Seek not to offend, but above all stay true to God

"For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ" (Gal. 1:10).

Paul the Apostle did not tell people what they wanted to hear in order to court their favor. Paul desired more to please God and serve him. But we must understand what Paul is saying in Gal 1:10 in context. There was a lot of pressure on Paul to preach a false gospel to gain the favor of the Jews. But Paul would rather die than to compromise the gospel. When it came to the gospel Paul was unashamed and unapologetic about making it clear that there is only one gospel that saves and that is that "Christ died for our sin according to the scripture and that he was buried and rose again the third day according to the scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3-4). And Paul declared that this glorious gospel saves a man by faith alone in Christ alone apart from the works of the law (Gal. 2:16).

It was in the context of making clear what the gospel is and why he would not compromise it, even under the pressure that came from the Jews who believed in the law, that Paul wrote, "For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ" (Gal. 1:10). Once again, Paul was not going to water down the gospel just to fit in with the Jews or anybody else that did not agree with it. But this does not mean that Paul used the truth (bible) like a baseball bat to beat people over the head with it just prove that he was right. Notice that Paul also wrote, "Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved" (1 Cor. 10:33). Paul preached the gospel and lived his life in a way as to not unnecessarily offend those he was trying to reach with the gospel. He wrote, "To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some" (1 Cor. 9:22). For the sake of the gospel and the souls of men we must, like Paul, seek not to offend. But above all we must stay true to God himself and the gospel of Jesus Christ.