How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? John 5:44
When I was working in the newsroom of a newspaper in the 1960s, I was provided with a copy of the CP Style Guide, a small booklet provided to us by the Canadian Press. The style guide gave us instructions on how to address a wide variety of issues that we would encounter as we wrote our news stories. One section that caught my eye was the instruction for addressing people whose titles were part of their name. For such people as doctors and senators, the instructions were simple. But when it came to religious leaders, the instructions were rather complicated. The head of one denomination might be called ‘The Very Reverend’ while the head of another denomination might be styled ‘The Most Very Reverend’. The list included holinesses, emminences, and graces, and other such titles, with the occasional ‘arch’ and ‘blessed’ thrown into the mix. With such an array of titles and ranks and designations, is it any wonder there is confusion in organized religion? Jesus also encountered it during His ministry, and condemned it.
In our text, Jesus is explaining to the Jewish leaders the reason why they failed to recognize and accept Him. They were too taken up with their own roles and ranks in the religious leadership of Israel. The most prominent ones worked hard to gain the recognition and acceptance of the others. They assembled themselves into different schools of religious thought, and nothing was more important to them than to gain recognition and leadership in those schools. The arrival of a humble itinerate Teacher from an insignificant province who was able to confound their arguments and throw their doctrines into disarray was a huge disturbance to their little games. The fact that this Teacher performed miracles that proved His Deity was cause for further alarm. They needed to restore the old system in a hurry, or they would lose credibility with the people, and even with each other. Religion today deals with challenges to its authority in much the same way. Do such power struggles ever affect Christians who are outside of those religious systems?
The Word of God is very clear in its pattern for the governance of God’s Assemblies. Multiple elders are always in that pattern. The emergence of a single leader either locally or globally is never in the Scriptural pattern. We can see the reasons for this, as a single leader would rob Christ of His place as Lord, and deprive the Holy Spirit of His role of guidance. We rob ourselves of the ability to believe when we lose sight of this principle.
Seeking personal honour in the Assembly brings pride and unbelief. Seeking Christ’s honour brings humility and faith. -Jim MacIntosh