Jesus was very special.  Some people wanted to make Him their hero (John 6:15); others wanted to stop Him being more popular than them (Matthew 27:18).  While the crowds applauded Him, those who were jealous of His power and wisdom wanted to kill Him (John 5:18).  But Jesus was not interested in what people thought of Him.  He knew that popularity would never achieve His purpose (John 2:24).  As with every true relationship, Jesus wants people to love Him for who He is.  

Jesus came in the Name of the Father, with the same nature and character, and with the same purpose (John 5:19).  He said that if He had come in His own name, advertising His own strength and wisdom, then people would have accepted Him; but because He claimed to come in the Name of the Father, He was rejected.  Why?  Because every sinful heart would like to gain inspiration from another person to make themselves feel greater.  But coming alongside God makes us realise how sinful we are – and, by nature, we hate Him for it, unless we love Him more than ourselves.

Jesus was saying that the people could not believe in Him because they did not seek God’s glory.  They did not have God’s love in their hearts because they wanted to honour themselves, or anybody else, other than God. Whenever people are opposed to Jesus it shows that they do not have God's love in their hearts, despite whatever they say - because Jesus is the Son of God and infinitely precious to Him.  To seek God’s glory we must subjugate our own, and stop our pride getting in the way of receiving God’s love in Christ.  Those who love what God loves will also love Jesus and welcome Him (John 5:23).

Jesus is the testing block of every heart.  To love Him is to love God.  To resist Him is to demonstrate that there is no love of God in the heart.  This is a vital test for ourselves, and an essential diagnostic test to help us to realise if our friends really do love God.  They may say that they love, honour and worship God, but if they refuse to welcome Jesus as Lord, then they are in spiritual danger and need to be saved.  Our task is to pray for them and help them to repent and welcome Jesus.