“For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ. For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 1:10-12 NASB1995)

In all that we do in this life, as followers of Jesus Christ, we are not to be people pleasers. We are not to be looking for human approval in what we do or say. And we are not to be making life decisions dependent upon whether other humans will or will not approve of us. We have to do the will of God, whether or not people are pleased with us. And we shouldn’t be agreeing to things of a serious nature without consulting with our Lord to see what he wants us to do, to see if this is the path he has chosen for us, or not.

We shouldn’t do something just because Dr so and so said to do it, or because Rev so and so has counseled us to do it, or because some famous person said that is the right thing to do. We should not be letting other humans decide our life course for us, but we should be taking everything to the Lord in prayer, seeking his counsel, and making sure that is the path he wants us to take, even if other humans disagree with us, and even if they think we are not wise because we didn’t take the counsel of so and so.

Now, this is not saying that we should ignore all counsel given to us, unless it is obviously contrary to the will of God, according to his word. There are some wise people among us who give good counsel. But we still need to make certain that the counsel we are receiving is in line with the will of God for our lives. For God has his reasons for the things which he brings into our lives, and he has a course that he has prepared for us to journey on, and so we need to seek his counsel so that we go the way in which he has planned.

And regarding the teachings of the Scriptures, we should not rely upon other humans to teach us what they say. For not all humans, not even all pastors are teaching the truth of the gospel as Jesus and as his New Testament apostles taught it. Many have altered the message of the gospel to make it less offensive to the ungodly and more appealing to human flesh. And so their “gospel” messages barely resemble the ones taught us in the Word, if taught in the correct biblical context. So we need to be discerning people.

And if we are to spread the good news of the gospel to the people of the world, we need to be getting that gospel message from the Scriptures themselves, taught in their correct biblical context, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And we should not be getting the gospel message from books or memes or other writings written by mere humans, many of them who have twisted the Scriptures to their advantage and who are ignoring the truths they do not want to have to accept. Go to the Scriptures themselves!

And, as one who writes daily devotions, and who posts them on the internet for others to read, I am not saying to ignore the writings of other Christians. For we, as the body of Christ, are to be encouraging one another in our walks of faith in obedience to our Lord. I am saying that we should not put our trust in and dependence upon other humans to tell us the truth of the gospel, for many liars abound. So we need to be spiritually discerning people who test the spirits to see which ones are of God and are teaching the truth.

And this agrees with Paul’s words spoken here in this passage of Scripture. And it agrees with the teachings of the Scriptures, as a whole, that we are not to put our dependency in other humans to tell us the truth, but that we are to be those who test what we hear or read against the Scriptures taught in context. And this is one of the reasons why I include in these writings many passages of Scripture which teach what I am sharing with you, and which you can read in context so your dependency is not on me but on God.

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

Your Salvation

Based off of Isaiah 30
An Original Work / May 29, 2011
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

In repentance is your salvation.
In quietness and trust is your strength.
The Lord longs to be gracious to you.
Blessed are all who wait for Him.

Pharaoh’s protection will be your shame.
Egypt’s shade will bring you to disgrace.
Ev’ryone will be put to their shame,
Because they trusted in man.

Woe to those who carry out their plans
Without consulting God their Savior.
God’s calling out for you to listen
And obey all He commands.

In repentance is your salvation.
In quietness and trust is your strength.
The Lord longs to be gracious to you.
Blessed are all who wait for Him.

Are You Striving to Please Humans?
An Original Work / January 12, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love