WHO ARE YOU PLEASING?

 Philippines Trip Update: Lesson preparations and other trip details are on schedule. It is not too early to start praying for physical and mental health, airline connections, and especially for the Pastors who will be attending this teaching session on the book of Mark and developing their expository preaching skills. Thank you for your participation in this work of equipping third world Pastors.

When I graduated from Bible College in 1983 our theme verse for the class was a phrase from 2 Corinthians 5.9, "we make it our goal to please him". Since that time I have adopted this as my life verse. In my reading of Mark this week I came across this phrase in 15.15, "So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified." Pilot knew that Jesus was not guilty of treason or any other crime and that the Jewish leaders wanted to kill Jesus because of envy of the crowds that followed Jesus and fear that he might lead a revolt that would take away their power and status. But Pilate was driven by a higher motive than truth. Pilate was driven by a desire to please the crowd. Some would even call this a fear of man which Proverbs tells us becomes a trap. "Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe." (29.25). Pilate was already on shaky ground with the Roman emperor and could not afford any negative criticism from the leaders in Jerusalem and so chose not to follow truth but rather to be a crowd pleaser.
I confess to having acted for the eyes of the crowd as my first priority and not the eyes of my Lord Jesus, out of fear and more often than not out of pride. Peter was guilty of this sin when Jesus was betrayed and in Antioch and was rebuked for it by Paul (Galatians 2.11-14). Paul uses the desire to please God over people as the standard for a servant of Christ in Galatians 1.10, "Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ."
Wrapped up in this choice to please God and not men is the willingness to stand for the name of Christ at anytime and before anyone and in any circumstances. In Paul's case it was a willingness to rebuke the Galatians for following a false gospel. To please Christ is to choose physical pain, shame, bullying, abuse, marginalization, isolation, being regarded as intolerant, archaic, behind the times, willing to be isolated from the cool crowd, be the brunt of jokes, being willing to defend your beliefs, and giving up comfort and security. But I have also found that an open and honest and true belief that seeks to please Christ and is accompanied by love and integrity earns a hearing (usually privately), attracts people when a crisis comes into their life, is respected (though not necessarily openly and publicly) and is even supported by others when the abuse exceeds a certain level, at least in our modern context.

 It is easy to be a Chameleon Christian and just blend in with the world and live a double life but this double life is also discouraging, erodes assurance, and produces guilt. Good works, kindness, and genuine loving concern make a good bridge to open confession of our faith in the public space and that is pleasing to God.
If you are prone to pleasing others in order to save yourself from pain and hardship, God can help you to trust him and to be the open and honest witness for Christ he wants you to be, one step at a time.