John 5: 41-44
” I do not accept glory from human beings, but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. 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. How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?“
The Greek word used for “glory” in this passage is, doxa, which Strong’s Lexicon defines (in part) as, “opinion, judgment, view.” In essence, Jesus is saying that he is not concerned with the opinions of people. He then goes on to point out that the Jewish leaders are concerned with what others think about them, but not concerned with what God thinks of them.
Q: Jesus asks, in effect, how can you believe if you are not concerned about what God thinks about you? How would you answer his question?
I wouldn’t,..because my head would be bowed down in the shame of who I really am,..a sinner,..but then I would look up into my Savior Jesus Christ’s eyes with a broken and contrite heart and know that He has thought of me more than I have ever thought of Him,..and I would just say something like,…th-th-thank You,…
When you place your self worth in keeping the ever changing, immoral standards established and praised as good to great by you and all your associates, you stand little chance of being concerned about what God thinks.
Only the conviction of the Holy Spirit has the power to get through the self centered, self righteous wall we create within ourselves, and He limits Himself to conviction of the truth, refraining from proving the truth. We must all exercise free will and will be held accountable for OUR choice.
As Rich Blum said, these schooled, teachers of Gods word had spent years supposedly seeking God through the scriptures. However their goals were to receive head knowledge. They stopped short of the goal which is to open our hearts to Gods truths.
Only a humble, broken heart can successfully seek the truths in Gods word, reject all praise of all men and live in obedience to the truths God reveals to each of us. We become stewards of all He provides and God gets the Glory for all we become, for all we achieve.