What Men Value

04/25/2012 Human Observations

John12:

⁴²Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue:           
 ⁴³For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
What many have taken to themselves are the notions of man, rather than the Way of the Lord our God.  As indicated and demonstrated by both Jesus our Saviour, and those who initially followed Him, the focus of the life of those who are (as Jesus put it) “born again” is considerably different than that of those who simply claim to be believers in Jesus.  What do we believe?  That Jesus was sent by God to only perform miracles of healing? 
In our daily prayers, we regularly offer our needs to The Father in heaven, in the hope that He will provide for us the things that we are unable to acquire for ourselves: healing of disease, payment of our bills, protection from harm, and providing for our nutrition and housing.  The chief rulers also did this in their hearts.  Yet we think that we differ from those rulers because we confess Jesus.  I pose the question: What do we confess that somehow places us in a better position than those “rulers over men” who loved the praise of the men they esteemed, more than our God who we claim to revere above all.  Our hearts desires will always betray us in the light of the truth.  If we want to live according to the will of God, we will seek and heed to God’s guidance and instruction.  If we seek to fulfill some notion that we hold about the achievement of happiness, then we will seek that notion rather than the will of God.  The difference between the two separates those who seek the straight and narrow path to heaven, from those who seek “any other way”.  There is a noticeable absence of a few things in the lives of the New Testament born-again believers in Jesus the Christ.  There is only one wedding mentioned, and it occurred to demonstrate our Lord’s first miracle; not concerning the marrying couple … per se, but concerning the conversion of water to wine.  There are only two births mentioned: John the Baptist and Jesus our Saviour.  No other mention of engagements, weddings, or births among the people of God.  Rather, they lived, as in the resurrection, like the angels”, as our Lord indicated.  In short, what we want, we will pursue.