41 "I do not accept praise from men, 42 but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. 43 I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?
The fullness of the Godhead in bodily form needed no added glory originating from the praise of men. The all sufficient constant One needs not. He came neither courting nor coveting their applause. Always about His Father’s will, His eye was constantly fixed upon pleasing the One who had sent Him forth on His redemptive mission. Oh that the focus for every believer would be so fixed as well. How much trouble we would spare ourselves if our motivation was simply to please our Master rather than man. We seemingly have an insatiable appetite for the praise and honor of capricious man and give scarce attention to the pleasing of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Indeed the last verse in our verses for today confirms this Truth from the lips of our Savior:
44 How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God? John 5:44 (NIV)
Now I ask you, how crazy is that? He who is the glory of Israel is not like man – He neither lies nor changes His mind. We are told in Numbers the following Truth:
19 God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? Num 23:19 (NIV)
King David expressed an appropriately sober view of both God and Man in the following verses found in Psalm 8:
1 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Psalms 8:1 (NIV)
4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? Psalms 8:4 (NIV)
Paul sums up the rightful conclusion to the matter for us in Galatians:
10 Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. Gal 1:10 (NIV)
Jesus’ Words in the next verse hits me between the eyes – “I know you” – He who is the discerner of all men’s hearts knows me and loves me still. He knows me better than my friends, He knows me better than my family, indeed, He know me better than myself – and He knows and loves everyone just as intimately as He knows and loves me.
“We are so preciously loved by God that we cannot even comprehend it. No created being can ever know how much and how sweetly and tenderly God loves them.” Julian of Norwich
Why is it then that we often balk at following Him? Personally, I think that obedience to God has gotten a bad rap. We perceive it to be a vice, restrictive, deplete of joy and devoid of our own personality or likes or desires when all the while He is offering us freedom and liberty, excitement and contentment, peace and pleasure through following His will. He made us. He knows us. He quite simply knows best. Who balks at best? Yet in our lack of faith, we often do. We choose to believe a lie. We think He is holding out on us. We think the world offers us more. The very true reality is that every offer the world holds out to us boils down to our bondage. Contrast Christ who offers us freedom. He came to set us free from that certain yoke of slavery:
1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Gal 5:1 (NIV)
Christ knew the hearts of the Pharisees He spoke to. He knew that they had thrust Him behind their backs in order to practice a form of religion yet was devoid of love. Theirs was strictly a religion made up of observances to ordinances. Apart from love, the practice of these observances simply boiled down to common legalism and certainly such practices never fool the Master - then or now. As believers, our work should be produced by faith, our labor, prompted by love. We are to make it our goal to please God. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians:
9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 2 Cor 5:9 (NIV)
Adding the following in Colossians:
10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. Col 1:10-12 (NIV)
“Our Lord does not care so much for the importance of our works as for the love with which they are done.” Teresa of Avila