Linda, Scripture gives an amazing statement about loving or preferring praise from man rather than praise from God --
1)
John 5:44 "How can you believe if you accept glory from one another, yet do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?"
In this Scripture Jesus says one of the most profound sentences in Bible, for without faith, it is impossible to please God (Heb 11) and the righteous comes alive by faith (Romans 1) which springs from hearing the Gospel preached (Romans 10).
2)
John 12:42 "Nevertheless many even of the rulers
believed in Him,
but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue;
43 for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God" (John 12:42-43).
In the Scripture prior to your text verse, John gives commentary on saving faith, for as Jesus, Paul and John all say, you have to confess Jesus before men to be truly saved. Here in verse 42, John says they had some level of belief, like some believed Jesus was this or that, as some do today, and as some believe that George Washington existed as a person, but they were unwilling to confess "Jesus is Lord" as confession is made for salvation, whoever confesses Jesus is The Son of God is indwelt by The Holy Spirit, the Author and Giver of Life and is Born of God...
15Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.
John says confessing Jesus before men (true faith) even gives us confidence on the day of judgement and is basically equivalent to assurance of salvation (See 1 John 4:17, above)...
This type of "true or saving faith" is accompanied by repentance (c.f. Zaccheus, the people at Ephesus burning their books, the whole of Asia Minor forsaking their idols, See 2 Cor 7 especially 2 Cor 7:10) and that type of faith that "believes in their heart" will "confess with their mouth" Jesus before men, and will even "shout it from the mountain-tops, Praise God!" Jesus is Lord, "confession is made to salvation"... (Romans 10:9).
So we see in the verse before, desire for approval from men / fear of the pharisees was enough to keep people who were coming to faith from actually delivering the game winning goal of confession. The pharisees intimidation "shut up the way of salvation for those who were trying to enter it,"
Luke 11:52 "Woe to you experts in the law! For you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering."
This is MOST CLEARLY seen in the man born blind whom Jesus healed with the mud and saliva in John 9. After much controversy, since Jesus did this on his favorite day of the week to upturn a twisted view the rulers had of the Sabbath, they call the man who had been blind's parents, and start to grill them to make a public confession of what happened... They had not yet received the faith to be saved, note... "
18The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight
19 and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”
20 His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind.
21But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.”
22(
His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesusb to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.)
23Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
Matthew 10:32
"Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father in heaven. 33But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven" and
Luke 12:8, "I tell you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man will also confess him before the angels of God," and
Revelation 3:5 Like them, the one who is victorious will be clothed in white garments. And I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before My Father and His angels."
Notice The Blind Man That Can See's Confession before The Rulers (He Sought The Approval of God)...
John 9:24 "So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.”
25He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
26They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
27He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?”
28And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.
29We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.”
30The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.
31We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.
32Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.
33If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
34They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out."
Notice Jesus Confesses Him and Vindicates Him on Earth As A Sign of What He Will Do Again in Heaven
35Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
c 36He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”
37Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.”
38He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
39Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”
40Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?”
41Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt;
d but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.
