Today, we continue our series entitled “Living the Grace Life,” where we will learn to embrace and walk in God’s unmerited, unearned, and often undeserved favor throughout 2025.
As part of this series, I am teaching a verse-by-verse exposition of the book of Galatians. Let’s get into it.
Key scriptures for this year:
2 Corinthians? ?9?:?8? ?TPT??
“Yes, God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace, so that you will have more than enough of everything—every moment and in every way. He will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do.” ?? ??
Galatians? ?5?:?4? ?TPT??
“If you want to be made right with God by fulfilling the obligations of the law, you have cut off more than your flesh—you have cut yourselves off from Christ and have fallen away from the revelation of grace!”
Romans? ?6?:?14? ?ERV??
“Sin will not be your master, because you are not under law. You now live under God’s grace.” ??
1 Corinthians? ?15?:?10? ?NIV??
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”
Scripture(s) we will study today:
Galatians 1:10 NIV
“Am I now trying to win human approval, or God’s approval? 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 TPT
“For am I now trying to gain the favor of people, or God? Am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a true servant of the Anointed One.”
Galatians 1:10 ERV
“Do you think I am trying to make people happy? Am I trying to please people? If I wanted to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
Setting the Stage:
Last week, I introduced you to this series. In the first sentences of Paul’s letters to the believers in Galatia, we see how passionate Paul is about defending the pure gospel of grace. He expressed shock at how quickly the Galatians were abandoning grace for a false gospel, and he declared that even angels would be cursed if they preached anything different from the true gospel.
In verse 10, Paul addresses something that gets to the heart of why many believers struggle with grace: the fear of what people will think. Here is the RPV (Rick Piña Version) of what Paul essentially said in this verse: “Am I trying to win a popularity contest, or am I committed to God and the truth?“
This verse reveals a fundamental choice every believer must make: Will you live to please people or to please God? Paul makes it clear that you cannot do both. People-pleasing and serving Christ are mutually exclusive when it comes to the gospel message.
Why is this issue so important? Because the pressure to please people is one of the primary reasons believers abandon the pure gospel of grace. Grace sounds “too easy” to religious people. They want something that requires more effort, more rules, and more of a focus on your performance. However, Paul refuses to water down the message just to make religious people more comfortable.
So, what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. The Impossibility of Dual Allegiance: You Cannot Serve Two Masters.
Paul makes it clear that trying to please people and serving Christ are incompatible goals. When it comes to the gospel, you must choose one or the other—you cannot do both. This echoes what Jesus taught when He said the following about serving God and serving money, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Matthew 6:24).
How this applies to you:
— Grace will always offend religious people because it removes their ability to boast in their performance. If you preach pure grace, you will face criticism from those who believe salvation requires human effort.
— The gospel of grace threatens the religious establishment because it levels the playing field. Under grace, the “super-spiritual” person and the “struggling sinner” both need the same thing: Jesus and His grace. This is why the religious people of Jesus’ day brought the woman caught in the very act of adultery to Jesus. Their message was: “We are right, and she is wrong.” Jesus’ message was, “Everyone is wrong outside of God’s forgiveness.” This put the woman caught in adultery and the Pharisees and Sadducees in the same boat. Of course, religious people did not like that!
— I know Pastors who have learned about grace only to “hold back” from preaching it fully to avoid conflict with their denominational leaders or fellow Pastors. Or, in what may be even worse, they hold back because they don’t think the members of their church can handle the freedom of God’s grace. They think, “If I preach this, then people will be so free that they may feel like they are free to sin.” Others think, “It may be harder for me to get people to do things if they don’t feel like they have to.” None of these are good reasons to withhold or twist the truth. Paul made it clear that preaching the truth of the gospel is non-negotiable.
— People-pleasing in ministry leads to preaching what people want to hear rather than what they need to hear. This ultimately robs them of the freedom that comes through the pure gospel of grace.
— When you choose to please God over people, you may lose some relationships, but you gain something far more valuable: the approval of the One who matters most. When I first gave my life to Jesus and started living for Him, I lost relationships, and I was most certainly criticized by many of the people I love. But I refused to compromise. All these years later, all the people who mattered in my life have come around to the gospel, and they have come to see Jesus in me. That would have never happened if I had compromised. Paul was willing to be criticized and misunderstood for the gospel of grace. I was, too. Are you?
— The fear of man brings a snare (Proverbs 29:25). When you live to please people, you become trapped by their opinions and expectations rather than walking in the freedom Christ provided.
— It all comes down to this: Your calling is to be a servant of Christ, not a slave to popular opinion. This means your primary concern is faithfulness to Him, not approval from others.
2. The Test of True Servants: God’s Approval vs. Human Applause.
Paul distinguishes between seeking God’s favor and trying to win human approval. True servants of Christ prioritize divine approval over human applause.
How this applies to you:
— God’s approval is the only approval that matters eternally. Human opinions change, but God’s love and acceptance of you in Christ are unchangeable.
— When you live for God’s approval, you’re free from the exhausting cycle of trying to please everyone. You can’t please everyone anyway, so focus on pleasing the One who called you.
— God’s approval isn’t based on your performance—it’s based on Christ’s performance on your behalf. This means you can serve God from a position of acceptance, not striving to gain acceptance.
— The moment you compromise the gospel to gain human approval, you’ve lost the very thing that makes you valuable as God’s representative: the uncompromising truth of God’s Word. People tune in to hear me daily or read these messages because I am preaching the gospel. They don’t tune in for me. They tune in for God. If my ministry ever becomes about me, it will lose its power. God backs His Word when I preach it. But if I preach things to make people feel or make me look good, God is not in it, and there will be no power behind it.
— When you understand God’s approval, you move from striving to serving. Grace transforms you from a performance-driven servant to a purpose-driven conduit of God’s love. You’re no longer working FOR acceptance but working FROM acceptance.
— Human approval is temporary and inconsistent, but God’s approval is eternal and unchanging. Build your life on a foundation that will never shift or disappoint you.
3. The Freedom of Living for an Audience of ONE!
When Paul says he’s not trying to please people, he’s describing the freedom that comes from living for an audience of One. This transforms everything about how you approach life and ministry.
How this applies to you:
— Living to please God removes the pressure to perform for people. When you align your life with God’s grace, you’re liberated from the exhausting charade of trying to be who everyone else wants you to be. Think about it: how many different “versions” of yourself have you created to fit into different social circles, work environments, or family expectations? Putting on different “faces” for work, church, family, friends, etc., is mentally and emotionally exhausting. It’s much easier to just be yourself!
— God-centered living allows you to be your authentic self because you’re secure in your identity in Christ. This will also help you to walk in God’s power because the anointing only flows through the authentic. When you are living as someone you are not called to be, you will be void of God’s power.
— People-pleasing creates anxiety and stress because human expectations are constantly changing. God’s expectations, however, are clear, giving you peace and security.
— God-centered living produces consistency in your character and reputation. You’re not constantly adjusting your beliefs or behavior based on who you’re trying to impress.
— Here’s a big one: The fear of disappointing people loses its power when you understand that God is already pleased with you in Christ. God is not pleased with you because of your performance but because of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice.
— Living for God’s approval actually makes you more effective in helping people because you’re completely freed from the prison of people’s opinions. When you’re no longer trying to make people like you, make yourself look good, or do things out of pride, something supernatural happens – you become genuinely useful to God’s Kingdom.
— When you live THE GRACE LIFE, our effectiveness is measured not by how many people applaud you, but by how faithfully you do whatever the Holy Spirit leads you to do. At that point, you stop trying to look good and start being genuinely good because you are living as a conduit of God’s love and light in this world!
4. The Cost of Compromise: What You Lose When You Choose People Over God.
When you choose to please people over God, you don’t just risk losing something external—you lose your spiritual effectiveness, your peace, and your true identity in Christ. Compromise is a slow poison that diminishes your spiritual authority and strips you of God’s power.
How this applies to you:
— Every time you water down truth to avoid conflict, you become a little less of who God called you to be. You’re not just losing an opportunity; you’re losing yourself.
— People-pleasing creates an internal conflict in your heart. Every time you do something against what the Holy Spirit is leading you to do, just becuase you want to fit in or make yourself look good, you will have to deal with the spiritual tension that follows. This internal conflict will lead to exhaustion as you realize you are not living as the man/woman God called you to be.
— Compromise eats away at the confidence you have in God. When you consistently choose the easier path instead of the faithful one, you lower your internal trust in God’s ability to work through you. Why? Because you were more focused on what people would think than what God was leading you to do.
— Whatever you compromise to get, you will have to compromise to keep, and it will derail you from your destiny. You will be off-course, and as a result, you will live as a diluted version of who God designed you to be.
— When you train yourself to compromise instead of doing what God is leading you to do, fear becomes your primary motivator instead of faith. Every compromise reinforces the spirit of fear, making it harder each time to stand in faith.
— You lose the very authority that makes ministry powerful. Authentic ministry flows from conviction, not consensus. When you negotiate away your convictions, you negotiate away your spiritual power.
— Compromise creates a cycle of increasing weakness. Each time you choose people’s approval over God’s, you make the next compromise easier, creating a downward spiritual spiral.
I’ll close with this thought: Paul’s question in this verse forces us to examine our motives. Are you more concerned with being liked or being faithful? Are you more worried about offending people or about compromising the truth?
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You that Your approval is the only approval that matters eternally.
I declare that I will not compromise the pure gospel of grace to gain human acceptance.
I choose to be a servant of Christ rather than a slave to people’s opinions.
I reject the fear of man that brings a snare and embrace the freedom of living for You alone.
I will preach the truth in love, even when it makes people uncomfortable.
I am free from the exhausting cycle of people-pleasing because I am already accepted in Christ.
I will stand firm in the gospel of grace, regardless of the cost in human relationships.
I am living THE GRACE LIFE, and GREATER IS COMING FOR ME!
I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and prosper!
