The Halo Effect
Let's say you’re at work, and someone asks your opinion about a certain co-worker named Mary for a large project your boss is planning. You don't know Mary well, but she's seems friendly enough. She says hello, goodbye, smiles often and even has a framed picture of her family on her desk. You're asked, 'Do you think Mary would be a good team leader for this upcoming project?' Again, you don’t know Mary well, but you consider her friendly and good family person, so you automatically say 'yes'. This is called the 'Halo Effect'.
It was originally identified in 1907 by the American psychologist Frederick L. Wells (1884-1964). Edward Thorndike (1874-1949) was the first to define it as we know today. The Halo Effect, he said, is a specific cognitive bias in which one aspect of a person, brand, product, or institution affects one’s thoughts or judgment of the entity’s other aspects or dimensions. In other words, one trait of a person or thing is used to make an overall judgment of that person or thing.
The term is used in marketing to explain customer bias toward certain products because of favorable experience with other products made by the same company. This is why Dairy Queen's can offer cheeseburgers to their millions of ice cream customers and get away with it.
The Halo Effect also occurs on the topic of 'God'. If you ask someone on the street if God is loving, most people who simply believe in a supreme being would say 'Of course He's loving'. Once you dig deeper and ask, 'Is God holy', or 'just', or 'righteous', you may still get the same answer.
But what about believers? Can they experience the Halo Effect when believing God or one of His attributes? I believe so. One attribute of God that Christians often acknowledge but have difficulty explaining in words, is God's glory. It's such a popular phrase. We know God is holy, loving, just, etc, so even if we can't comprehend it precisely, the Halo Effect causes us to answer 'Of course God is glorious'.
Certainly we can be biased towards all of God’s Word, but we should seek to know the terms we speak about Him thoroughly. I believe many Christians know that about God's glory, they read about it, they know the verses and the catechism, but some have a hard time understanding and articulating exactly what it means. I know I did and often still do when I try to define it succinctly, on the spot.
Some think of God's glory as 'God getting the credit' for something. When something good happens in our life, we may say, 'All the glory to God.' Or if someone congratulates you on a job well done - 'To God be the glory'. Others think of God's majesty or brilliance. One of my favorite quotes is 'Stay under the spout until the glory comes out!' :-) All of these are are accurate yet a partial assessment of God's glory. So what is the full biblical picture of God's glory?
In John chapter 11, Jesus categorizes the motive for the entire chapter 'for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it' (11:4). In the Old Testament, the word 'glory' means ‘heavy in weight’ or to give ‘weight to honor’. For instance, in Exodus 14:4, God says "Thus I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will chase after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD." And they did so.
In case you didn't know, John 11 is the 'season 1 finale' (the first half of the Gospel of John). This ends John's discourse of Jesus' formal public ministry. The next chapter jumps to the final week of Jesus' life. So like all good finale episodes, the climax of the entire season is laid out before us. Jesus will perform His 7th miracle in this Gospel by raising Lazarus from the dead. The entire chapter is a foreshadow of what will happen at the end of 'season 2', Jesus laying down His life and then walking out of the empty tomb. The entire eleventh chapter is all about God's glory.
Tomorrow, we'll take the first 22 verses and focus on the word 'glory' which again, kicks off the chapter in verse 4. We'll then discuss one specific way that Jesus glorifies God, not only in the events that follow in the chapter, but in the very act of 'waiting' on the Lord. John shows us how 'waiting' can be one of the most difficult ways to glorify God, yet one of the most rewarding and impactful for the kingdom.
Read the entire chapter of John if you can! And pray for tomorrow's service. Let's seek the Lord together for His glory to be revealed in us, through us and for His Son Christ, as we worship the King of Glory as a church tomorrow. I covet your prayers as well for the teaching of God's Word.
I'm so enjoying this journey together. The Lord is working in and through us, yes, for His glory and kingdom!
Click below to listen to this sermon on John 11:1-22
