Mission Venture Ministries

Peter wrote that, “We must obey God rather than human beings” (Acts 5:29). It is not our duty to make people happy. Rather, we are to live serving the Lord in every way He calls us, die daily to our own selfish desires, and receive our reward from Him, “Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God” (1 Corinthians 4:5). When this is our life goal, we will stop being people-pleasers. 

When a person becomes a people-pleaser it prevents them from being all God has called them to be. It silences us when we should speak, and threatens us when we do speak. A subtle form of people-pleasing in the church today is forecast in 2 Timothy 4:3: “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.” Preachers whose desire is to draw crowds and please people rather than God call it “ministry.” Drawing crowds is not a sin, but when the motivation is to please people and not God, the problem becomes serious. The point is that if the apostles had been people-pleasers, they would never have been martyred for their faith and for standing for the truth of God’s Word. 

Are church leaders, and for that matter any of us; ready to suffer tribulation be incarcerated, persecuted and be killed because we tell the truth and are not a people-pleaser for Jesus’ name sake? (Matthew 24:9) 

We cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). We cannot be fully devoted to the gospel of Christ and also fully devoted to the approval of people; these two do not mesh. We need to remember what Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). 

Paul told the people of Thessalonica that they spoke as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests hearts. Paul had never used flattery, or tried to people please, he was true to the teaching of Christ and God was his witness (1 Thessalonians 2:3–5). 

And when addressing the Galatians Paul had another strong point when he asked them: “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” (Galatians 1:10). 

Once a person recognizes their people-pleasing inclinations as sin and repent of them, they must find an alternate motivation. First Corinthians 10:31 tells us that our motive in everything should be to glorify God. When we develop an intimate relationship with Him through saving faith in Jesus, He becomes our focus. When we switch allegiance from self-worshiping to God-worshiping, our goal is no longer pleasing ourselves or others, but to honor and to please the Lord (Colossians 1:10). 

We find great freedom when we focus on our Shepherd and listen to His voice and follow Him (John 10:27).

When we do this, we can relax under the watchful eyes of the Almighty and find contentment under His care. 

We need to realize that when our guiding force is popularity, we have chosen another god, and that is idolatry. When we allow anything to control us other than the Holy Spirit, our hearts have erected a shrine to a competing god; therefore, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16, 25). 

Seeking praise from human beings rather than seeking God’s approval is a very dangerous road that people take. John 12:43 tells us that, even in Jesus’ day, some people believed His message but refused to follow Him because “they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” 

Jesus lived to glorify and obey His Father (John 8:29). He loved, gave to, and served people, but He was also not afraid to say what needed to be said, even when people got angry. He often rebuked people in public for their hypocrisy and lack of faith. He rebuked them because He loved them and those they were leading to hell along with themselves. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are” (Matthew 23:15). 

As we see, our Lord seemed to care little about how well His audience would receive His words. He spoke exactly what needed to be said, even when it led to His death (Mark 15:1-2; John 18:37). 

Jesus was the opposite of a people-pleaser and we need to remember that as Christians we have only one Master, and that’s the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s the one we are to please, out of love and gratitude for our salvation “so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:10). 

If we try to please people by compromising what Christ teaches – our integrity, victory and fidelity to Jesus Christ will be damaged. This happens whenever we let others dictate how we should live the Christian life. If we start trying to please people instead of God, we’ll lose our true liberty. 

In summary, people-pleasing can lead to eternal separation from God when we allow it to dictate our choices to obey man rather than God.

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