Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant. [Galatians 1:10 (NLT)]
The motto “The customer is always right” was coined in the early 1900s by retail pioneers Marshall Field, Harry Selfridge, and John Wanamaker. A variation commonly heard in business is, “The boss is always right!” But, because they’re human, we know that neither customers nor bosses are always right. Nevertheless, even when the boss clearly is in error, he remains the boss. We may lose a customer if we fail to please him but we can lose a job when we fail to please the boss! Since one’s livelihood depends on a paycheck, an employee faces a dilemma when the boss clearly is wrong.
Rather than pleasing customers, bosses, or anyone else, the Apostle Paul pointed out that his purpose was to please God. This morning, as I read his words to the Galatians, I thought of a friend who had to choose between the unprincipled man who signed her paycheck and the King who ruled her life. When her employer gloated that she couldn’t afford to quit over a question of principles, she had the boldness of heart to reply that she didn’t work for him; she worked for God! It wasn’t easy to leave a sizeable paycheck behind but she did. She was Christ’s servant and, as her boss, He was the One she served. With her heartfelt commitment to God, the only approval she sought was His!
Hopefully, we won’t find ourselves in my friend’s position where choosing between pleasing God and our employer means leaving a job. Nevertheless, we must always remember who our true boss is! When we seek people’s approval, we accept their standards rather than God’s. Along with tempting us to turn a blind eye to injustice, compromise our ethics, or be complicit in wrong-doing, trying to please people can lead to over-commitment, flattery rather than honest assessment, exaggerating our stories, embellishing our lives on social media, spending more than we should, or becoming obsessive about our appearance. The only approval we should seek is that of God!
Seeking man’s approval rather than God’s never ends well. When Aaron sought the Israelites’ approval, a golden calf (and plague) were the result. Seeking the approval of the nations surrounding them, the people of Israel wanted a king; they rejected God and got Saul. Hoping to please the people, Pilate handed over the innocent Jesus and released the guilty Barabbas. In an effort to please the Jews, Herod persecuted Christians and killed James. Fearing people’s disapproval and excommunication from the synagogue, John tells us many Jews who believed in Jesus refused to follow Him because “they loved human praise more than the praise of God.” [12:43] Our desire to please God always must outweigh our desire to please people.
Whether we’re seeking the approval of a customer, boss, or anyone else, our value and worth do not come from people, paychecks, or accomplishments; they come from the Lord. We must never please others (or ourselves) at the cost of pleasing Him! Rather than seeking man’s approval, Jesus told us to seek the kingdom of God above all else. He promised that, if we live righteously, He will give us everything we need. [Matthew 6:33] We are, indeed, God’s servant and He is our boss!
If you please God, it does not matter whom you displease. And if you displease Him, it does not matter whom you please. [Steven J. Lawson]
Becoming a Christian is the most important step we will ever take in our lives and has longer reaching consequences that our choice of career or spouse. Fortunately, it is relatively easy: admit our sinfulness and turn away from sin, believe that Jesus died on the cross to save us from sin and to give us eternal life, and declare our faith in Jesus Christ. Repenting, accepting and confessing one’s faith—that’s the easy part.
“We’re just a big ball of frustration right now!” a public information officer for the San Antonio Police said while describing the rise in road rage and violent driver incidents in that city. Unfortunately that big ball of frustration isn’t limited to the road or San Antonio. Satan must be chortling in glee as he watches people’s virus-fueled anxiety spurring rising levels of aggression and hostility everywhere.
I’m not quite ready to put to rest Paul’s use of the word “submit.” With one in three women having experienced some form of domestic violence, the word “submit” makes us bristle as we think of passivity in the face of abuse. Throughout the ages, women have been mistreated, exploited, demeaned, and discounted. We’ve had the vote for just a century and it wasn’t that long ago when our career choices were pretty much limited to teaching or nursing. Today, women continue to earn only about 80% of what men make and professional women still bump their heads on the glass ceiling. Wanting independence and empowerment, submitting sounds too much like surrendering whatever power we have, buckling under to unfairness, and servitude.
Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands…. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything…. Fathers, do not embitter your children…. Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything…. Work at it with all your heart…. Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair…. [Colossians 3:18-23,4:1 (NIV)]
“What’s your orange?” the teacher asked her remote learning class. Before having them answer, she explained the “monkey trap.” In Southeast Asia, hunters capture monkeys by drilling a hole in a pumpkin. The hole is just large enough for a monkey’s hand but too small for his fist. They secure the pumpkin to a tree, put a piece of sweet juicy orange inside the gourd, then retreat and wait. Eventually, an unsuspecting monkey comes along, smells the orange, and reaches through that small hole into the pumpkin. Once he’s grabbed hold of the orange, however, his fist can’t get back through the same hole. The monkey pulls and pulls but can’t free his hand. While he’s struggling to pull out his orange-filled fist, hunters easily throw a net over him. Not understanding that he can’t have both his freedom and the orange, he loses them both. After telling this story, the teacher again asked her students, “What is your orange? What is it you can’t release?”
