John 5:44

Our Lord having made mention of John, and the witness of God, and His own works, many, who did not see H that His motive was to induce them to believe, might suspect Him of a desire for human glory, and therefore He says, I receive not honor from men: i.e. I do not want it. My nature is not such as to want that glory, which comes from men. For if the Son receives no addition from the light of a candle, much more am not I in want of human glory.

Or, I receive not honor from men: i.e. I seek not human praise; for I came not to receive carnal honor from men, but to give spiritual honor to men. I do not bring forward this testimony then, because I seek my own glory; but because I compassionate your wandering, and wish to bring you back to the way of truth. Hence what follows, But I know you that you have not the love of God in you.

As if to say, I said this to prove that it is not from your love of God, that you persecute Me; for He bears witness to Me, by My own works, and by the Scriptures. So that, if you loved God, as you rejected Me, thinking Me against God, so now you would come to Me. But you do not love Him. And He proves this, not only from what they do now, but from what they will do in time to come: I am come in My Father’s name, and you received Me not; if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. He says plainly, I am come in the Father’s name, that they might never be able to plead ignorance as an excuse

As if He said, For this cause came I into the world, that through Me the name of the Father might be glorified; for I attribute all to Him. As then they would not receive Him, Who came to do His Father’s will; they had not the love of God. But Antichrist will come not in the Father’s name, but in his own, to seek, not the Father’s glory, but his own. And the Jews having rejected Christ, it was a fit punishment on them, that they should receive Antichrist, and believe a lie, as they would not believe the Truth.

Hear John, As you have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists. But what do you dread in Antichrist, except that he will exalt his own name, and despise the name of the Lord? And what else does he do, who says, “I justify;” or those who say, Unless we are good, you must perish?” Wherefore my life shall depend on You, and my salvation shall be fastened to You. Shall I so forget my foundation? Is not my rock Christ?

Here is the crowning proof of their impiety. He says, as it were, If it was the love of God that made you persecute me, you would persecute Antichrist much more: for he does not profess to be sent by the Father, or to come according to His will; but, on the contrary, usurping what does not belong to him, will proclaim himself to be God over all. It is manifest that your persecution of Me is from malice and hatred of God. Then He gives the reason of their unbelief: How can you believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that comes from God only? another proof this, that theirs was not a zeal for God, but a gratification of their own passions.

How faulty then is the boasting temper, and that eagerness for human praise, which likes to be thought to have what it has not, and would fain be thought to have all that it has, by its own strength. Men of such temper cannot believe; for in their hearts, they are bent solely on gaining praise, and setting themselves up above others.

The best way of guarding against this sin, is to bring to our consciences the remembrance, that we are dust, and should ascribe all the good that we have not to ourselves, but to God. And we should endeavor always to be such, as we wish to appear to others. Then, as they might ask, Will you accuse us then to the Father? He anticipates this question: Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father.

For I am not come to condemn, but to save. There is one that accuses you, even Moses, in whom you trust. As He had said of the Scriptures above: In them you think you have eternal life. So now of Moses He says, In whom you trust, always answering them out of their authorities. But they will say, How will he accuse us? What have you to do with Moses, you who have broken the sabbath? So He adds: For had you believed Moses, you would perhaps hare believed Me, for he wrote of me. This is connected with what was said before. For where evidence that He came from God had been forced upon them by His words, by the voice of John, and the testimony of the Father, it was certain that Moses would condemn them; for he had said, If any one shall come, doing miracles, leading men to God, and foretelling the future with certainty, you must obey him. Christ did all this, and they did not obey Him.

Perhaps, He says, in accommodation to our way of speaking, not because there is really any doubting in God. Moses prophesied of Christ, A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up from among your brethren like to me: Him shall you hear.

But, in fact, the whole that Moses wrote, was written of Christ, i.e. it has reference to Him principally; whether it point to Him by figurative actions, or expression; or set forth His grace and glory. But if you believe not his writings, how shall you believe My words.

As if I He said, He has even written, and has left his books among you, as a constant memento to you, lest you forget His words. And since you believe not his writings, how can you believe My unwritten words?

From this we may infer too, that he who knows the commandments against stealing, and other crimes, and neglects them, will never fulfill the more perfect and refined precepts of the Gospel.

Indeed had they attended to His words, they ought and would have tried to learn from Him, what the things were which Moses had written of Him. But they are silent. For it is the nature of wickedness to defy persuasion. Do what you will, it retains its venom to the last.

It is, therefore, doubtless far better to resist this desire than to yield to it, for the purer one is from this defilement, the liker is he to God; and, though this vice be not thoroughly eradicated from his heart, for it does not cease to tempt even the minds of those who are making good progress in virtue, at any rate, let the desire of glory be surpassed by the love of righteousness, so that, if there be seen anywhere “lying neglected things which are generally discredited,” if they are good, if they are right, even the love of human praise may blush and yield to the love of truth. …

1. Give heed, Beloved, to the lesson of the Gospel which has just sounded in our ears, whilst I speak a few words as God shall vouchsafe to me. The Lord Jesus was speaking to the Jews, and said to them, “Search the Scriptures, in which ye think ye have eternal life, they testify of me.” Then a little after He said, “I am come in My Father’s Name, and ye have not received Me; if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.” Then a little after; “How can ye believe, who look for glory one from another, and seek not the glory which is of God only?” At last He saith, “I do not accuse you to the Father; there is one that accuseth you, Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would haply believe Me also, for he wrote of Me. …

2. And then He expressly declares what they were to suffer: “They shall put you out of the synagogues.” But what harm was it for the apostles to be expelled from the Jewish synagogues, as if they were not to separate themselves therefrom, although no one expelled them? Doubtless He meant to announce with reprobation, that the Jews would refuse to receive Christ, from whom they as certainly would refuse to withdraw; and so it would come to pass that the latter, who could not exist without Him, would also be cast out along with Him by those who would not have Him as their place of abode. …

You see how he produces witnesses, whether to the faith, or to the confession of it. For the words, “Every one that believeth,” point out the faith. But the words, “Whosoever shall call upon,” set forth confession. Then again to proclaim the universality of the grace, and to lay their boasting low, what he had before demonstrated at length, he here briefly recalls to their memory, showing again that there is no difference between the Jew and the uncircumcised. “For there is,” he says, “no difference between the Jew and the Greek.” And what he had said about the Father, when he was arguing this point, that he says here about the Son. For as before he said in asserting this, “Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not of the Gentiles also? Yes, of the Gentiles also: seeing it is one God” ( Rom. iii. …

What saying thou? That thou enjoyest honor, and setting down this as a great thing? ‘Yes,’ he saith. Why, forsooth? For to bear dishonor indeed is a great thing, but to partake of honor requires not a vigorous soul. Nay, it needs a vigorous and exceeding great soul, that he who enjoys it may not be thrown and break his neck. Wherefore he glories in this as well as in that, for he shone equally in both. But how is it a weapon of righteousness? Because that the teachers are held in honor induceth many unto godliness. And besides, this is a proof of good works, and this glorifieth God. And this is, further, an instance of the wise contrivance of God, that by things which are opposite He brings in the Preaching. For consider. Was Paul bound? This too was on behalf of the Gospel. …

Why then did other Jews not obtain mercy? Because what they did, they did not ignorantly, but willfully, well knowing what they did. For this we have the testimony of the Evangelist. “Many of the Jews believed on Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him. For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” ( John xii. 42, 43 .) And Christ again said to them, “How can ye believe, who receive honor one of another” ( John v. 44 .)? and the parents of the blind man “said these things for fear of the Jews, lest they should be put out of the synagogue.” ( John ix. 22 .) Nay the Jews themselves said, “Perceive ye how we avail nothing? behold, the world is gone after Him.” ( John xii. 19 .) Thus their love of power was everywhere in their way. …

[5.] But vainglory is a thing powerful to blind even to very evident truths the minds of those ensnared by it, and to persuade them to dispute against what is allowed by others; nay, it instigates some who know and are persuaded of the truth to pretended ignorance and opposition. As took place in the case of the Jews, for they did not through ignorance deny the Son of God, but that they might obtain honor from the multitude; “they believed,” says the Evangelist, but were afraid, “lest they should be put out of the synagogue.” ( xii. 40 .) And so they gave up their salvation to others. For it cannot be that he who is so zealous a slave to the glory of this present world can obtain the glory which is from God. Wherefore He rebuked them, saying, “How can ye believe, which receive honor of men, and seek not the honor which cometh from God?” ( v. …

But not as of equal duration with the world. Away with the thought. Wherefore he adds, “And the world was made by Him”; thus leading thee up again to the eternal existence of the Only-Begotten. For he who has heard that this universe is His work, though he be very dull, though he be a hater, though he be an enemy of the glory of God, will certainly, willing or unwilling, be forced to confess that the maker is before his works. Whence wonder always comes over me at the madness of Paul of Samosata, who dared to look in the face so manifest a truth, and voluntarily threw himself down the preci pice. For he erred not ignorantly but with full knowledge, being in the same case as the Jews. …

Do not tell me that a man is temperate, and does not rob; these things by themselves are not virtue. For what advantageth it, if a man has these things, and yet is the slave of vainglory, and remains in his error, from fear of the company of his friends? This is not right living. The slave of a reputation is no less a sinner than the fornicator; nay, he worketh more and more grievous deeds than he. But tell me of any one that is free from all passions and from all iniquity, and who remains among the heathen. Thou canst not do so; for even those among them who have boasted great things, and who have, as they say, mastered avarice or gluttony, have been, most of all men, the slaves of reputation, and this is the cause of all evils. Thus it is that the Jews also have continued Jews; for which cause Christ rebuked them and said, “How can ye believe, which receive honor from men?” ( c. v. …

[5.] But men careless of their salvation give heed to none of these things; so great an evil is it to be in love with precedence. This has been the mother of heresies, this has confirmed the impiety of the heathen. For God desired that His invisible things should be understood by the creation of this world ( Rom. i. 20 ), but they having left these and refused to come by this mode of teaching, cut out for themselves another way, and so were cast out from the true. And the Jews believed not because they received honor from one another, and sought not the honor which is from God. But let us, beloved, avoid this disease exceedingly and with all earnestness; for though we have ten thousand good qualities, this plague of vainglory is sufficient to bring them all to nought. ( c. v. …

Ver. 44 . “How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?” Hence again He showeth that they looked not to the things of God, but that under this pretense they desired to gratify private feeling, and were so far from doing this on account of His glory, that they preferred honor from men to that which cometh from Him. How then were they likely to entertain such hostility towards Him for a kind of honor which they so despised, as to prefer to it the honor which cometh from men? Having told them that they had not the love of God, and having proved it by what was doing in His case, and by what should be in the case of Antichrist, and having demonstrated that they were deprived of all excuse, He next bringeth Moses to be their accuser, going on to say,

“I am the bread of life.” Now He proceedeth to commit unto them mysteries. And first He discourseth of His Godhead, saying, “I am the bread of life.” For this is not spoken of His Body, (concerning that He saith towards the end, “And the bread which I shall give is My flesh,”) but at present it referreth to His Godhead. For That, through God the Word, is Bread, as this bread also, through the Spirit descending on it, is made Heavenly Bread. Here He useth not witnesses, as in His former address, for He had the miracle of the loaves to witness to Him, and the Jews themselves for a while pretending to believe Him; in the former case they opposed and accused Him. This is the reason why here He declareth Himself. But they, since they expected to enjoy a carnal feast, were not disturbed until they gave up their hope. Yet not for that was Christ silent, but uttered many words of reproof. …