seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
John 8:31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.”
39 “Abraham is our father,” they answered.
“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. 40 As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. 41 You are doing the works of your own father.”
“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”
42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. 43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! 46 Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? 47 Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”
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Hello! Here's a link to the commentary I read.
Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him: The previous verse tells us that many believed in Him (John 8:30). Jesus spoke to those who had that beginning of belief, telling them what they needed to continue in belief.
If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed: If we will be Jesus’ disciples, we must abide in His word. There is no other way. To be a follower of Jesus — the Word made flesh — is to abide (to live in, to dwell in, to make your home in) His word.
You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free: This is the result of abiding in the word of Jesus. We prove ourselves to be His disciples and we know the truth, and God works His freedom in our life through His truth. The freedom Jesus spoke of doesn’t come from just an academic pursuit of truth in general; but from abiding in His word and being His disciple.
There is nothing like the freedom we can have in Jesus. No money can buy it, no status can obtain it, no works can earn it, and nothing can match it. It is tragic that not every Christian experiences this freedom, which can never be found except by abiding in God’s word and being Jesus’ disciple.
We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone: The reaction of the religious leaders wasn’t, “That’s wonderful! Tell us more about what it means to be free by trusting in Your word.” Instead they reacted, we don’t need this. We’re good.
This was a remarkable and unthinking statement. The Jewish people had been in bondage under Egypt and the Philistines; under Babylon, Persia, Syria, and Rome. “Was there not a Roman garrison looking down from the castle into the very Temple courts where this boastful falsehood was uttered?” (Maclaren)
Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin: Sin in this passage is in a verb tense indicating a habitual, continual action. The person in habitual sin is a slave of sin.
A slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever: Slavery to sin is the worst kind of slavery, because there is no escape from our self. A Son must set us free, and the Son of God sets us free and brings us into the household of God.
“The slave has no permanent footing in the house; he may be dismissed or sold.” (Dods)
If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed: If we are set free from our slavery to sin — set free by a Son, and set free by abiding in Jesus’ word and being His disciple — then we are free indeed, having a true freedom that contrasts to the “freedom” the Pharisees blindly claimed in John 8:33.
I know that you are Abraham’s descendants: Jesus would admit that they are Abraham’s descendants in a genetic sense, but Abraham was not their father in a spiritual sense. When messengers from heaven came to Abraham, he received them (Genesis 18); but these genetic descendants of Abraham rejected and sought to kill the One sent from heaven.
We were not born of fornication: As previously in John 8:19, they again insulted the parentage of Jesus, calling Him an illegitimate child. The implication was, “We were not born of fornication, but we don’t know about You, Jesus.”
If God were your Father, you would love Me: Jesus again made the remarkable claim that He and His Father were and are so close in nature that if one truly lives as if God is their Father, they would also love Jesus. There is no room left for the person who says, “I love God but reject Jesus.”
Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word: Jesus explained that the problem with their lack of understanding was rooted in their failure — even inability — to listen to His word. This reminds is that the ability to listen to His word is a gift that one should be grateful for.
“The impossibility was spiritual. Prejudices, jealousies, and antagonisms made the real Christ inaudible to them though His every syllable fell upon the ear.” (Morrison)
You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do: The religious leaders brought up the issue of parentage by insulting Jesus in John 8:41. Jesus replied by explaining their spiritual parentage — they were the spiritual children of the devil. This was evident in that their desires matched the devil’s desires: the desire to kill and deceive.
Which of you convicts Me of sin? Again, Jesus gave His enemies — who hated Him so badly they wanted to kill Him — an opportunity to declare some sin in Him — and they could not. This was another remarkable testimony to the sinlessness of Jesus Christ.
You do not hear, because you are not of God: Jesus pressed home the point of spiritual parentage, which was evident by their actions — notably their rejection of Jesus and His word.
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I'm pretty sure, this morning, that a lot of people have had these verses read to them, or they read them, and they were singing in their brains "Blah, Blah, Blah". I'm pretty sure when they clicked on this thread, they saw all the wordiness and said "Blah, Blah, Blah, this woman is full of herself... what else is going on in these forums."
If you read this far, thank you. I would encourage you to follow the link to the commentary because although I'm wordy, the commentary is much wordier and I might have left out something you need to see. I'm addicted to writing these studies every morning. Sometimes I go back and read them and say to myself "you wrote this?".
I am reading from Daniel, through the Gospel of John [the best human buddy Jesus had], John's letters, and then Revelation. This is about looking for clues about the "End Times". This is not about current politics, although I will from time to time use phrases that depict current life, it's about the politics of those times. Because we didn't live back then, I'm using current political events, like holding a Bible upside down in front of the cameras.
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Back to the story.... Jesus was in a battle of words with the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Pharisees and the Sadducees called Jesus a Bastard and they threatened to drag Mary into the street and stone her to death because since she had an "illegitimate child" she was a whore. They claimed they had to do this because it was "the law".
Jesus knew they were just angry with Him because He made them look bad. He knew The Scriptures better than they did. He could feed 5000 men using only a handful of tiny fish and one little loaf of bread. He could heal a paraplegic who had been begging for help at the Pools of Bethesda for 38 years. He could walk on water!!!! They hated Him!
Jesus knew from the gitgo that not everyone would flock to Him. He knew some in the human family had grown rotten. He knew some in the human family would be spewing hate. Esau and Jacob were in the same family. Esau threatened to kill Jacob. Isaac and Ishmael were brothers and they were bitter enemies as well. Jesus knew.
I bet He wished that the leaders of the church weren't the human hate spitters, but they were.
They were trying to control the message. They were trying to say that Jesus wasn't worthy of all this adoration. He was just a bastard kid from Nazareth whose mother was a whore. That was their reason for going on and on and on about "We don't know who your father is".
Now all this talk about "freedom" seemed to be a crack Jesus could use to get to them. They claimed to be "free" but actually, God controlled the conquest.
It was God who had the Babylonians capture or kill all the people of Israel. Babies were bashed against the rocks until they were dead because the Babylonians didn't want the babies to grow up and war against them. God allowed that to happen. God let the Babylonians castrate the men so they wouldn't create anymore sniveling hate spitters. Daniel wrote about it. God had enough of their nonsense.
When Jesus was having this argument with the Pharisees and Sadducees they were under the heavy hand of Roman Conquest.
Those Pharisees and Sadducees were talking about being "free men". They were addicted to hate.
Jesus would help them get over their addiction to hate. Jesus would help them get over their addiction to power. Jesus would help them really be "free".
But the Pharisees and the Sadducees were so use to paying the vendors in the courtyard, and asserting their power over the people by pulling their membership in the Temple. Back then, all the Children of Abraham worshipped at the Temple. The Pharisees and the Sadducees could ban them from the Temple. They could not worship without the approval of the powers that were writing the laws at the time.
They hated Jesus because He was thumbing His nose at them. According to them, He couldn't even prove He should be allowed to worship in the Temple. according to them, He "didn't even know who His Father was" so He couldn't prove He was really a Jew like them.
Were they trying to control the message by driving Jesus out of the Temple? Were they trying to control the message by claiming Jesus of Nazareth may not even be an Israelite? They had to control the message and make Jesus go away!
They were addicted to power and hate.
They claimed to be free men!
They were addicted!
