John 7:18

‘He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true and in him there is no falsehood'.

He pointed out that the one whose authority we claim is the one whose glory we seek. Thus those who speak in their own name or the name of their group are seeking their own glory. But Jesus did not do this. He spoke only in the Father's name. This made it clear that He was seeking the Father's glory. Thus He could only speak what was true and abhor falsehood, otherwise the Father would be displeased.

Those who sought their own glory have already been shown to be the Judaisers (John 5:44). They had become so proud of their teaching and their body of knowledge that it had become more important to them than recognising the truth. They wanted people to look to them and their own brand of teaching, rather than thinking freely about the word of God. They saw themselves as the authorities and required all to submit to that authority. So what was once a genuine attempt to solve problems (their own body of teaching, ‘the traditions of the elders') had become something to be protected and defended at all costs, resulting in much pedantry and hypocrisy (they strained out a gnat and swallowed a camel - Matthew 23:24).

Jesus on the other hand is saying that He is not seeking to defend anything. He is only seeking the glory of the One Who sent Him, and speaking directly from God. Thus what He is saying is true without any dissimulation or insincerity.

‘‘He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory.' His point is that it is always dangerous to consider oneself an authority. Once a person is seen as an authority, and speaks as thus, he always has his own reputation and glory in mind. Everything he says is said with a view to maintaining the hard earned reputation of himself and of his group. And on top of this he is bound by the decisions of those of similar status so as to maintain the reputation of the whole. So when he speaks he has to do it in the light of the group wisdom and of previous decisions which are seen as binding. This is necessary in order to maintain his own status in the group, and to maintain the status of the group. Thus all the time he has an eye to his own glory. But such a position can only be the enemy of truth, for there is then no room for another viewpoint to step through.

Furthermore those who communicate the decisions of these great men are also bound by them to an even greater extent, for they receive their own reflected glory from them. Thus they know that if they were to take up another attitude or view, all their reputation for ‘learning' would be lost. They would no longer be recognised as ‘sound teachers'. This was the case with the Judaisers. In order to maintain their own authority they taught by constantly referring to the decisions of their own Rabbis. And these Rabbis looked to the sayings of past Rabbis. They gloried in their own status, and would defend their authority to the last. Truth thus had to become secondary to maintaining the common tradition.

But Jesus pointed out that that was the problem. They had got themselves into the position whereby they even sometimes had to defend the indefensible so as to save their own honour and maintain their own glory, and at the same time had to refuse outside truth because it might undermine what they taught. They were bound by the decisions arising from their own corporate authority, and had to maintain them at all costs in order to be accepted as wise teachers. They were thus no longer truly free to think for themselves. Their minds had become rigid. They were caught up in the past. That is why they were unlikely to listen to Him. They were hidebound by tradition.

‘He who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true and in him there is no falsehood.' On the other hand Jesus was bound by no such earthly authority. He sought only to bring glory to the Father Who had sent Him. Thus He concentrated on the truth of His teaching and avoided anything that may misrepresent Him and thus be false. His prime concern was to please God, and to reveal the truth about Him from the Scriptures and from His personal knowledge of Him, and all else was unimportant.