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Romans 15:1-33 Living to Please Others vs Living to Please God

by fol CHURCH on September 23, 2018

In this passage, Paul is instructing the Romans to avoid living to please themselves, but rather to work to please each other, stating that with God’s help, they will then be able to come together, united, and worship God, filled with hope given by the Holy Spirit.

I feel like there is an important distinction to be made between living to please others, and living to please God. Both have their merits: Paul here is referring to the act of living in harmony so that we can “…join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God…” (Rom 15:6 NLT). Obviously this is vital – one of the biggest problems with the church for centuries has been the division within it. The division between denominations and disagreements over doctrine have the potential to drive a wedge between us and in that, we risk overlooking the unifying factor of our faith – our love for our God. Additionally, if we’re living only to please ourselves, we’re definitely doing something wrong.

However, whilst it cannot be argued that Jesus lived in harmony, we should be careful how we interpret the phrase “pleasing others”. In a modern sense, and particularly in the English/Western culture, pleasing others entails going with the flow, keeping our opinions to ourselves and avoiding any kind of confrontation. Jesus absolutely did not do this! He challenged the Pharisees’ teaching (Mark 3:1-5), He was publicly outraged by the use of the temple as a market place (Mark 11:15-17), and refused to deny that He was the Messiah in spite of the fury of the crowds who accused him (Luke 22:66 – 23:3).

This is not to say that we need get ourselves arrested (necessarily), but maybe we need to be mindful of who it is we’re aiming to please. If we aim to please others, there’s a chance that our actions may not line up with the teaching we have been given in Scripture. If, however, our foremost aim is to please God, then in doing so we will undoubtedly please, bless and uplift others.

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Today, let’s ask God for opportunities to bless the people we meet and to help us remember to put him first in everything we do.

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