Who Are We Pleasing?

“And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.” Mark 15:15

This chapter, as you see, speaks of when Jesus was being questioned before Pilate. In verses 12-14, we find the crowd crying out for Pilate to crucify Him, “And Pilate answered and said again unto them, What will ye then that I shall do unto him whom ye call the King of the Jews? And they cried out again, Crucify him. Then Pilate said unto them, Why, what evil hath he done? And they cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify him.”

And then we find in verse 15 that Pilate, “willing to content the people”, carried out their wish, “And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.” In reading this verse, we find that Pilate was a “men-pleaser”. A “men-pleaser” is someone who wants the approval of everybody, therefore, seeks to gratify and “make everyone happy”. We are being a friend with the world by trying to please them. And, according to James 4:4, if we are a friend of the world, we are an enemy of God. “…whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”

Although our desire should be to live peaceably, we should expect to be at odds with the world. And, we will be, if we are truly pleasing God in all things.  Luke 6: 22 says, “Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.”  If we find that the world feels comfortable around us, then we may need to have a spiritual “checkup”. On the other hand, if we find that people are separating themselves from us, not because of some wrong we did them but because of our Biblical beliefs and stand for Jesus, then that’s a GOOD thing. In fact, in the next verse, Jesus says to REJOICE and “leap for joy”!!! Luke 6:23, ” Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.”

Let’s examine and ask ourselves, “Am I a men-pleaser, or a God-pleaser?” Who would we be likened to, Pilate: a men-pleaser, or  Peter: a God-pleaser? May we, like Peter, make a decision that we will obey God rather than men!

“Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.” Acts 5:29

~ Bethany ~