Mark Tabata’s Weekday Devotionals:
Thursday February 12 2026
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John 12:42-43-Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
Sometimes the cost of seeking God’s approval is the loss of the approval of our fellow man. We see that clearly from this Scripture. We are told that many of the rulers believed in Jesus. Notice that this is the Greek word used for faith throughout the Gospel of John. Indeed, it is used 53 times in that Book! These folks were fully convinced that Jesus is the Christ as He claimed to be: yet they refused to confess Him.
Please observe that these rulers were believers in Jesus; yet they were certainly not saved at this point!
Matthew 10:32-33-Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
If there were ever proof that faith alone cannot save a person, surely this is it.
But what especially stands out to me here is the motivation behind their refusal to confess Jesus. The Pharisees had threatened to put anyone out of the synagogue if they confessed Jesus.
What did it mean for someone to be “put out” of the synagogue?
“The term “out of synagogue” occurs here and in two other places in John’s Gospel (12:42 and 16:2), but (aside from patristic references to those three texts) nowhere else in ancient Greek literature. It may have been the Gospel writer’s own coinage,74 and as such its meaning would have been readily understood. Synagogue discipline, involving temporary excommunication (for varying lengths of time and for a variety of reasons), was common enough in early Judaism.…More likely, “put out of synagogue” refers to some form of temporary exclusion in effect already in Jesus’ day (see above, n. 75), enforced only as local synagogues saw fit. Jesus himself, after all, was allowed to speak freely in the synagogue at Capernaum (see 6: 59), 85 and when questioned after his arrest, he will claim that “I have spoken publicly to the world; I always taught in synagogue and in the temple, where all the Jews come together, and I spoke nothing in secret” (18: 20). The surprised comment of the “Jerusalemites” at the Tent festival, “And look, he is speaking publicly, and they are saying nothing to him,” and the question, “Do the rulers truly know that he is the Christ?” (see 7: 26) could just as easily have been uttered “in synagogue” as “in the temple.” In short, the decree “that anyone who confessed that he was Christ would be put out of synagogue” seems to have been enforced only sporadically, if at all. Its only victim, so far as we know, was the former blind man himself (v. 34).” (J. Ramsey Michaels, The Gospel of John (New International Commentary on the New Testament (NICNT), 554-556 (Kindle Edition): Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company)
The rulers did not want to be excommunicated from the synagogue.
Why?
“For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.”
Which matters more to you: the praise of men, or the praise of God?
Lord, help us to never regard the praise of men as more important to us than pleasing You. Amen.