For our exhortation didn’t come from error or impurity or an intent to deceive. Instead, just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please men, but rather God, who examines our hearts. 1 Thessalonians 2:3-4 HCSB
I can recall numerous times when I asked my parents for something and they said, “No.” Of course, I would become upset and tell them that everybody else has that or everybody else is doing that. And their standard reply was, “Well, if everybody else jumped off a bridge would you do the same?”
Sadly, I knew someone who had jumped off a bridge and was paralyzed. I also knew of instances where people had dived to their death by diving off a bridge. So, point taken. That didn’t stop me from wanting to have what everyone else wanted or do what everyone else was doing.
What actually stopped that for me, was dedicating my life to Christ. It then became all about what He wanted for my life, not about keeping up with everyone else or mimicking everyone else’s behavior. We must be so careful to do what God’s word tells us to do. We should never turn from that to follow what everyone else is doing.
We even see this with churches. Today we are seeing churches follow along with what other churches are doing, but what if those other churches are wrong? What if those other churches are not following God’s word? Yes, even our church can fall into the “But everybody else is doing this…” mentality.
As individuals we need to focus on doing what pleases God. In today’s world we can look all around us and see people doing things that the Bible clearly tells us are an abomination to the Lord. We must be careful to do those things that the Bible tells us is pleasing to God.
The only way we can please God is through total surrender to Him. He doesn’t want half of our attention. He doesn’t want us to go to church because everybody else is doing it. He wants us to go to prove our love for Him. He wants us to go out of a desire to please Him. And most importantly, He wants us to follow what His word says in Hebrews 10:24-25, “And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, not staying away from our worship meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”
God put us on this planet to please Him. He put us here to be in a right kind of fellowship with Him. But, instead of making us robots that loved Him and never sinned, He gave us free will. We have the right to choose. We can choose to please Him or choose to please man.
We can choose to imitate Christ who never sinned as per His instructions in Ephesians 5:1 or we can imitate every other sinner (like us) on the planet. We have a choice. We don’t have to please God. We can do what everybody else is doing. But in this day and age, that’s a scary way to do things if you ask me.
Have a great day!