In our passage on Sunday, we saw Jesus rightly described by His opponents as one who shows no partiality. It’s because He is not trying to please any particular group of people that He is not taken in by their flattery. God is consistently described throughout the Old and New Testaments as being impartial (i.e., “not swayed by appearances”). Just consider one of the shortest verses in the book of Romans: “For God shows no partiality” (Romans 2:11).

Sadly, this is often not the case for us, which is why the Bible has so much to say about “the fear of man”. In his book, “When People Are Big and God is Small”, Ed Welch identifies three different categories of “the fear of man”: fear of physical harm, fear of shame (i.e., of being exposed as the inadequate sinners we are), and fear of rejection. For many of us, it's this last category that most often threatens to dominate our lives. As such, this is what people most often seem to have in mind when they speak of “the fear of man”.

As you can tell from the title of the book, the answer is to discover how to let God be bigger to us than people are, because it’s when God is big and people are small that we are freed from the fear of man. A key insight from the book is that it’s only when we are freed from needing affirmation and praise from others that we can then stop manipulating them to fuel that need and really start loving them, seeking their good rather than their approval.

God has used this book to help free thousands of people from this sin, so I highly recommend picking up a copy. If you’ve been looking for a good book to read with others in a discipleship context, this is an excellent choice!

Blessings in Christ,

Pastor Evan