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. - (Galatians 1:10 NAS)
To truly serve God, one cannot serve man's wishes and desires a majority of the time. In other words, a person cannot seek the approval of man and disregard God's desires. If God says to do something, you must complete what He desires and it will normally not line up with what anyone else thinks you should do. Anyone whose friendship is lost because you are doing God's will was never a true friend anyway, the friendship was conditional to you complying to what they want you to do.
Man has an innate desire to have respect of others. However, this type of respect comes at a cost when it does not line up with God's plan. When a man (or woman) of God pursues God rather than man, issues arise from those who wish to control people. Allow me to give an example that I have seen hurt many Christians.
God tells a Christian to leave his or her current church. Weeks, months or even years later a person runs into someone from that church and instead of embracing each other as friends, the person that continues to go to the old church shuns the person that left. The person that does the shunning is the weakest form of Christian there is, because their friendship is based on a building and not on being united through Christ Jesus. A true friend will stick with you until the end and His name is Christ Jesus. (Jesus said this after giving us the great commission: "...I am with you always, even to the end of the age." - (Matthew 28:20 NAS)
To the religious structure of Jesus' time, Jesus was a rogue man who did not do as they believed He should. The people of the religious order wanted to control Jesus and make Him just like them, totally powerless and not of God. In fact, that is the same thing Satan did when he tempted Jesus, which is try to get Jesus to do his will and not God's. (Matthew 4)
I am speaking to even myself when I say this. Can we true Christians get past trying to control others and allow God to use the “others”? Perhaps if we would stop trying to control others, we would stop being like the aforementioned religious structure that eventually put Jesus to death.
To those who God has told to do something, do it no matter what the cost. God will honor you as He did Jesus who lost all in this earth, yet Jesus gained everything in the kingdom to come. So shall you reap your reward.
