John 5:44 How can you believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that comes from God only? Something is lost in this rendering of "honour" in the place of glory. More is lost by the substitution of "from God only" for "from the only God." Glory is the forthshining of light, the manifestation of a perfection inherent in the person spoken of. What a rebuke, therefore, lies in the phrase "Receiving glory one from another," implying a claim of inherent excellence. To speak of it in connection with man is to deny creation and the fall, to deify man and to dethrone God. The other substitution is less excusable. The very object of the expression is to show that there is none good but One, that is God. There is but one Being who has any light to emit, any excellence to manifest. Any other glory must be counterfeit; to accept or profess to give it is an affront to the majesty of God as the one Being. I. THE TENDENCY WHICH IS IN ALL OF US TO RECEIVE GLORY FROM ANOTHER. This is a different thing from that of which St. Paul says, "Render honour to whom honour is due," or St. Peter, "Honour all men." Honour is respect, recognition of the claims of position, character, humanity, not the impious flattery, for receiving which Herod was smitten. But much of that which men give to or expect from another is glory — the ascription of inherent excellence. We should call it cant to be reminded that God is the giver of that which makes a sagacious statesman or an eloquent orator. The thought, "What hast thou that thou didst not receive?" though it lies on our theological shelf, is not welcome as a monitor. We have borrowed the word "talent" from the parable, but we have divorced it from its context — as the memento of a Lord who will hold His servants in strict account. II. In contrast with this habit OUR LORD SETS BEFORE US THE ALTERNATIVE OF SEEKING GLORY FROM THE ONLY GOD. It seems strange after the above definition of glory to seek it from God as something. He can communicate. Yet our Lord speaks of seeking from God that forthshining in ourselves The life to which Christ calls us is no tame monotony. It is a seeking of glory; the ambition to be accepted; an aspiration after an applause that the world wets not of. It is the desire for the approval of God Himself which attends upon the exercise of the Christ-like mind. Where this life is there is elevation above lying world-worship. Begin this ambition at once. If hitherto we have allowed the thought of other people to come in, let us do little acts of good which no one can discover, or form some in secret, some good habit hitherto falsely ascribed to us, and thus seek a glory that comes from the only God. III. THE CONNECTION OF FAITH WITH THESE HABITS. 1. How can ye believe who seek the one glory? To believe is to realize the invisible. This is the direct opposite of the habit before us. To receive glory from another is to be deaf and blind to all but sense and time. 2. How can ye believe who seek not the other glory? Faith is a thing which presupposes a searching after, till it finds the God in whom man lives and moves and has his being: the half unconscious consciousness that there is a glory which God, the alone good and great and glorious, destines for and can alone bestow on man. 3. "How can ye believe?"(1) It is good for us to be sternly reminded that there are states of mind incapable of believing. (2) The gospel may be true all the time and you responsible for rejecting it. How can ye believe with your worldly lives and ambitious projects? (3) Lord, convince us of the shame and folly and wickedness of this earth-bounded, miserable creature worship, and draw our thoughts upwards to Thy glorious presence. (Dean Vaughan.) Parallel Verses KJV: How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? |
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