“How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?” John 5:44
Believe (in Greek): to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in
Honor (in Greek): opinion, judgment, view opinion, estimate, whether good or bad concerning someone
At the first point of our salvation experience, God’s love has touched us so deeply that everything fades compared to being in His presence. However, things change over time. We start going to church and getting to know our new found brothers and sisters in Christ. We get involved in serving, and in the process, our attention gradually starts shifting from Jesus to His people!
Over the years, what others think of us becomes very important. That’s how it used to be before we were saved, but we thought we were freed from those issues! Surprisingly, we find ourselves fretting over the opinion of others all over again! The only thing that is different is that instead of being concerned about our family or coworkers’ opinion, we are now concerned about the opinion of our spiritual family!
Every word or look that is directed toward us from certain spiritual people can either take us to the highest mountains of acceptance or drop us into the lowest valleys of rejection. We don’t even give an opportunity for the Lord to have the final analysis in the situation. The estimation of people and their judgment upon our lives can completely affect our emotional/spiritual state. This is when a hard examination of our faith is required.
Jesus’ statement is very important to heed and take to heart. He is stating, “How can you believe who receive honor from one another…?”. Unfortunately, Jesus found the Pharisees in this state of unbelief. They were the religious leadership of the day. They had no lack of honor in men. Not only they honored each other, but they also expected honor from others. However, God’s honor has faded out of the picture. In the process, they lost their faith because they were too focused on getting and keeping man’s honor!
It is very easy to get distracted beloved! We can assume if we have man’s honor that we have God’s honor! That’s not always the case! While man’s honor is important, it is never more significant than having God’s honor! Do we have God’s honor apart from man’s honor?