John 12:37-50
John tells us that many of the leaders believed in Jesus but would not confess their faith in him because of what it would cost them. They feared they would lose their position in the synagogue, they would lose the praise of men.
We do some things for the praise of people, we do other things to avoid the scorn of people. Some of these actions really don't make much difference, like wanting to fit in with the current styles in attire. But there are moments when it really does matter. Moments when wanting the praise of others we engage in behavior that is unbecoming of our faith. In those moments we face the same decision that the leaders faced. Do we long for the praise of people or of God?
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This is another very thought-provoking question when taken seriously! Most of us would immediately say that we long for the praise of God rather than people! However, this caused me to think about some recently received emails that I knew were filled with "untruths". The Christian thing to do would be to immediately respond and ask the sender to please stop sending this type of message before knowing if it was true or not. It took months to get the courage to find a way to do so - because I didn't want to make my friends angry at me. It was very refreshing when I recently started reading the book, "Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White," that the author expressed many such dilemmas - along with many others. What he finally did in response was writing a profound book on this and other issues in our world of "black and white." I wonder what I could (or will) do to let others know that I praise God rather than people??
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