Living to serve Christ, to please God, and not people…

GALATIANS 1 v. 1 (and 10)
‘not sent by men, or through a man, but through Jesus, Messiah, and God, Father, who raised Him from the dead’

Paul will repeat such an assertion as this also in v. 10:
‘Am I now seeking the favour of people or of God? Am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of / for Christ.’

In these verses, Paul is underlining his motivation, which has switched from serving and seeking to please people, to serving and seeking to please the Father and the Son.
The relationship between God the Father and God the Son is a key and crucial one for understanding the gospel good news, and the first ‘hint’ of the gospel here is that the Father raises the Son from death – the centrality of the resurrection.

In our Methodist Covenant services already this year (and those to come), we’ll have heard in the introduction to the Covenant Prayer:
‘let us again claim for ourselves this Covenant which God has made with His people…
This means that we are content that He appoint us our place and work,
and that He Himself be our reward….
Christ has many services to be done…
in some we may please Christ and please ourselves;
in others we cannot please Christ except by denying ourselves.
Yet the power to do all these things is give to us in Christ, who strengthens us.’

PRAYER
Lord, help me to keep my motives in check.
I, like many, can desire to make and keep people happy,
and I can want people to like me.
But that should never supersede the holy motivation
on this Christian journey
to serve Christ and to please God.
Help me and guide me today, my Lord.
AMEN.

CHALLENGE
Put the spotlight on what motivates you today in the decisions that you make.
Begin the day committed to serve Jesus and to seek to please God, in all that today brings.
In the evening, re-run the day and ask God to show you where your motivations were less than holy.