In Galatians 1:10 the apostle Paul writes, “ For do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.” Paul’s point here is that our motivation when preaching or teaching is always to be to please God, not men. Sometimes, when you have people who want to hear God’s truth proclaimed, preaching that pleases God also pleases men. Often, however, such is not the case. Many people today don’t want to hear that the church is not supposed to be in the entertainment business, that God’s plan for worship or the organization of the church must not be changed. Many people don’t want to hear that homosexuality, abortion, greed, denominationalism, selfishness and a host of other things are sinful. Are we going to please God or men? If we aim to please God then we must speak out against these things even though it is not a popular thing to do. Many people, even most people, will not be pleased if we speak the truth.
In 2 Timothy 4:3-4 Paul warns, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” regardless of what men may want, we must always preach, teach, and believe the truth as God’s Word reveals it to us.