“Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”1 “For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But then let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.”2
Okay. So, let’s review. Paul tells us to “not become conceited” and then clarifies that no one should think “he is something, when he is nothing,” but then tells us when we evaluate our work, we should have “reason to boast.” Is anyone else besides me a little confused? What exactly is going on here? I think it all has to do with Paul’s opening statement in this letter to the Galatians. He asks them to consider these crucial questions: “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man?”3
The questions are for us as well. Whom are we trying to please? If we are trying to please others, we will never arrive, for the bar of approval is a movable target. Different people will be pleased with different things. Sometimes the bar will be set very low. You know, good enough. Other times the bar will be extremely high, impossible to achieve. So, when the bar is high and we are feeling good about our efforts, we are inclined to become conceited about our work. But when the bar is low and we do not do our best, we will have no reason to boast about our work. Paul addresses both bars. The warning: Do not become conceited when you do well, but also, always do your best work so you would have a reason to boast in yourself—if you had the opportunity—but, of course, you wouldn’t because we are not to be conceited—thinking we are something when we are nothing!
It’s still a little murky in my head, but those are just things to remember as we try to please other people. Paul really wants us to seek the approval of God rather than man. How do we earn God’s approval? We can’t! And that’s what the Galatians were arguing about—working hard enough, obeying all the right laws, so God would be pleased. It sounds right—to do the right things so God approves of us. And sometimes we get caught up in this behavior. But we need to stop doing this. So . . . my advice is Stop trying so hard! Why? Because “no one is justified before God by the law.”4 Well then. Why try at all? Exactly.
It is probably the hardest concept for us believers to understand. “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”5 This life is not about working hard so God will love us. He already loves us. There is nothing we can do to make God love us anymore. And there is nothing we can do to make God love us any less!
Christ has set us free from the law, and Paul warns us “stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”6 It sounds like we can do anything we want! Which is true! Some of the Galatians thought that way, too. Paul warns them: “Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”7 We have the spirit of Christ living in us. When we allow him to live through us, we are truly free from all the restraints of the world—the pressures, the expectations, and the urgencies of life. These things do not disappear, mind you, but we handle them differently than people without Christ because we possess the fruit of his spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”8
And the most important message here is this: we do not work to please men anymore; we work to please God—not because we want him to love us more or to earn his favor, but because he already does love us and cannot love us anymore! So Paul says, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”9 It is an every day surrender. This could be our daily prayer: Jesus, live through us today. And “let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”10
We need to stop working so hard to please others! And stop working so hard to please God but remember that God loves us just as we are! Instead, let us “keep in step with the Spirit,” and rely on the fruit of Christ’s Spirit to manifest itself in us! While we work!
1Galatians 5:26 2Galatians 6:3-4 3Galatians 1:10 4Galatians 3:11 5Galatians 2:20-21 6Galatians 5:1 7Galatians 5:13 8Galatians 2:22-23 9Galatians 5:25 10Galatians 6:9-10
