You Can't Please All of the People Even Some of the Time

1. It is fruitless to try to please men because each person is different and therefore, by pleasing some, you will inevitably displease others.
2. It is unrealistic to try to please people because selfishness distorts their thinking and raises their expectations above that which you can reasonably fulfill.
3. It is futile to try to please people because most of them are unregenerate and believe you to be “foolish” and “strange.”
4. It is unreasonable to try to please people because even among Christians, judgmental attitudes and critical spirits are all too prevalent.
5. It is futile to try to please people because even Jesus Christ, the Perfect Man, did not please everyone.
6. It is useless to try to please people because they are fundamentally incapable of being pleased by anyone or anything other than Christ.

But You Can Please God

It’s not enough for you to simply stop being a people-pleaser. The biblical process of change (putting off and putting on – Eph. 4:22ff.) requires not only that you break your unbiblical patterns of thinking, but also that you replace them with their proper alternatives. Fear of man for fear of God. Desire to please man above all else for the desire to please God above all else…(95).

Therefore we also have as our ambition [make it our aim],
whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. (2 Corinthians 5:9).

1. You have only one Master to please rather than many.
2. The One you please is wiser than man and will neither misunderstand you nor treat you unreasonably.
3. The One you please will judge you not on outward appearance, but on that which is in your heart.
4. The One you please is not a respecter of persons (undue and unfair partiality).
5. The One you please is immutable (His mind never changes).
6. The One you please does not require you to harm yourself in order to please him, but is pleased only with those things that will ultimately lead to your own happiness.
7. The One you please will not be influenced by talebearers, gossips, or false accusers. Neither will he be misled by misinformation.

Your primary calling in life is to please and glorify God in all that you do. The knowledge that you are walking worthy of the Lord, pleasing him in all respects (cf. Col. 1:10), should be a source of peace, security, joy, and contentment that will prevail over any fear of man’s disapproval. If God is pleased with your life, what does it matter if man is displeased? God’s approval and favor is a sufficient reward (Priolo, 107).

Lou Priolo, Pleasing People: How Not To Be An Approval Junkie (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2007), 83-107.