Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant. [Galatians 1:10 (NLT)]
The email from my dentist asked, “Would you recommend us?” When I answered in the affirmative, I was hyperlinked to a site that added my five-star rating to that of other patients. The following day, I received a longer survey regarding my recent visit. Once done, it again asked if I would recommend his services and requested use of my name in an on-line testimonial. It’s clear that my dentist wants more than feedback; he wants the public approval of his patients. Although I like him, I like my privacy more, so I declined!
Like my dentist, we all want to be noticed, liked, approved, applauded, and endorsed but, unlike him, we probably don’t employ a company to do surveys for us. Nevertheless, we tend to measure approval in other ways—the website’s metrics, “friends” on Facebook/Meta, and followers on Twitter/X, Instagram, TikTok, or Snapchat. Approval is determined by the number of compliments received, memberships (and offices held) in various organizations, honors awarded, likes on the posting, hearts on the text, or the quantity of Christmas and birthday cards received and invitations extended or accepted. We judge admiration on the number and expense of gifts we get, the reviews on Yelp or Trip Advisor, the size of the obituary, and the length of the line offering condolences at the funeral home.
Of course, it’s only natural to want the admiration of our family, friends, peers, and employers. Nevertheless, we must never seek their approval at the expense of pleasing God. When Saul initiated a sacrifice rather than wait for Samuel, he was seeking his men’s approval rather than God’s; as a result, he lost his kingdom. When we seek the approval of others, God does not approve! According to the Apostle John, many Jewish leaders would not admit their faith in Jesus for fear of being put out of their synagogues because they “loved human praise more than the praise of God.” Jesus warned us about trying to impress people with our righteousness by putting on a show of our giving, praying, or fasting. While we might be praised by others, the One who sees into our hearts is not impressed.
In Bill Watterson’s comic Calvin & Hobbes, there were several instances (usually after having been disciplined or given a chore) when the precocious Calvin informed his father that his approval ratings were dangerously low, especially among six-year-olds and stuffed tigers. To Calvin’s surprise, his dad seemed unconcerned about his approval ratings’ ups and downs. Like this wise comic strip father, we can’t let approval ratings determine our behavior! As much as we want to be liked and admired, Jesus made it clear that we must not seek the approval of people rather than that of God! Our job is to please Him and His approval rating is the only one that truly counts!
When we try to please both the world and God, the interests of our two masters eventually will collide. When that happens, and it will, whose approval will we seek—man’s or God’s?
Fear of man is the enemy of the fear of the Lord. The fear of man pushes us to perform for man’s approval rather than according to God’s directives. [Paul Chappell]
Having quoted from Isaiah when proclaiming the Messiah’s arrival, we know John knew Isaiah’s prophecies. The Messiah would “bind up the brokenhearted [and] proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners,” [61:1] but, after spending more than a year confined to a dark cell, John had neither liberty nor freedom. It’s no wonder he doubted.
While we now know what is meant by an iota and dot, jot and tittle, or yod and kots, we wonder what Jesus means by “the least of these commandments!” If the smallest letter is as important as the largest and the smallest flourish on the smallest letter in Scripture was not to be eliminated, how can there be a “lesser” commandment? The confusion again comes from reading an English translation of a Greek rendering of the original Hebrew. Jesus probably was using a popular Jewish idiom “mitsvot kalot” meaning “light” commandments, rather than “mitsvot ketanot,” meaning less important or small commandments. While this seems a bit like splitting hairs, it reflects Jewish thinking in Jesus’ day when a distinction was made between “light” and “weighty” commandments when comparing one to another.
What is a jot or a tittle? Found in the King James version, the words “jot” and “tittle” date from the 15th and 16th centuries. “Jot” comes from jota, an alternate spelling of the Greek iota (the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet) and, at the time, meant something very small. “Tittle” was a translation of keraia, a Greek word meaning “a little horn” that referred to an accent mark over a vowel. While those English words were good translations of the New Testament’s Greek, Jesus wasn’t speaking Greek when He gave the Sermon on the Mount. He was speaking Hebrew or Aramaic and the words He used weren’t iota and keraia. He would have used yod, which was the smallest Hebrew letter, and kots, meaning thorn, which was the little curve or flourish at the yod’s top distinguishing it from other letters. The tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, yod sounds like a “y” and looks a bit like an apostrophe.
There are 613 commandments in the Torah/Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible). But, as seen in Jesus’ interaction with the lawyer who wanted “neighbor” defined, there was room for interpretation. For example, what exactly does it mean to “honor” one’s parents? When Deuteronomy 11:18-20 says to bind “these words” to one’s hands and forehead and place them on doorposts and gates, exactly what words and how was it to be done? Work on the Sabbath is prohibited in twelve places but is the command limited to the few types of work mentioned? For that matter, what defines work?
When a nomikós (Scripture lawyer, an expert in religious law) tested Jesus by asking what he must do to inherit eternal life, the Lord countered with his own question, “What does the law say?” When the man responds with the words of Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, Jesus says he’s answered correctly. Wanting clarification, he then asks, “Who is my neighbor?” His query tells us the nomikós is more interested in the letter of the law than its spirit. Apparently, he wouldn’t want to waste any love on someone who wasn’t his neighbor or miss loving someone who was! Jesus answers the man’s question with one of his best-known stories—the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
Devotions of the Heart 