Probably the most magnificent estate in the Western World is
the California ranch of William Randolf Hearst. It is not a mere
matter of film like the Ponderosa, but it is a matter of fact. It covers
a quarter of a million acres of land, and stretches for 50 miles along
the coast of the ocean. Uncounted millions have been spent to
purchase castles; ship them to America; erect them, and furnish
them. Paintings of the most famous artists hang on the walls.
Dale Carnegie said his collection of wild animals makes Barnum's
Circus look like a side show. Herds of zebras, buffalo, giraffes, and
kangaroos roam over the hills, and thousands of exotic birds fly
among the trees. Lions and tigers roam in his private zoo. With the
30 million he inherited from his father, plus the millions more he has
earned by his own energetic labors, he has been able to do many
extravagant things. Naturally such a man as this was well known,
but the fact is, millions never heard of him until his daughter was
kidnapped. That crisis thrust him into the public mind, and details
of his life then became public property.
The point of this is that the same thing happened to Paul to make
him the greatest of the Apostles, and one of the best known men in
all of history. Like Hearst, Paul already had credentials that made
him well known among a certain group of people, but crisis thrust
him into the arena for the whole world to see. The attempt of those
who opposed him to kidnap his churches, and turn them into modified
Jewish Synagogues is what produced the crisis.
Paul fought back to save his churches, just as Hearst fought to save his
daughter. The Judaizers were brain washing the Gentiles, and they
were persuading them that they must be Jews first to be Christians.
Paul wrote Galatians as an antidote to that poisonous thinking.
The point is that crisis and conflict made Paul write, and by his
writing give us details of his own life and character that have made
him a household name throughout history. Had there been no crisis
Paul may have disappeared into obscurity. Conflict and trouble is
what made Paul famous, for he fought the good fight, and he became
victorious. There is just no way to be a hero and a conqueror if you
never face a conflict or battle. Out of Paul's conflict came this
Epistle, and it gives us so much biographical information about
Paul. It is the closest thing we have to an autobiography, for in
Galatians Paul has to defend himself in order to defend his Gospel.
The result is a delightful treasure of personal history, and insight
into his character and conversion.
The first thing I observe in chapter one is Paul's stress on his
death to self. He says it in 2:20 that he is crucified with Christ, but
he reveals the reality of it in his attitude long before he wrote that.
Here in 1:10 he asks two questions which tell us clearly that one of
the basic areas of conflict was all about. He is asking, "Am I seeking
the favor of men or of God?" The obvious implication is that Paul's
opponents have charged him with being a men pleaser. They were
saying that Paul makes the Gospel easier for the Gentiles, but he
does not care about the law of God. They are saying to the
Galatians, "It is winning your favor that really matters to him, and
he will drop the law of God if necessary to win your allegiance."
Paul is an ego-maniac is what his enemies are saying. He is all
things to all men alright, because he wants to please everybody
regardless of how he abuses the law of God.
This was a very serious charge against Paul's character and
motives, and you can see why it was necessary for Paul to defend
himself. The circumstantial evidence gave the Judaizers a fairly
strong case, and the uninformed could be easily led astray. The
Judaizers accused Paul of inconsistency and compromise in order to
please men. He preached circumcision when he was among the
Jews, and he denounced it when he was among the Gentiles. For
they wanted exemption from this Jewish custom. We see this was a
major charge in Gal. 5:11 where Paul is defending himself by
writing, "But if I, brethren still preach circumcision, why am I still
persecuted?" Paul tells us that his enemies have accused him of
preaching circumcision when it is to his advantage.
Paul is being called a false prophet who changes the Word of God
to please men. If circumcision is repulsive to Gentiles, Paul just
throws it out to win their approval. Paul is a "peace at any price"
man say his accusers. Paul faced the same problems that all men of
God have faced when they become widely used of God. Fame brings
power, and because power can be so easily abused, it is presumed to
be abused by opponents of the one who has it. Every great
evangelist has been accused of pleasing men to make big money.
Paul had to face the same problem with the Thessalonians. He
wrote in I Thess. 1:4-6, "But just as we have been approved by God
to be entrusted with the Gospel, so we speak, not to please men, but
to please God who test our hearts. For we never used either words
of flattery, as you know, or a cloak for greed, as God is witness, nor
did we seek glory from men, whether from you or from others,
though we might have made demands as Apostles of Christ." Paul
bent over backwards, and even made tents on the side, so as to rob
his enemies of a basis for criticism.
It is impossible to please everyone, of course, and so Paul chose
it as his master motive to please God. There is no way to get away
from the paradoxical nature of life, however, when you get into the
realm of trying to distinguish between pleasing God and pleasing
men. The paradoxical nature of it makes it possible to use the
evidence for or against you. Pleasing men can either please God, or
displease Him. Pleasing God can either please men, or displease
them. It gets as complex as the weather. The poet wrote-
People freezing long to burn up;
Burning up, they long to freeze.
No wonder weather's temperamental,
People are so hard to please.
Paul had to be something like the weather. He had to be
something for everyone, and yet never pleasing to everyone. The
very fact that Paul defends himself shows that he is trying to please
the Galatians. He wants to satisfy their minds that the charges
against him are false. In so doing he confesses that his past life was
in fact basically an effort to please men. All of the versions I
checked have Paul saying in the closing phrase of verse 10, "If I
were still pleasing men, I should not be a servant of Christ." Knox
has it, "If, after all these years I were still courting the favor of
men..." Weymouth has it, "If I were still a man-pleaser."
No wonder Paul gets so personal in this Epistle. The Judaizers
knew his past, and they knew he was a self-centered egotist as a
young Pharisee. They knew he cared only for his own reputation,
and his chief motive was to get ahead by pleasing men. It is no
wonder that Paul makes so much of his counting all his prizes of his
former life as so much garbage or dung compared to knowing
Christ. Paul had a radical conversion of his nature. He use to be
everything his enemies said he was, and Paul had to work hard in
life, and in his writings, to overcome the record of his past. He was a
man pleaser, and that reputation clung to him and haunted him as a
Christian. Paul says here, however, if I were still what I used to be, I would
not be a servant of Christ. This is not to be misconstrued to mean
that a servant of Christ does not please men. The fact is, Paul
pleased millions, and he goes on doing so just because he was a
faithful servant of Christ. The point here is, Paul is defending
himself against the charge that he modifies the Word of God to fit
the situation. He is charged with being the author of situation ethics
where you mold the demands of God to fit the weaknesses of those
you seek to reach. Paul says, if I was really like I use to be, I would
not be a servant of Christ. I never would have left Judaism to be a
Christian if self-glory was my motive for serving Christ, for he has
made me hated and persecuted by Jews and Gentiles alike.
Paul just let the most severe words that ever flowed from his pen
lash out at the Judaizers. He said, "Let them be accursed." He is
being severe to both his foes and friends in this letter to demonstrate
that pleasing men is not his motive. He cares not for anything but to
please God. He will speak the truth as it is in Christ whatever the
cost to himself, for pleasing God is all that matters to him now. Paul
persecuted the Christians in order to win approval from his
superiors, and gain social status, but he is not now fighting the
Judaizers for the same reason. His motive is to defend the Gospel of
Christ, and to please God whatever it does to his own reputation.
All through the New Testament we see Paul as a man of suffering.
He was hated, stoned, imprisoned, and had to depend upon others
for his support. He could have gone off on his own in the world, and
he could have become a man of independent wealth and fame, but he
gave up all that to be a servant of Christ, and this meant a cross, and
a daily dying to self. This life of Paul was a necessity to reveal how
real his conversion was. No one can say so literally as Paul when he
said, "I am crucified with Christ." The paradox is that by not
pleasing men, and pleasing Christ instead, Paul became more
famous than he could have ever dreamed. He has pleased more men
than all of the Apostles put together.
St. Jerome said, "If it is possible to please both God and men as
well, we should please men as well; but if we cannot please men
without displeasing God, we should please God rather than men."
When Peter and John were charged not to preach in the name of
Christ they had to choose to obey men or God. To please their own
rulers, or to please their Maker and Redeemer were their options.
They chose to please God and suffer the displeasure of men. Both of
them, however, urged Christians to live in peace with all men. We
need to make it clear that it is no virtue to make men angry at you,
and displease them, or be in conflict with them. It is only a virtue
when doing the will of God is the cause for the conflict. When there
is no conflict with God's will, the Christian in under obligation to
please men, and to live peaceably with all men in so far as he can.
Paul is famous for both his conflict with men, and his cooperation
with men. Both are legitimate, for both can please God, and
pleasing God is to be our goal.
Dr. A. J. Cronin was a practicing physician in a small Welsh
community. He worked with a nurse who for 20 years gave of her
life to serve the people. The doctor was somewhat disgusted at the
small salary she received for her selfless labors. One night after a
strenuous case he sat with her drinking a cup of tea. "Why don't
you insist on a extra pound a week at least," he said to her. "God
knows you're worth it." She smiled and replied, "Dr., if God knows
I am worth it, that's all that matters." Dr. Cronin said in a flash, "I
suddenly realized that her whole existence in its service and
self-sacrifice was a dedication, a perpetual testimony to her belief in
a Supreme Being. And in a flash of understanding I sensed the rich
significance of her life and the comparative emptiness of my own."
Her master motive was to please God, but in so doing she did
much to help and please men. If we dedicate our lives to be pleasing
to God, we will, like Paul, be constantly both pleasing and
displeasing to men. We ought, therefore, not be moved by either of
the criticism or the praise of men. We need to examine our lives
daily to be sure we are pleasing to God, and make that our master
motive. It is easier to please God than to please men, for what is
good and right will always please God, but doing what is right, and
doing your best, will never always please all men.
John Woolman in his journal records a conclusion he came to as
a servant of Christ. "I saw at this time that, if I were honest to
declare that which truth opened to me, I could not please all men."
Herbert Swope wrote, "I cannot give you the formula for success,
but I can give you the formula for failure which is: Try to please
everybody." Men of wisdom, however, have learned to listen to
those whom they do not please, and often they have found that they
needed correction, for what displeased men was not pleasing to God
either.
A. W. Tozer in his book The Divine Conquest writes, "The
way it works in experience is something like this: The believing man
is overwhelmed suddenly by a powerful feeling that only God
matters; soon this works itself out into his mental life and conditions
all his judgments and all his values. Now he finds himself free from
slavery to man's opinions. A mighty desire to please only God lays
hold of him. Soon he learns to love above all else the assurance that
he is well pleasing to the Father in heaven."
If I could heap up treasured store
From every foreign strand,
And all the prizes of success
Retain within my hand,
Unless my Father's smile I know,
I'm still a pauper here below.
Author unknown
