For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.

Deuteronomy 10:17

Most of us care what others think of us. Could it be that sometimes we care too much? Could it be that seeking the approval of others could lead us to compromise what we believe and who we are?

When Paul defended himself to the Galatians, he reminded them of the words above – ”

Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery— to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me.

Paul wasn’t impressed with the false teachers “even for a moment” and he wasn’t intimidated by the “influential” leaders either. Why? Paul was confident in Who he ultimately answered to, and no one else.

Paul knew God doesn’t show partiality to anyone. Without him, we are all lost – dead men walking. So why would we exchange true freedom in Christ in exchange for something much less? It is easy to see clearly from a distance, but I wonder how many times we have succumbed to the pressure of others in the moment.

Let’s remember that the God who “is not partial and takes no bribe” expects the same from us today, even in 2020.