Cafeteria Christianity: Approval — Tuesday
Galatians 1:10
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. (ESV)
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had an agreeable temperament. Able to maneuver through social circles with relative ease, I would turn on whatever charm or humor I needed to win the approval of others. As I got older, it became harder and harder to navigate the social wilds with people-pleasing being my survival mechanism. I was a chameleon, a shape-shifter. Whoever I was with, I acted and thought just as they did. I regurgitated their words back to them and confirmed whatever they wanted to hear, all in an effort to fulfill my deep insecurity. The desire to be accepted—to belong.
I was whoever you wanted me to be. I stood for everything, and at the same time, nothing. I feared the rejection of man but failed to fear the rejection of God. I found myself a slave to nearly every person I came in contact with because I loved the feeling that came with the approval of others, so I compromised every bit of who I am for that approval. It was an idol. And on the altar of approval, we sacrifice something greater—truth. The truth of who Jesus is and what He has done for us.
Within all of us is the desire to be accepted. God made us to be communal—to do life together, to be dependent upon one another. We were made to shoulder each other’s burdens—to both laugh and cry together. However, the fear of rejection keeps us in bondage to man, not in community with man. As I’ve heard it said before, “Man’s rejection is God’s protection.”
Since the gospel of Jesus Christ has been preached, many false gospels have followed—often in a desire to win the approval of congregations and not the approval of God. 2 Timothy 4:3 says, “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (NIV). Leonard Raven Hill said, “If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified.” The gospel of Jesus Christ is inherently offensive to the world. In the words of Paul, “If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10b, ESV).
Tuesday’s Reflection
Are you sacrificing truth on the altar of approval? Are you pleasing other people out of fear of rejection? Do you need to crucify a need to please others? Meditate on Galatians 5:1 today: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (NIV).