“For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).

“But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts” (1 Thessalonians 2:4).

A Man and his son were once going with their Donkey to market. As they were walking along by its side a countryman passed them and said: “You fools, what is a Donkey for but to ride upon?”
So the Man put the Boy on the Donkey and they went on their way. But soon they passed a group of men, one of whom said: “See that lazy youngster, he lets his father walk while he rides.”
So the Man ordered his Boy to get off, and got on himself. But they hadn’t gone far when they passed two women, one of whom said to the other: “Shame on that lazy lout to let his poor little son trudge along.”
Well, the Man didn’t know what to do, but at last he took his Boy up before him on the Donkey. By this time they had come to the town, and the passers-by began to jeer and point at them. The Man stopped and asked what they were scoffing at. The men said: “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself for overloading that poor Donkey of yours — you and your hulking son?”
The Man and Boy got off and tried to think what to do. They thought and they thought, till at last they cut down a pole, tied the Donkey’s feet to it, and raised the pole and the Donkey to their shoulders. They went along amid the laughter of all who met them till they came to Market Bridge, when the Donkey, getting one of his feet loose, kicked out and caused the Boy to drop his end of the pole. In the struggle the Donkey fell over the bridge, and his forefeet being tied together he was drowned.
“That will teach you,” said an old man who had followed them: PLEASE ALL, AND YOU WILL PLEASE NONE.”
—Aesop (Sixth Century B.C.) Fables. The Harvard Classics. 1909-14.

Herbert Bayard Swope, Sr. (1882-1958), was a U.S. editor and journalist who spent most of his career at the New York World newspaper. He was the first and three-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Reporting. One of his most famous quotes is: “I cannot give you the formula for success; but I can give you the formula for failure, which is, try to please everybody.”

If you spend your life trying to please people, you will never succeed. People are just too fickle. The person who attempts anything will be criticized in some way for doing it, and the person who attempts nothing will be criticized on account of doing nothing.

Imagine a radio station that played a waltz, then a polka, then a jazz number, then a rap song, and then a hymn, in an attempt to please everybody. Seriously, who would listen to such a station? Nobody! In their attempt to please everyone, they would please no one.

We are often faced with the choice, as the apostle Paul was, between trying to please people or trying to please God. If you please God, it doesn’t really matter whom you displease. On the other hand, if you displease God, it doesn’t matter whom you please!

Sooner or later we will discover that we need to live for an audience of one — the Lord Jesus Christ! It’s all about pleasing Him — not others, and certainly not ourselves (see Romans 15:1). Unfortunately, many people in the average church today are mainly focused on what pleases them. To them, it’s all about:

* My music style.
* My desired order of worship services.
* My desired use of buildings and rooms.
* My activities and programs.
* My need of pastors and staff.
* My, my, my.

Church unity must be based upon our common bond of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the essential core doctrines of the Word of God, not personal preferences, convictions, likes, and dislikes. It’s not what makes me or you happy; it’s about what is pleasing to Him in His Word. It seems ironic to me that some Christians get more upset over minor, insignificant matters than they do a lost soul on their way to an eternal hell!

The Lord Jesus Christ is our Model. He did not live to please people, but rather His Heavenly Father. Jesus said, “I do always those things that please Him” (John 8:29). Don’t try to be a people pleaser. If you listen to every critic, you will never succeed. Live to please the Lord Jesus Christ.

“No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier” (2 Timothy 2:4).