The theme of rejection runs through today's Gospel reading, but this rejection has to be seen in the light of John 5:42, "¡K you have no love of God in you". This "love of God" is not so much our human love for God as God's love for human beings which is here seen as refused by the Jews. This is the rejection Jesus talks about when He answers their accusations about Himself and His authority. They have rejected God's love by refusing to accept Jesus.

He tells them that His authority comes from "another", not Himself - "another" being the Father who has sent John the Baptist to bear witness to Him. John brought light to bear on Jesus but was not himself the light. The Father also gave Jesus the works He did and which authenticated His mission. There is the Father's word in their hearts which they turn a deaf ear to. And finally, the Scriptures which they hold on to so rigidly also bear witness to Jesus, but they are meaningless to them because they refuse to see the Scriptures as pointing to Jesus. They cannot accept God's love for them, so amply demonstrated in the Scriptures, because they prefer not God's glory, but human glory, the vain glory that is nihilistic. In total contrast, Jesus gives glory to God, and receives glory from God which He makes known to His people.