John 5:41-44

I receive not honor from men. V. 42. But I know you that ye have not the love of God in you. V. 43. I am come in My Father's name, and ye receive Me not; if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. V. 44. How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?

The Jews, incidentally, they had no reason for their rejection, so far as the behavior of Jesus was concerned. For He did not seek honor from men.

His methods did not savor of the schemes of the modern evangelists that seek honor and get notoriety. Christ wanted no glory from men, would not receive it from them. So they cannot make that a reason for rejecting Him.

Jesus has a full understanding of them and of their case, and His words are a merciless exposure of the thoughts of their mind. There was no real love of God in their hearts, They dissembled, they proved their hypocrisy at every turn. For if such love were truly in their hearts, they would have felt obliged to accept Christ, the Minister of God in a most peculiar sense.

He did not come in His own name, seeking His own aggrandizement, any benefit from men; His motives were altogether unselfish. But such is the perversity of their hearts that they refused Him a decent hearing and were far from accepting Him, whereas they would be easily taken in by a deceiver who would come in his own name.

This was shown in a number of instances in the history of the Jews. Again and again false Messiahs arose, among whom Bar Kochba and Shabbatai Zevi are notable, who found no difficulty in getting many adherents. The Jews were altogether insane in their eagerness to follow these deceivers. But Jesus, who came in His Father's name, was rejected.

That fact characterized the Jews of the time of Jesus, and also since: they sought their own honor, they were very much concerned about honor before men, and wanted flattery and received homage from one another. This spirit is diametrically opposed to the spirit of the Christ, who scorned all such flimsy subterfuge. Far better to seek the honor which God alone can give, and which comes only to the meek and lowly in heart!

That is the real reason for unbelief, that men seek their own advantage and care nothing about God and about His opinion concerning their sinfulness and their need of regeneration. Therefore the final judgment of unbelief will be all the more severe.