Seeking Man's Favor: The Root of Religious Unbelief

By A. W. Tozer

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

    The whole course of our lives will be upset by failure
to put God where He belongs. We exalt ourselves
instead of God and the curse follows!

    Consider the very disturbing question that Jesus
asked of men when He was on earth: "How can ye
believe, which receive honour of one another, and seek
not the honour that cometh from God alone?"

    If I understand this correctly, Christ taught here the
alarming doctrine that the desire for honor among men
made belief impossible!

    Is this sin at the root of religious unbelief?

    Could it be that those "intellectual difficulties" which
men blame for their inability to believe are but smoke
screens to conceal the real cause that lies behind them?

    Was it this greedy desire for honor from man that
made men into Pharisees and Pharisees into Deicides?

    Is this the secret back of religious self-righteousness
and empty worship?  I believe it may be.

    Men and women who will make the honest once-for-
all decision to exalt and honor God and His Christ over
all are precious to God above all treasures of earth or
sea, for He knows that His honor is safe in such
consecrated hands!

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Yours in Christ,

Paul N. F.