“Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.” (Galatians 5:26)
The first epistle to the Corinthian church serves as a perfect example for us about the right response to praise. In the Corinthian church, it happened that there was division in their midst as a result of people choosing apostles to be identified with. It is not that these apostles preached differing doctrines as church founders of today, but despite the unity of doctrine, the Corinthian church still found a way of trying to lift one apostle over the other. By this action of declaring allegiance to the apostles, they also lifted the apostles beyond what they were. They ought to belong to Christ alone, but now they have exalted the apostles and wish to be identified by their favourite apostle. This was a way of praising the apostles.
The apostles all got their share of praise in this division including Paul who wrote the epistle. For the fact that Paul heard that people said, “I belong to Paul,” he ought to have received the praise and be puffed up at this like the church founders of today. When people say they belong to the church of this man or to that man, they love it. They love it so much they quickly go and prepare stickers for your cars, for the doors of your house, for your Bibles, etc. Then they go mass produce jotters with their logo and name for you take about. All because they want your voice to be louder in saying “I belong to you!” Instead of them to ask, “is Christ divided?” and ask them also, “were we crucified for you?” or “were you baptised in my name?” Rather than do this they’d encourage people in this practice. For this reason the church is being more divided because men are craving for the praise that doesn’t belong to them. This is what the praise of men is costing us in the church of today. But this wasn’t the way of Paul. He did not receive the praise to himself, rather the first four chapters were written to chide the Corinthians for the praise they had begin to heap on the apostles before he moved to the issue of fornication in chapter five.
When you read these first four chapters of the first epistle to the Corinthians, you’d see that Paul seemed to have a heated dispute against the Corinthian church. When you see the words he used in these passages, it tells you a lot about the feeling he had boiling in him. Words such as, “We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.” (1 Corinthians 4:10). You’d think that what could have caused such a dispute would be because they borrowed a large sum of money from him and have refused to pay back. But when you come closer to hear what is really causing all the fuss, you’d realise he’s only angry because they praised him. Isn’t that shocking? Picture somebody setting a house in commotion because he was told that he’s good looking, or that he’s so intelligent, etc. It is funny to hear such. However, Paul being a man of spiritual maturity and character would not take the issue of division and undue praise as a light matter.
The text describing this factionalism that was beginning to rise amongst the Corinthian brethren goes thus, “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius; Lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name.” (1 Corinthians 1:10 – 15). This kind of divisive action has in it an element of pride in it. A form of pride that makes you want to be different from others. Even those who claimed to belong to Christ also had fault, for in that claim they still had this pride of being separate from others. If they had claimed that “WE belong to Christ,” then they had no fault. But seeing they said “I belong to Christ,” they definitely meant it so as to be distinct from others. Their seeming loyalty to Christ was one that sought to exclude others from Christ. Paul in responding to this did not pull his own people out and cause them to undermine others, rather he intreated them by the name of the Lord that they should be united and be of one mind. Not to be united behind him, but to be united in Christ who died for them.
Paul was the one who brought the gospel to them and could have easily won them all to himself. But rather he directed them to Christ. He indeed told them of this when he said, “For though ye have ten thousand instructers in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.” (1 Corinthians 4:15). This was at the tail end of the chiding about their division. This makes us to understand that he had enough argument to pull them all behind him and exclude the other apostles to make himself more glorious. But he didn’t do that. Rather in chiding them he was more particular in condemning them for trying to claim allegiance to him more than he did in condemning them for claiming allegiance to the other apostles. Paul was not interested in their praise but in their obedience to Christ.
In asking them, “was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” he refocused their eyes to their Saviour. He took their eyes of adoration away from himself, from Peter, and from Apollos, and all other men to focus it back in the right direction; the direction of the Lord Jesus. This is the right response when people try to praise us. We should not accept it but direct the praise to God because all praise belongs to God and God alone. The psalmist also wrote, “But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.” (Psalm 3:3). What does he mean when he calls God his glory? It means he has nothing to glory about. All his glory is found in God alone.
Even Jesus showed us the same example of giving God the glory rather than accepting it to ourselves. The Bible said about Jesus, “And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.” (Mark 10:17 – 18). A non-Christian pointed out this verse to me that even Jesus denied being God. But this statement of Jesus is not a denial of his deity. He only asked why. It was necessary because the man did not have the revelation that he was God. The man seeing him merely as a teacher called him good which he rejected because he was calling who he thought to be a mere man good. So Jesus corrected him that only God is good. If he had known that Jesus was himself God there should have been nothing wrong with calling him good. By this statement of Jesus we see the right response to give to people who praise us.
Paul wrote, “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.” (1 Corinthians 4:3 – 5). Here Paul said that he does not regard the praise of men as anything, and he also tells them that they should not judge anything before the time. Paul indeed was well evidently approved, sent, and appointed before a more than sufficient number of witnesses. The Bible says. “Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” (Acts 13:1 – 13:2). God clearly testified to Ananias that he has called Paul, at the time of his conversion (Acts 9:10-16). So Paul was evidently approved, sent, and personally called of God, but as evidently approved as he was, he told them not to judge him as approved nor as one that serves well before the given time. No calling him man of God. No calling him called of God. No calling him approved of God. No stickers for your cars, house doors, books, etc. No judgment whatsoever before the time.
He said their praise is not what justifies him saying, “yet am I not hereby justified.” These people who run after the praise of people lack the knowledge that it is not by this means that they’re justified, neither is it by this means that they’re approved before God. It is not your calling him, “the appointed of God,” that makes him appointed of God. It is not by your calling him “called of God” that makes him called. If you call him these things, that’s all your business. They don’t approve him. He only appears approved by these things to the deceived. So the praise they seek is by no means of any value. But Paul says, “he that judgeth me is the Lord.” Meaning, he’s the one who can tell whether or not I’m appointed of him, not you. He’s the one who can tell me whether or not I’m called of him, not you. He’s the one who can tell me whether or not I’m indeed doing his will despite the fact that I appear to be doing so, not you. And this he says categorically, “For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.” (2 Corinthians 10:18).
Paul who wrote a large chunk of the New Testament from Romans to Philemon, epistles that show matchless wisdom, judgment, understanding, and revelations of the mysteries of God, yet he says, “I know nothing by myself…” So when people crave for the praise of others, it shows how little they know about their nothingness. If at all they preach what is true, at the best, they got these things from God. If God gave it to them, why should you praise them for it as if they knew it of themselves, and why should they themselves accept such praise? But the truth about so many preachers of today is that they don’t even preach the truth and know nothing. All they preach are with what the Bible calls, “feigned words.” For example you could hear a preacher who is so engrossed with pushing his members out for evangelism, you’d think he’s so interested in having people get saved, but it is usually not so. All that fiery sermon about how people who are not preached to are going to hell is just their way of pushing you out into the cold saying, “go bring us people so we can milk them.” If they cared for souls of men, they’d be more bothered about the members within their reach that are backsliding. Yet the case usually is, you’d see a church whose members live lives that reflect the world and carnality, yet their pastors are preaching fiery sermons of evangelism. It is not souls they’re looking to save, rather they’re looking for increased numbers for increased profit. Yet because of their words are sweet to the ear, people heap praise on them and they accept it. Yes, evangelism is good and the preaching of it is right, but because you don’t see the hidden things of the heart you’d falsely judge them as passionate for souls. Others will put on this humble look, not because they’re humble, but because their livelihood depends on it. So people praise them as humility personified and post their pictures everywhere on Facebook. And they love it so. This is far from the example the apostles laid down for us. The apostles laid down the example that should make us to know and acknowledge our ignorance and nothingness, not one that makes us accept praises of men as if we were something. These pretence in words that lead men to draw wrong conclusions about you is what is called feigned words. That is what characterises most sermons in today’s churches.
Another thing that is evil about preachers of today is that even those who don’t evidently crave for praise keep silent when others praise them. People would put their photos on billboards and all. Though I don’t know how true it is but their members would say the preacher did not ask them to do these things and that people just do them out of their own free volition. Though they hear and see these things they’d not rebuke the people who do them. You could almost hear them say, “I never told them to praise me, so why should I care. If they want to praise me let them go ahead.” Some people would call this right, but that is not true. When the news came to the ears of apostle Paul, he didn’t ignore it. Rather he wrote a heavy epistle to them and the very first thing he handled before even other seemingly more important things of fornication and purity, lawsuits against believers, principles of marriage, etc., the very first thing was the issue of undue praise. Why didn’t he just ignore it and talk of these other things that are of seemingly greater importance? The priority he gave to handling undue praise speaks a lot of how great a matter it is.
We also see another instance of Paul actively rejecting praise when people of Lystra called Paul and Barnabas gods and wished to offer sacrifices to them. They didn’t ignore them. They didn’t turn their backs on the people and pretend not to know what they were up to. Rather the Bible says, “Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein…” (Acts 14:14 – 15). They went on and on trying to dissuade them to no avail. As a matter of fact that was the end of their preaching to those guys. To them rejecting praise was more important than preaching or other things. To put their preaching on hold to reject undue praise. So these preachers who accept praise don’t do well. When people do all these things to glorify the person of these preachers, they ought to come out and give a formal condemnation of their actions. Not a casual one but one that’ll make them feel ashamed of ever doing what they did, the way Paul did to the Corinthian church. And when they do this, they ought to also do all that is in their power to ensure that their condemnation is well broadcasted.
He says it is not in our place to be praising anybody like all these religious fanatics do who heap praise on preachers. It is not in our place at all. He says, “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come… then shall every man have praise of God.” He didn’t say praise should be from Christians, people who know the truth, or renowned Christians. No, praise ought not to come from any creature, Christian or un-Christian, believing or unbelieving, regenerated or unregenerated, wise or foolish, noble or base. Praise ought only to come from God, and even that will only come in due time.
Paul agrees that there are hidden things of darkness. Things that are not visible to the eyes of men. Like I have said before, people heap praise on others despite knowing so little or nothing about them. Paul clearly states here, “until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts…” He acknowledges that for a praise to be justifiable, it must be in the knowledge of these hidden things of darkness and counsels of the heart. We who know little or nothing about the disposition of the heart of men have no justification in praising people. We have to be conscious of this hidden things of darkness and understand that in the presence of such unknowable things it is unwise to judge or praise. If Paul himself who was evidently well approved by God and man says this, how much more should we refrain from praising men in a time as wicked, evil, and deceptive as ours. A time of horrendous apostasy. A time when time without number we see men sell their Saviour for fame and money. Is this the time to engage in senseless judgment and praise? No, let’s be careful to avoid these things.
When the tragedies of Job’s temptations befell him, his friends came and started asking him to repent of evils he was never guilty of. This grieved Job much and he said, “How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words? These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me. And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.” (Job 19:2 – 4). His argument in essence was this, you come here accusing me to be guilty of sin, even if that were true, my error is within me and not known to you, how then do you judge me to be guilty of sin just because these things have befallen me? This bad practice of the friends of Job is rampant in today’s Christianity. People judge so often out of ignorance. They just look at external things and make foolish conclusions like Job’s friends. The true things by which men may judged, whether good or bad, are hidden in them and known to no man save themselves and the God who sees in secret (Matthew 6:6).
The friends of Job accused him very foolishly. One even became very blatant in his accusation when he said, “Is not thy wickedness great? and thine iniquities infinite?” (Job 22:5). Throughout that chapter he endlessly accused Job of very many grievous iniquities. Not that he saw Job doing those grievous wickedness he accused him of but he accused him all the same and most confidently and with all conviction. Why? Because of the tragedies he saw that happened to Job, for it was his conviction that such terrible things can only happen to extremely wicked people, but he knew not the hidden things of darkness. How many of these preachers could bear such foolish accusations? Yet they would accept and cherish such foolish praise though it be a result of the same folly.
The funny thing about today is that people are fund of saying, “don’t judge because the Bible says don’t judge.” This they say quoting, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” (Matthew 7:1). But these people who say these are they who judge the most because they lack a right understanding of the word. They think that judgment has to do with only pointing out a condemning finger at the perceived bad deeds of people. So when you tell them how their pastors are stealing from their members, they’d say “don’t judge.” When you tell them of how their pastors preach heresy, they’d ask, “who are you to judge?” But they’d also be the ones to tell you of how their pastor is such a good man. They don’t know that speaking well of someone is as much a thing of judgment as pointing out evil. That is why Paul says here, “Therefore judge nothing before the time…” For this reason, to heap praise on preachers is evil. It is evil to praise on the part of those who do the praising and it is equally wrong to receive the praise on the part of those who receive it.
It is important for us to know that even when Christ says, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” (Matthew 7:1), he doesn’t mean we shouldn’t judge at all. Rather he means we should be lenient in our criticising of the faults we find in others. He said this to point out the truth about life that when we are strict in the rules by which we judge others, others would be strict in the rules by which they judge us. This he pointed out in the following verse. For this reason, we ought to be considerate in our judgment of others. Note that he said those words in respect to mercy and forgiveness. If we forgive God will forgive us, but if we don’t, he will not. The same way it is with judgment. More importantly, he also means we shouldn’t judge by our own standards. For this reason he also says elsewhere, “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” (John 7:24). Note the statement, “judge righteous judgment.” This is more or less a command to judge, but to judge righteous judgment. What is righteous judgment? The judgment according to God’s word. So when I say, “all liars will go to hell,” I’m judging quite alright, but it is not my judgment or the judgment of my opinion or standards, it is the judgment of the righteous word of God. That is righteous judgment. Judgment is quite a broad topic to handle, but that should suffice for now. We should not judge people before the time. But we must judge out of the word of God. We must point out things that are evil or righteous, unacceptable or acceptable, but all should be done by that which is written in the righteous word of God.
What About The Praise From God?
“So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.”
(Luke 17:10)
If we are not to seek or accept praise from men, what about the praise from God? Paul says in where we read, “then shall every man have praise of God.” What should then be our mindset about this? It is true that the praise of man is blind. It is true that the praise of man is unjustifiable. It is true that the praise of man is received to our detriment. But seeing that that which comes from God is not so, what shall we then do about his praise?
While the praise of God is ever timely, ever good, ever justifiable, ever true, and all, we must still be careful about this else we may still wreck our faith. Careful not about the fact of its genuiness, but about our own self. We need to understand fully the true proclivities of our heart in our service to God. The expectation of the praise from God should never be a propelling factor in our well doing or in rendering of service to him, else we may wreck our faith and be unprepared when the Lord shall come. Let’s look at why together.
Let’s take a look at Luke 17:7-10 where it says, “But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” (Luke 17:7 – 10). Certainly God shall praise each man in due time, but we must not allow ourselves to be seeking it. You see, our calling is a call to humility and you cannot be humble and be seeking praise at the same time.
Is this explanation right about our relationship to God? Absolutely. If Jesus puts it forward as an illustration of our relationship to God, then it is absolutely right. But let’s see why. If you’re paid heavily for a job, let’s say as a receptionist for example, does your employer need to thank you for doing your job? Is your service a favour? Does your answering of calls and all that show an act of benevolence on your part. If you’re paid heavily beyond what you should, are you not merely doing your duty? Do you not even in doing your duty maintain a grateful disposition to your employer? In all places where I worked and earned a salary I was happy to continue with, I know how eager I was to serve. I know how I craved for my employers to give me more assignments to do. In my thoughts I seem to be asking, “if you’re paying me this much, I ought to justify it.”
How much more when we talk about our relationship with God. God created us, gave us life and everything we enjoy in it. We were lost in sin and doomed for damnation but he saved us by the blood of his own Son. Arthur T. Pierson (1837-1911), puts it this way in his amazing hymn, The New Song;
“How helpless and hopeless
we sinners had been,
If He never had loved us
till cleansed from our sin:”
In the light of the knowledge of the wonderful things God has done for us, all that remains for us to do is total surrender and absolute submission that looks not for praise and reward.
Many have shipwrecked their faith in expectation of praise from God. There are people who served God yet after a while returned from following him because they didn’t get their expected praise, commendation, or reward from God. Let us not be like them. We have seen how true our relationship with God is and how the best we can do is merely a fulfilment of our duties.
After placing before us an instance of how a man serving his master is not thanked, that is thanked in a way to show that he’s done a favour to his master, he went on to tell us, “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” This means your focus should be on obedience and not on getting praise out of God. Obedience and obedience alone should be our goal.
It was Martin Luther (1483-1546) who said, “Find your praise in the testimony of a good conscience.” When you have done ALL those things which are commanded you, let it be the voice of your conscience that shall praise you and in that alone be content. This is what the Lord is saying to us in essence.
“Find your praise in the testimony of a good conscience.”
—Martin Luther (1483-1546)
In our strife for obedience to God there are two ways our conscience can speak to us. Either it commends us when we succeed, or it condemns us when we fail. We must be careful about the way we respond to these voices. It is very easy, when you see yourself doing what God has commanded you and your conscience commending you, to become proud. That pride is a snare. While in this flesh, if we receive praise from God we ought to know why he does that lest we become puffed up. The Bible says, “And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.” (Joshua 3:7). God sometimes magnify people, not make them big, for the purpose of ease of administration. He said he’d magnify Joshua. Why? The next verse begins, “And thou shalt command…” (Joshua 3:8). So to be magnified is different from being big. Joshua was still a mere man. A dust like every other man, but God made him appear as if he were beyond that so as to enable him have the obedience of the people when he does command. He was still nothing. If it were not him it could have been anybody else. All the power he manifested belonged to God. He could have given it to just anyone he wishes to. The same way, if God does praise you, always remember your nothingness and never be puffed up. Know the reason of the praise and fulfil it. We can see this humility despite manifesting great power in the lives of all the apostles. Let us follow that example.
It is also important that we know that while in the flesh there are times when we may fail in our pursuit to do his will. We shouldn’t in such circumstance become downcast and give up. In the doing of God’s will, we must consciously strive to remain humble and continue in well doing and devoted service. If we are not careful to remain humble, it won’t be long before pride shall swallow us whole. And we should be careful not to allow guilt sink us down into damnation. I’m not contradicting what I’ve said before, we must never seek to silence our conscience so as not to allow our guilt sink us down, but when we fail in our pursuit to do his will, we must repent, be contrite, and allow God to lift us up, then we should continue with our strife.
God Shall Not Rob Any Of His Praise
“For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.” (Hebrews 6:10)
As I’ve said, failure to give people the praise that is due them amounts to robbery. However, you can be sure that, as Christians living in a non-Christian world, you shall be continually robbed of your praise. That is a guarantee. Job, a righteous man had this to say in Job 12:4, “I am as one mocked of his neighbour, who calleth upon God, and he answereth him: the just upright man is laughed to scorn.”
The praise that should have been given you at times would rather be given to a scoundrel. People shall praise bad works but scorn your good works. Christian ladies, be warned. People shall mock you for decency and for dressing modestly, but they shall praise and celebrate immodest and profane people. That is a robbery the Lord shall judge. This is another way in which if we should let the praise of men be what spurs us to good works, when we experience such robbery it shall have a damaging effect on our well doing.
No matter how much we are robbed of our praise we can be rest assured that God shall never rob any man of his praise. Robbery of praise can only come to us from men. God shall reward us both here on earth and also in Heaven eternally. These rewards are not without their praise. The Bible says, “Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.” (Malachi 3:16 – 18). There shall be manifestations here in the earth that shall distinguish those that serve God and obey him and those that don’t. This distinction is with much praise as we all know that the word distinction connotes unequalled excellence. That my brothers and sisters is praise and glorification. So let us be rest assured that praise shall come in due time but we must not allow our service to God and well doing to be driven by the expectation of it.
“He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.” (Revelation 21:7). Apart from glorification while in the flesh, there shall also be a more sure time of exceeding eternal reward and glorification, but these rewards come only to the overcomers. Who receives a medal of honour while the battle is raging? Who receives a glory while not yet an overcomer? To be that overcomer, your well doing and service to God must not be propelled by the expectation of praise from God while not yet an overcomer. Keep up the good work and as I’ve said before quoting Martin Luther (1483-1546), “Find your praise in the testimony of a good conscience,” and thus you shall overcome.
Conclusion
“Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.” (Galatians 5:26)
So we see that praise has little and close to nothing to do with us whether in giving or in receiving it. Desiring it from man or even from God is unwise. Focus on obedience. Obedience and obedience alone should be our goal. Let obedience and the consequent voice of a good conscience be our satisfaction. Let our ability to obey (take heed) or failure to do so be what defines our value. If you succeed don’t be proud, if you fail, keep striving. Love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Take heed. Keep his commandment.
Here’s the summary of what we can learn from Paul in his first epistle to the Corinthians:
- Paul did not in the first place crave for Praise.
- When it comes to responding to the praise of men ignorance is not bliss. Paul did not ignore the people on account of not craving for it. He didn’t say, “if they want to praise me, let them. I never commanded them to, so it’s their business.” Therefore, when people praise preachers, the right response ought to be formal denunciation and condemnation of such people by themselves. If another does it, people would likely read malice to it.
- Paul showed how it were foolish both to praise men and receive the praise of men.
- He told them to their faces that their praise meant little or nothing to him. In other words they were wasting their time and praise.
- He abased himself, his wisdom, etc. and pointed that all praise must go to God because it is God who gives the increase.
- There is a due time for every man to have his praise.
- Our praise should come from the voice of a good conscience.
- God is not going to rob any man of his praise. That is for sure.
So in all circumstances, let learn to respond rightly about to praise from wherever it comes. Let us always remember that our calling is a calling to humility. Let us not seek praise whatsoever, but watch diligently against it. May God help us all in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Prayer: Dear God and Father, we see that it is foolish to praise and to accept praise from men seeing how little we know. Help us to be wise not to be desirous of vain glory. It is true that praise has its good if rightly done, but give us wisdom not to praise foolishly for any reason at all. As we avoid this foolish practice, unite us in love, brotherliness, humility, and all purity, in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
