Whose honor are you seeking?

“How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another, and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?” (John 5:44)

With these words, the Lord points out that we cannot strive at the same time for people’s applause and for God’s approval. He also makes it clear that if we have once set out in search of human recognition, we have dealt the life of faith a heavy blow.

It is morally impossible to pursue praise from people and praise from God at the same time. The apostle expresses this in a very similar way: “If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:10b).

I want to illustrate this in practical terms. Imagine a young believer who wants to earn an advanced academic degree in some area of theology. But he wants to receive the degree at a famous university, from a recognized institution. Now, unfortunately, all the famous and recognized universities that offer this degree deny the great foundational truths of the faith. But being able to put this academic degree after his name means so much to our young believer that he is willing to receive it from the hand of men who—although well-known scholars—are enemies of the cross of Christ. Almost inevitably the believer will be corrupted in the course of his studies. He has his title, but he never again speaks with the same deep conviction as before.

The desire to become known in the world as a scholar or scientist has built-in risks. There is the treacherous danger of making compromises, abandoning biblical principles for a more liberal attitude, and ultimately criticizing fundamentalists more than modernists.

Christian Bible schools and other schools face an agonizing choice—namely, whether to seek recognition from an official authority in the education system. The greed for official “recognition” often ends in a dilution of their biblical principles and the adoption of fleshly principles laid down by men who do not have the Spirit.

What we should strive for with all our strength is to be “approved by God” and “recognized” by Him. The alternative is too costly, for “on the coin for which we sell the truth there is always, however little visible it may be, the image of the Antichrist stamped.”