GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade.

When Peter saw this, he said to them:

“Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus. You handed Him over to be killed, and you disowned Him before Pilate, though he had decided to let Him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised Him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through Him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.”

Acts 3:11-16

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I’ve been blessed by the Lord with many gifts.

He’s given me the ability to teach, to  write, to preach, to teach, to lead others, to sing individually or as a part of an ensemble or choir, and on and on and on.

All He asks me to do in return for these gifts is to use them to His glory and honor. And so that’s exactly what I do.

Now, as I am using these gifts for His glory and honor, it’s inevitable that people choose to heap their praises on me, praises that make me uncomfortable. For we should never be praising the creation before we praise the Creator. And we should never be giving any one person credit for things that the Lord Himself as done.

In other words, we need to always look to the Lord when any good and perfect thing happens in His name and give credit where credit is due.

Need an example?

Consider John the Baptist. Born to the priest Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth in rather miraculous, divine fashion, John’s mission from his conception was to prepare the way for Jesus to enter into His ministry. The work that John did, imploring people to repent of their sins and be baptized, was only the appetizer before the main course. Although John had his own set of followers, we know that he knew where he stood in relation to Jesus and didn’t ever think to try and rival Him in any way. In fact, when we look at the 3rd chapter of John, we find him say this:

"He must become greater; I must become less.'" (John 3:30 NIV)

Other translations render this verse as follows:

"He must increase, but I must decrease." (ESV and KJV)

The New Living Translation converts the Greek to say:

"He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less."

You get the point. John always wanted to make sure Jesus was elevated to His rightful place and that was above all. After all, He and God the Father were One.

Fast forward now to today’s passage in the third chapter of the Book of Acts.

The scene is the aftermath of Peter and John encountering a lame beggar man at the temple gate called Beautiful. You’ll recall that the man petitioned Jesus’ two disciples who had just received the Holy Spirit, thinking he would be given money. But instead, Peter gives him something even better, commanding him to walk in the name of Jesus. Immediately, the man’s feet and ankles gained strength and, after Peter helped him to his feet, the man went into the temple courts jumping with joy and praising God to the amazement and astonishment of everyone there. They had seen the man at the gate every single day and then in a solitary encounter with Peter, his life changed forever. He could now walk just like everyone else, a beautiful gift granted to him by his Lord.  

Well, in our passage today, we find the people flocking to Peter and John who were in a place within the temple referred to as Solomon’s Colonnade, a long walkway bordering the eastern wall of the temple. We get the sense the people were giving their acclaim to Peter himself like he had done it by way of his own power. As we see Peter speak, he serves to set the record straight, saying:

“Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus. You handed Him over to be killed, and you disowned Him before Pilate, though he had decided to let Him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised Him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through Him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.”

The title of this devotion is “Giving Credit Where Credit is Due” and we find Peter doing just that in two very different ways.

First, he gives the Jews credit where it was due for their involvement in Jesus’ death by crucifixion and pulls no punches doing so. He makes it crystal clear that although God had glorified Jesus, they (the Jews) had handed Him over to be killed, disowning Jesus before Pilate. Even when it was obvious that Pilate wished to release Jesus, having enough sense of justice as a non-Jew to realize Jesus’ absolute innocence, the Jews persisted and asked that a murdered be released in His place. It was the Jews who rejected the Holy and Righteous One, the Author of eternal life. The Jews were responsible and accountable for the way they denied and contributed to the murder of  God’s only Son, and Peter made sure they received full recognition for it.  

The second place Peter gives credit where credit was due is found in how he makes sure that the man’s healing was done by way of Christ and Christ alone. It was “by faith in the name of Jesus” that the once crippled man was now standing strong on his own two feet, healed in plain sight of everyone present. Through the man’s miraculous deliverance from his disability, Jesus was to be glorified and honored for only He was worthy of the people’s praise.

That’s what Peter wanted to get across. Like John, he wanted to decrease so Jesus could be increased. He wanted to be less so Jesus could be more.  

Through Peter, the Lord shows us how we are to respond when He does anything good in and through us. It seems to be a natural human response to want to worship a mere person for the things they do in the name of the Lord but if you find yourself in those circumstances, the focus of the praise of others, simply deflect credit from yourself and onto the Lord who is always the One who warrants it.

Always seek to make the Lord greater by making yourself less because He deserves nothing less than that. When you do, you can always be sure you’re giving credit where it is fully due.  

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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