The Apostle Paul writes to the churches in Galatia, “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) Wow! I thought loving others as we love ourselves and reaching out a helping hand to them when they are in need is the mission of every Christian. Isn’t that pleasing people? Satan knows the scriptures better than I do. He is an expert at quoting a verse out of context to confuse and serve his purpose (as I just did for illustration purposes only). Satan did that when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness.
Let me quickly set the record straight. If you read the entire first chapter of Galatians, you will know that Paul is specifically referring to his presentation to them of the Gospel of Jesus Christ – God’s Good News. There were others who had come to Galatia after Paul who claimed to be apostles, but were preaching a different gospel that was more pleasing to the congregations. Paul’s goal was to introduce them to Jesus Christ and through Him help them have a personal relationship with God. The goal of those others was to get the people to follow them and their “pleasing” teachings. Paul was sharing with the Galatians what God had shared with him, not because he wanted them to love and follow him, but because he wanted them to love Jesus and have the same relationship with God he has. He is not referring at all to how we are to live once we are in that relationship through the strength and prompting of God’s Holy Spirit within us.
We can take two lessons from this blog post. First, we need to read more than a verse at a time in order to understand the context and intent of the writer under God’s inspiration. As you read and study the Bible, you will find some verses that are so clear it is impossible to take them out of context. The first one that comes to my mind is John 3:16. You will also find verses that seem to jump off the page at you as you read them. That is God’s way of giving you what you need at that particular time. Chapters and verses were not found in the original writings. They were added later for reference. The NLT version has also added helpful topic headings to aid in reading the entire line of thought at one time. That is why I often share passages instead of verses of scripture.
Secondly, we must be very careful when we hear someone “cherry picking” a verse here and a verse there to demonstrate God’s approval of their position or agenda. Even Satan does that and there are false teachers today. As Paul warns Timothy, “For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.” (2 Timothy 4:3) That is the “people pleasing” to which Paul referred in Galatians. The more familiar we become with scripture the easier it will be for us to identify those wolves in sheep’s clothing.