Am I now trying to win human approval, or God’s approval?

Galatians 1:1-12 (TNIV) -

1 Paul, an apostle—sent not with a human commission nor by human authority, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—

2 and all the brothers and sisters with me,
To the churches in Galatia:
3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let that person be under God’s curse!

9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let that person be under God’s curse!

10 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.
11 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin.

12 I did not receive it from any human source, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

My thoughts -

What an introduction! The first 5 verses are a fairly polite introduction. Paul states his name, his calling, a little blessing about grace and peace and then WHAM! You guys have deserted Jesus! Paul's not wasting any time getting right to the point, is he?

What would Paul write to our churches? See how he contrasts himself from a "worldly" perspective, even as early as verse one ("an apostle—sent not with a human commission nor by human authority, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father") and especially in verses 10 and 11:

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. I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin.

What we have is not of this world and not to be dictated by the superficial wants and desires of this world. We are not here to please people but to do God's will and give what they need. My kids would eat white bread and candy and drink root beer all day i I only fed them with what they want to eat in mind, but there are no nutrients there; it's not what they need. We are called to do God's will and it seems as though God wants us to eat our vegetables, otherwise junk food would be nutritious. I've probably run that metaphor into the ground.

Here's the deal, the good news about Jesus isn't a get out of hell free card. Jesus didn't live and die for nothing. Grace doesn't get you out of the penalty for sin but frees you from the bondage of sin. You don't HAVE to be stuck in a worldly pattern of narcissistic selfish abusive sin; but you also don't GET to. Grace requires action. Following Jesus is a lot of work. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something, and you don't want to buy it!

And read what Paul says about those who are selling it:

Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let that person be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let that person be under God’s curse!

There's nothing that this world has to offer that can even come close to comparing to what we have in the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Nothing. And yet it seems as though we want to dilute this grace, to reduce or eliminate what demands following Jesus places on us, in order to appeal to people who have been taken in by all of the shiny junk in this world. Maybe we have good motivations. Maybe we want to reach more people for Jesus. Maybe we're just meeting them where they are. I don't know. But it seems to me that when we water down grace we end up with some kind of half-assed spirituality that compares unfavorably to both the shiny junk and the Gospel.

I can't say for sure that's what the Galatian churches were doing that Paul was responding to here. But I am convinced it's what many American churches are doing and I'm pretty sure that Paul would call us to task for it. If it weren't we wouldn't have "Christians" calling out our President for not saying "God" enough. We'd have them calling out ALL of our leaders for the disparity between the rich and the poor and the disproportionate influence of money in our political process. God demands righteousness and justice. We got stuck on just belief.