The above verse compares two people by looking at their choices and the results they experience.

The word “backslider” means someone who has turned away or turned aside. It refers to a professing believer who has stopped living for God and has chosen to live for self and the world instead. It also refers to someone who tries to walk halfway for God and halfway for self.

When someone lives for self and they know better, they certainly cannot please God. They lose out on everything because they cannot enjoy enough of the world by only giving themselves half-heartedly for it. Neither can they please God because we are told in I John 2:15: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

Turning away from God in any fashion means that your love for Him is less than it ought to be – you have “left your first love.” All of your ways and attitudes are tainted by the world and it affects all you do and do not do. You have become filled with your compromising ways.

On the other hand, the “good man” is one that loves God and serves Him with their whole heart. All he does is evaluated in the light of God’s Word. They are not perfect, but when an individual lives that way, it affects all they do – and God gives them joy doing it and while living for Him. Paul won “the crown of righteousness” because he was single-minded and finished the course God gave him (II Tim. 4:8).

Who are you seeking to please? Is it God or yourself? If you have been living for yourself – are you tired of the results and lack of satisfaction you have been getting? Why not confess it now and start living for God again?