Living in the Spirit
May 27, 2016

Scripture Reading: Galatians 1:1-12

Am I now seeking human approval, or God’s approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

 For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
–Galatians 1:10-12

Tough talk here: what does Paul mean by pleasing people? The Greek word translated as “pleasing” means to satisfy an obligation with the idea of willing service rendered to others*. Is that what we think of when we are trying to please others or are we more likely trying to please others to raise their opinion of us?

The idea of faith is to filter everything we do and say through our desire to serve God, because we have acknowledged the truth that a relationship with God is fundamental to our wholeness. We get in trouble with achieving wholeness when we try to substitute less functional filters like money, power, acceptance to make ourselves complete. Dietrich Bonhoeffer described it as cheap grace.

The word often used in the Bible to denote our satisfaction in union with God is joy. What may please us is transitory. Joy is everlasting.

Prayer: Lord, guide me in choosing to serve you in every relationship I have with others. Amen.

*http://biblehub.com/greek/700.htm

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.