“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” Romans 5:8-10

How did God “commend” or demonstrate His love toward humanity? In the face of our hostility and defiance towards Him, He sent His Son Jesus to die for our sin. This is a sacrifice of love beyond our current mental capacity to comprehend and will testify of God’s love for us historically and forever.

Last week we began to write of mankind’s desire for affirmation. We referenced the sad story of the “chief rulers” of Jesus’ day and how some of them actually believed that Jesus was the Messiah. Yet, they didn’t follow him because they loved the acceptance of the religious leaders of the day more than the approval that comes from God alone. We stated that this is a trap that many fall into in our day. They are looking for and cherish the approval of man more than the approval of God. This is a dangerous path.

Why? Because there is no lasting approval from man. People are fickle, and the temporary approval we may find will never satisfy us for long anyway; we are just too needy. The solution? We’ve got to get to the point that God’s opinion is the only opinion that matters and His evaluation is the only one we are trying to live up to.

Now, all through the Scriptures we read passages like the above quoted Romans 5:8-10 that declare God’s love and acceptance of those that accept His Son as their Savior. If His evaluation of us is the only one that matters to us, that should put our minds at ease and keep us from the frustration of living up to the expectations of others. God loves us, all of us, so evidently, He’s seen something in each of us that warrants this position.

With that said, the Bible also clearly relays that God still does evaluate each of us—our words, our attitudes and our deeds. With that in mind, we shouldn’t think, “Well, God loves me and has accepted me into His family as a son or daughter, so there’s really nothing else I need to do.” Rather, knowing this, we should make every effort to do whatever is necessary to gain His approval above all. Right?

So, how can we find ourselves “approved” of God? What criteria does He use to approve each of us? The measuring rod of continued faith in Him and in His Son, of course! According to Hebrews 11:6, without this kind of faith it is impossible to please God, and if we aren’t pleasing Him there will be no approval.

Add this understanding of Hebrews 11:6 to what Jesus said in Matthew 25:21. What did Jesus say to the “approved” servant? “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Did you catch that “faithful” part? What is faithfulness but being full of faith? Bottom line is this: God loves us for sure, and this should compel us to desire to be approved by Him. All that takes is to be “all in” in our faith walk with Him.

Brothers and sisters, let’s seek God’s “thumbs-up,” not man’s “that a boy.” It seems that one of the lessons of John 12:36-46 covered in the article last week is that you can’t seek man’s approval and God’s approval at the same time. They are most often in opposition to each other. We must decide if we are going to seek and love God’s stamp of approval or that of everyone else. Knowing people how I do, I think I’ll take the more fulfilling route and seek the “Well done” from the Master.

Greg Crum is the pastor of Calvary Temple in Lovely.