Don’t be a Man Pleaser

Ephesians 6:7,8
“With goodwill render service, as to the Lord, and not to people, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, he will receive this back from the Lord, whether slave or free.”
When one comes to Christ, the entire focus changes. Most are self focused. But God causes us to be born again. We get a new heart and new desires follow. Some of the things that were part of our lives grate against us. Those actions don’t jive with our new hearts. The same is true for some of our old friends. Some of our common interests are no longer there. We still pray for them, but are no longer regular friends.
God’s focus is to bless others. He nudges us in that same direction. The commandments are reduced down to love God and love others. Jesus says in Matthew 16:24, ‘Then Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”‘ He switched our self focus to being others focused.
This is what today’s verse is about. We are to serve and bless others, but now it’s for God. We used to do these things, but for ourselves. We wanted to get hear people speak well of us. That’s not bad, but that is far from our present purpose for doing it.
Most can tell if a person is a “man pleaser”. It’s hollow. It’s not genuine. Yes, something nice was done, but it doesn’t feel right. Trust and goodwill isn’t generated.
Then there’s the person who doesn’t seem to care what others think. While this can be brash, I respect this. I wouldn’t emulate this one, as there is a cold part of this person, but I appreciate that the good was done for a genuine reason. They weren’t trying to earn brownie points.
God does honor us and causes others to respect us (Psalm 23:5). We get what the man pleasers seek, respect. But it’s gotten for different reasons. It’s not hollow. We aren’t seeking it. We are serving God and others. God weeds out the man pleaser parts that are in us.
Some of the service we render to others is sharing the truth and good news. We can lose friends this way. Our purpose is to share the good news out of obedience. It grieves us that some reject it. We would do it again out of obedience.
God will put needs in our path to meet them. Some times it’s just to meet the need, other times it’s to gain the audience to share the good news. I don’t have the gift of evangelism, so the verbal isn’t my gift. I do on occasion share. It’s a fraction of my life.
Lord, thank You for weeding out the “man pleaser” part of us. Thank You for the blessing of serving others.