Are You A People Pleaser?

Who is JC? Others who loved wrestling would probably conclude that it's John Cena. However, those who are fanatic of a matinee actors would probably thought of JC de Vera. Hence, it is not about them neither Jesus Christ nor about a classmate whose name has an acronym JC (e.g John Christopher). But it is all about someone who contributed the Reformation and had a group of believers called by the name Calvinism which was being based by his family name, John Calvin.

In our Church History class, I was assigned to report about John Calvin's life and his contributions in the church history. So, I researched his life and I've learned that he was the very reason why
Calvinism was born. Indeed, he had a great contribution of the reformation just like Martin Luther, Zwingli, and others. John Calvin was born 25 yrs. after the birth of Martin Luther in Northwest France on July 10, 1509. His actual name was Jean Cauvin and became “Calvin” yrs. after when as a scholar he adopted the Latin form (Calvinus). He was given birth specifically at Noyon, an old and important center of the Roman Catholic Church in Northern Europe. His father was Gerard who happened to be from the middle class status. His father after serving the church in various offices including notary public, had risen to become the bishop's secretary. As a result, young Calvin was closely tied to church affairs from the beginning and to enable his son to advance to a position of ecclesiastical importance, his father saw to it that he received the best possible education the reason that at the age 14, Calvin enrolled in the University of Paris, the intellectual center of the western Europe. There, he eventually attended the College de Montaigu, the same institution that Erasmus attended. After a few years, his father had a falling-out with the church officials in Noyon including the bishop. In 1528, just as Calvin had completed his master of arts degrees, his father sent word for him to leave theology and study law. Dutifully, he migrated to Orleans, where France's best law faculty was located. In my surprise, he often taught classes for absent professors there in the University. After 3 yrs. of study at Orleans, Bourges, and Paris, he had earned a doctorate in Law and his Law license. Along the way, he had learned Greek and had immersed himself in the classical studies, which were of great interest to the contemporary humanists. In 1531, his father died that caused Calvin left to choose the career he favored. Thus, he moved to Paris to pursue scholarly life. Between 1532 was the year of his conversion but it was not discussed further what happened. In early 1534, his first religious work was published which was a commentary on De Clementia by the Roman philosopher, Seneca. On the same year, he returned to Noyon to resign his ecclesiastical benefits such as regular income the church had granted him which had supported him during his studies. This year, Calvin burned his bridges to Roman Catholicism permanently behind him with his resignation. And when the French

King, Francis I learned about such, he decided that persecution was the solution to the Protestant problem and Calvin realized that it was no longer safe to live in Paris or anywhere else in France. For the rest of his life, he was a refugee. In 1536, Calvin published the first edition of his “Institutes of the Christian Religion” which underwent several revisions before its final exhaustive edition in 1559, was one of the most influential handbooks on theology ever written. It's publication marked Calvin as a leading mind of Protestantism and kept him from pursuing the quiet scholarly life he had hoped for. As he described it, “God thrust me into the fray.” The same year he traveled to Strasbourg, a free city between Northern France and Germany wherein Calvin stopped for the night in Geneva, a small city at the eastern end of the Alps. A man named William Farel who was a fiery reformer who declared allegiance to Protestantism in Geneva. He has been working in Geneva for nearly yrs. He had learned of Calvin's presence in the city and asked him to join in the task of teaching the Genevan church. Calvin on his part declined, explained that he desired only to find a quiet refuge for study. But Farel said that Calvin's refusal to help in Geneva would bring God's condemnation down upon his head. Calvin accepted Farel's invitation as God's call. He was 28 yrs. old at the time. The rest of his life was given mostly to the work of reform in Geneva. The following are the major contributions of John Calvin: 1.) Education, 2.) Church Government. John Calvin reorganize the church and its worship. He decided to have a monthly observance of communion instead of 2-3x a yr. He also instituted a church board (the Genevan Consistory) and introduced congregational singing into the church - "to incite the people to prayer and to praise God." Calvin spent 3 yrs in Geneva. He associated closely with Martin Brucer, whose ideas particularly on predestination, Lord's Supper, and church organization, markedly influenced Calvin. Calvin married Idelette de Bure. He died on 1564 without me knowing the reason :D

What I've learned from Calvin's life is that WE CANNOT PLEASE EVERYONE. I have introduced and somehow had a glimpse of who John Calvin was but as I did my research there were few historians who doesn't like him because for them, they found him as someone who was cold, unfeeling, and calculating man, who imposed his will on a helpless or cowed people. Due to this opinion, I came to conclude that every people has different view and opinion to each situation and man. Even I, myself has different perspective of the thing that I have seen while others has theirs as well. As the popular quote says "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Most probably I agree with this one. Indeed, WE CANNOT PLEASE ANYONE. When we do ministry, a lot of people would disagree with our ideas and would not like who we are. However, we are created by God individually as unique and we are created in His own image and likeness (Gen. 1-26-27). Others may not like us but what's important is to PLEASE GOD not other people. Human beings has to aim for God's glory to be revealed in our lives than to think of what others think of you.