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September 18 Daily Devotional

Ambition

Frans Bakker

How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another? —John 5:44

Bible Reading

John 5:41–47

Devotional

To seek honor is in itself not a sin. It is even worthy of praise when we work in our own calling in an honorable manner. It is better to work honorably than shamefully. He who does his work shamefully deserves to be dismissed.

“How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another?” Where do we try to gain our honor? Is it from man or from God? In our daily life as well as in our religious life, we must ask ourselves in whose service we are and whose approval we need. The Pharisees, whom Christ is addressing here, sought their honor from one another. Their religion was man-centered. They honored one another; they converted one another; they discussed God just to be noticed by other people, and they prayed so as to be esteemed by one another. They wearied themselves to be able to meet each other’s religious requirements. They did all they could so that others would call them godly. Although they said with their lips that God’s honor was their aim, above all they were concerned with what others said about them and thought about them.

We do not really have to look far to find someone who yearns for the honor of men. We only need to look as far as our own heart. We want to be something for other people. We want to center our religion on man. We are such cunning creatures. We need to be delivered from people and from ourselves. For when we seek the honor of man, we seek nothing else than our own honor. To be honored by man is the aim of our lives.

Do you seek honor from people? If you do, then you live for people and you have their opinion as your law and their will as your master. As long as you cannot do without the honor of people, you are their servant. You are then a slave to man’s laws and therein will have a miserable life. The service of man is a harsh service, and seeking the honor of people is a heavy chain.

Man is so foolish. He seeks his honor in low places, from vain mortals instead of from the Most High. He prefers honor from a sinful being to honor from the omniscient One.

For sure, popery is not just an imagination of the Church of Rome, but even more of the ordinary church member of Rome, for he loves to cling to and honor his pope. He leans on the pope and wrongfully trusts him for salvation rather than Almighty God.

It is certainly a good thing to recognize God’s work in one another. In so doing we edify and encourage one another. But certainly we must beware of focusing on ourselves rather than on God, who only works salvation. Man sometimes behaves as a pope above others; and yet others live as slaves below other people. People devise authorities because they need something to hide under. Others claim to have such authority. This is a religion without God. In such a religion the Lord is not present; He is forgotten. When people are honored, the true honor of God disappears. We must instead have man’s honor fall away; our dependence must be on God, not man.

In true religion only two can remain: the Lord and His child. We are accountable to God alone. But that child has to learn that before God’s face he can do nothing but cast shame on himself because of his sin. He needs the Lord to lift him up in honor. True honor is to be a child of God, to be an heir of glory. God first gives grace, for the sinner first needs grace that gives forgiveness of his sins and a new life in Christ. But then God will also give glory. He will take His child to be with Him in glory. True honor for a man is not to be honored by fellow men or to usurp authority over others, but true honor is to be in communion with God. Christ alone restores man’s honor before God. Through Him “the LORD will give grace and glory” (Ps. 84:11).

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.

 

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