SEEKING HONOR
John 5:44 NKJV
44 How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?
Jesus is speaking with the people who were violently opposed to Him. In verses sixteen and eighteen, the Jews were so opposed to Jesus that they were trying to kill Him. Jesus had healed a man on the Sabbath, and Jesus called God His Father, in effect making Himself equal with God. So Jesus takes an opportunity to speak to these Jews about judgment and God's approval of Him, as evidenced by the works He had done.
In verse forty-four, Jesus says something very profound. He reveals to these Jews that they are more concerned with what men think than what God thinks. Jesus told them they were limited in their ability to believe because they sought honor from men and did not seek the honor that came from the only God. The word 'honor,' according to the Olive Tree Dictionary, is defined as "… thought or opinion, especially favorable human opinion, and thus in a secondary sense reputation, praise, honor (true and false) …"
So we can see that Jesus is on the Jews about who they are trying to please. The religious system of that day had become all about man and man's opinion. This is what was so infuriating to Jesus. The Pharisees and religious rulers were much more concerned with what their peers thought of them than with God's view of them. When religion becomes a system for man's advancement and honor, God and people are relegated to places of secondary importance.
APPLICATION
Over the years, I have witnessed what Jesus was talking about. I have been to leadership conferences where men were exalted as great leaders or great communicators, and after a while, it gets to be too much. I am not opposed to treating people with respect, but when people are exalted, and Jesus is rarely mentioned, I'm looking for the exit.
From reading the Scriptures, a couple of things stand out. The first thing is that the apostle Paul does not make a big deal about man. He never refers to anyone as a great preacher or leader. He does call people faithful servants, fellow soldiers, and those who labor fervently in prayer. Paul admonished the church at Corinth to stop making a big thing out of ministers. This church was divided into camps. One camp liked Paul; another camp liked Apollos, but Paul was not having it. He asked pointed questions in the first chapter of First Corinthians when he said, "Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you?" And the second thing, in a verse that sums up the whole honor issue, "For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?" 1 Corinthians 4:7 NKJV Paul was talking about people in the ministry, and he asks the rhetorical question, "What do you have that you did not receive?" The correct answer is nothing. We owe it all to the Lord, and if we owe it all to Him, we have no grounds for boasting or exalting ourselves.
Receiving praise and honor from man is gold-plated glory. It's not the real thing. The real honor is that which comes from God only. That is who we are looking to please. Man's opinions come and go and can be fickle. God's honor is true and eternal. If He is pleased, we are on solid ground.