Living to Please

For every person on earth, we have to make decisions about how we are going to respond to the people who comes across our path. We all have values and depending on how much we really embrace them, they will either be followed or discarded. The decision we make can often be based on whether we want to please the people we are with or hold tightly to our values. The name we most often call this is people pleasing and it is not good when we live this way.

John 6 deals with this issue. The popularity of Jesus was greatly increasing as John 6:2 says "2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick."
Everyone in ministry would love to have a large crowd, but crowds are always fickle and the love from them can quickly fade.

Jesus feeds the 5,000 and the crowds grow in their respect of him: 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” 15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself." Ministry is going well for him as they are wanting to see his fame increase, but Jesus withdraws as he was not going to fall prey to doing only that which the crowd wanted. They do not have the best things in mind for him.

Later, as they find him across the Lake, Jesus says to them, "26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” They now are following him for another reason and it is not because they love him - He is a food provider now. In just a few minutes they turn on Jesus after they have difficulty embracing his teaching. Here is what they say,

• 41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
  
• 52 And then the crowd responds this way, "52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
• 60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this?
• 66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

It is at this point, as people are leaving, that the temptation to change the message, tone it down, and make sure the crowd feels better about things could take over. It was not Jesus way.

Jesus though, did not have to have everyone happy with him. As they grumble and leave, he does not back off of the truth and tell them what they want to hear.

Do we want to please others so much that we will back down to keep them around? Pleasing others at the cost of our integrity and standards is not living.