Saturday

Popularity

In Practical Religion J.C. Ryle states,

“If you take up heart-religion I cannot promise you the praise of man. Pardon, peace, hope, guidance, comfort, consolation, grace according to your need, strength according to your day, joy which the world can neither give nor take away,– all this I can boldly promise to the man who comes to Christ, and serves Him with is heart. But I cannot promise him that his religion will be popular with man.”

We all want to be popular. We want people to think highly of us, praise us, respect us, and ask us for advice. Whether teenagers, college students, or adults, we want to be known, liked, and admired. Yet this longing trips us up time and time again.

True faith in Jesus and a life fully devoted to Him will not win us praise from the majority in the world. But look again at the promises Ryle lists in his second sentence above: peace, hope, comfort... Yes, these are true, and they are far better than the praise and popularity from men and women of the world.