Popular with people or pleasing to God?

Read Galatians 1.

Are you living to be popular with people or pleasing to God?  There is a third alternative.  It is a requirement of believers in Jesus to love people and speak the truth of God's word.  Tim LaHaye used to say when teaching Ephesians 4:15, "Be sure the amount of truth you speak is matched by the amount of love you have for that person."

The Apostle Paul loved these Gentiles in the Galatian region of the Roman Empire.  He traveled throughout that area preaching and planting churches.  Once established with local leadership, he moved on.  But in his absence, the people there fell prey to false teaching.  Giving in and/or compromising belief in the word of God is no small matter.  Paul called it "deserting" Christ!  He was "astonished" (v.6) at how quickly this happened.

These false teachers did not merely question what the Galatians had been taught.  They, in fact, were presenting "a different gospel."  Paul wrote that they were troubling the congregations and distorting the gospel of Christ.  1 Corinthians 15:1-4 defines the one and only true gospel.  It is the bodily and literal death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.  It is only through one's personal faith in this good news that one receives eternal life and enters the family of God.  To be absolutely clear, there is "not another one" (v.7).  Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me."  Nothing more.  Nothing less.  Nothing else.

Adding to or subtracting from that message is a false gospel and is "contrary" (v.8) to the word of God.  But what if a religious authority, such as an apostle, or an angel from heaven delivered a new, culturally updated, altered, or different message?  "Let him be accursed!"  The Greek word is anathema, eternally condemned.  So, there is no misunderstanding, Paul repeated it.

The evidence of belief in the gospel of Jesus is life-change.  One becomes a new person as they follow Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).  The second half of this chapter is Paul's testimony of what took place in his own life.  "They only were hearing it said, 'He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.  And they glorified God in me.'" (vv.23-24).  May the people who know us glorify God as they see what He has done and is doing in our lives.