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Pharisees seek honor from men - Are you a Pharisee? Characteristic 20

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Pharisees seek honor from men

“The Pharisees do all their deeds to be noticed by men” (Matthew 23:5)

Jesus said that the Pharisees would pray standing in the street-corners and pray loudly (Matt.6:1). Jesus was obviously exaggerating here – but with a purpose. He was a great master at exaggeration whenever He wanted to highlight an important point. He spoke of people having a log in their eye and of those who swallowed camels! I have also sought to follow Jesus’ example in this matter of exaggerating a point in order to drive it home. We should certainly not exaggerate when giving a report. We should not say, “200 people came to my meeting when only 150 people came”! But the type of exaggeration that Jesus used to drive home a point is very valuable.

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Jesus spoke once about Pharisees who pray in order to get honor from people. Haven’t we all prayed publicly to get honor from others? We have often listened while praying, to hear if anyone would say a “Hallelujah” or an“Amen” to our prayer. This is Phariseeism, for we have then prayed to people and not to God. We need to cleanse ourselves from this sin. Or we may pray a long-winded prayer that is more of a mini sermon than an actual prayer!

Preachers can preach to get honor also. I tried judge myself after every sermon I ever preached to see if I have sought to please God or man. Preachers can be conceited enough to imagine that they are delivering powerful, anointed sermons. They don’t even ask their wives what they think of their preaching.

There are other areas too where we are tempted to seek honor from people. You may be writing reports of your work, not to glorify God but to impress others with what you are doing for God. Do you think Paul would send a fancy report or photograph of his work to anyone? Or say how many were saved because of his ministry? We should just be happy that God knows what we’re doing.

Seeking honor from people is one of the sins that is hardly spoken about in most churches. Seeking honour is what makes a person a Pharisee. And Pharisees will only build Babylon. We must cleanse ourselves from all seeking of honor from people.