They Believed and Said Nothing, and John Tells You Exactly Why

He did not say the thing, and then he thought about not saying it for a week.

It was not a big thing. Somebody made a remark after the service, in the hallway, about a person who was not there, and it was not fair and everybody knew it was not fair, and he had a sentence ready.

He did not say it. He did the small laugh that means nothing, and he moved on, and he got in the car.

He knows exactly why. It was not the remark and it was not the person who made it, who is somebody he likes and has known his whole life. It was two other people standing there, and what would be said about him afterward, and where that would end up by Thursday.

That is what runs it. He would have told you it is God he answers to and he would have believed it, and he has now had a week to notice that the thing which actually moved his mouth in that hallway was a room.

John names it, about religious men, without contempt

There is a sentence at the end of John chapter 12 that is one of the most exposing things in the New Testament.

Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. (John 12:42-43, King James Version)

Take it apart.

Many believed on him. These are not enemies. They were convinced. Whatever else was going on, the belief was real.

They did not confess him. Not because of doubt. Because of a consequence in a building.

And then John says the actual mechanism, and he says it without heat:

For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.

Notice he does not attack the synagogue. He does not describe the community as rotten or tell anybody to leave it. He names one thing, precisely, about the men who stayed quiet: what they loved more.

You are not the first believer to be governed by a room. John 12 records it plainly, and it is His Spirit rather than any decision about the room who moves what a person is most afraid of.

Scripture says to move the fear, not to remove it

The Bible is not squeamish about fear. It says to relocate it.

Neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. (Isaiah 8:12-13)

Let him be your fear.

That is not an instruction to feel nothing. It is an instruction about which direction the weight goes.

And Jesus says the same, and He says it to people who had real reason to be frightened of what a group could do to them:

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28)

But rather. A comparison, not an abolition.

You are answerable to Somebody who is not in that room. Isaiah 8:13 and Matthew 10:28 both relocate the fear rather than dismissing it, and it is the Holy Spirit who actually moves it in somebody who has tried to move it by deciding.

What the fear of God is described as producing

Here is the part that surprises people, because they expect fear of God to produce distance and it produces the opposite.

The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant. (Psalm 25:14)

The secret of the LORD is with them. Closeness. Being let in on something.

And:

In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge. (Proverbs 14:26)

Strong confidence. A place of refuge.

So the fear of God is not the same species of thing as the fear of a room. One of them shrinks a person and makes them careful in small ways. The other is described as producing confidence, refuge, and being told things.

You have a verdict that was settled and does not move with theirs. Psalm 25:14 and Proverbs 14:26 describe what that fear produces, and it is His Spirit who does that in a person rather than a change in anybody's attitude toward them.

And none of this licenses contempt

This has to be said, because an article on this subject can very easily hand somebody a weapon, and that is the opposite of what is happening here.

The people in that room are not the enemy. Most of them are people who have fed you, prayed for you by name, and turned up at things they did not want to attend because your family was there. The man in the hallway is somebody he likes.

Relocating your fear does not mean thinking less of anybody. It means the room stops being the thing that decides.

Peter's line about this is often quoted as though it were defiance:

We ought to obey God rather than men. (Acts 5:29)

It is not a slogan against people. It is a statement about order. Both are on the list; one of them is higher.

You are not being handed a case against anybody. Acts 5 is about which authority is above which, and it is the Holy Spirit rather than any coldness who makes that possible without contempt.

Where He says to do it

And this is why the thing to do about it is small and unseen.

Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven... But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. (Matthew 6:1,3-4)

Three times in that short passage He says which seeth in secret.

He is not describing modesty. He is describing an audience. If the audience is a room, then the room is paying, and the transaction is complete when they notice.

A small right thing that nobody sees is a way of finding out, practically, who you are actually doing it for. And it can be very small. That is the point of it being small.

You have an audience who sees in secret. Matthew 6 names Him three times in four verses, and it is His Spirit who makes doing something unnoticed feel like something rather than nothing.