No Way to People-Please

Greetings everyone.

Today, we will finish the section of scritpure that usually grouped together going from verses 6 to 10, as Paul has pronounced 'anathema' on those teach a different kind of Gospel other than the one he had taught them. the Gospel of grace.  As he closes this thought, he throws out some question in his own defense.  Here is my translation of Galatians 1:10:

10 Am I currently trying to win the favor of men or of God?  Am I seeking to please people?  If I am seeking to please people, I am not a servant of Christ. 

Paul now asks some questions regarding his own motive for the things he is writing to them.  It is interesting here that Paul feels the need to defend his motives.  Was he being accused of people-pleasing with his insistence on grace over legalistic righteousness?  Were his opponents accusing Paul of trying to make an easier path for the Galatians with his insistence on grace without the law?  It seems likely that they were.  

So, he asks them who it is he that trying to please with his insistence on grace. Is it God or men?  The obvious answer is that Paul is not concerned with the approval of men, but only God. If he were trying to please people would not have said some of the hard things that he has already said in this letter, including God’s curse upon the false teachers.  That is no way to people-please. His sharp criticisms here have no self-serving purpose. He seeks only to keep the disciples in Galatians on the correct path. 

Paul goes on to state that if he were trying to please people, he would no longer be a servant of Christ. this implies that if he were trying to please people, his allegiance would not be with Christ.  Instead, his allegiance would now be with people, rather than Christ. Of course, the truth is, that if Paul were seeking to please people, he would not have become a Christian in the first place.  His decision to follow Christ quickly made enemies of his closest associates.  

Paul was not a people-pleaser. His focus was on pleasing Christ, and it seems odd that Paul would need to defend himself and his teaching on something as amazing as grace.