John 2:23-25 - Jesus would not entrust Himself to them

2:23

As noted earlier, John was fully aware that Jesus performed many miracles, and he highlights that fact here. John chose the ones he opted to relate with a purpose.  He then says that many people saw these miracles and that they “believed in His Name” or “believed in Him”. Belief in John seems to have various meanings. There is true faith, which applies to the disciples, but then there is the belief mentioned here that is far more tenuous and superficial, and there are later examples of this as well. The word of God needs to go along with faith supported only by an event, such as a miracle, or God doing something in our life. People sometimes denigrate miracles, this is the wrong response to the situation. God does miracles, He does work in our lives in concrete ways. This is good, and it should strengthen or ignite faith, but it needs to go along with faith in the word of God, otherwise it is a very fragile thing. Without the word it is like the seed of the parable of the sower that spouts up quickly, but then dies equally quickly when trouble arises because the roots do not go deep.

2:24,25

When people are acclaiming you there is a human tendency to be carried away by the acclaim. Jesus knew the shallowness of the “belief” exhibited by the people, so He would not entrust Himself to them. We need to be vary careful who we entrust ourselves to. We also need to beware of flattery. Jesus did not need any teaching on the vagaries of a man’s heart, He knew exactly what human hearts are like. This is not surprising as we were all created through Him!