your convictions and allow the chips to fall where they may.”

“Dear God, give me the grace to stand in today’s world with Your Word in my heart and Your Spirit directing my steps. I love You. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

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