John 8:31-32 -- So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
It's really wild to me that I have read John many, many times, over the years and there are still very deep things Holy Spirit keeps pointing out this time through. Something big just in these two verses, one of which is quoted all the time by pastors and teachers (verse 32).
I cannot recall the last time someone preached or shouted out verse 31, "Jesus says If you abide in His word, then you are truly His disciples!!!". Personally, I don't think I've seen that in a meme with a pretty background circulating on social media.
Now, from verse 32, "The Truth Will Set You Free", I have seen many times. I've heard it preached and shouted out many times. It is absolutely a beautiful, powerful, and truth filled part of God's Word.
However, what jumped out to me was how verse 32, while absolutely true on its own, is usually cherry picked out and modified to fit those pretty memes and posts. I'm looking on google images right now and I see: "The Truth Will Set You Free", "The Truth Will Make You Free", "You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.".
What's the big deal, Phillip? That's what verse 32 says, right?
Well… all of those leave out a single very important word…. "AND"
Yes, the word "and". A tiny little three letter conjunction that joins this verse to the one before it. "AND you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.". Ahhh… okay so this is only half the sentence Jesus was saying. Let's take one step back and read verse 31.
John 8:31 - So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed Him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,"
So, before we ever get to the truth about truth three things jump out from that verse.
1. Jesus said TO THE JEWS WHO HAD BELIEVED HIM. Jesus is not talking to the wooden religious people, unbelievers, or scoffers, He is speaking to those who heard what He'd been saying and believed in Him.
To the wooden religious people truth was what they'd already determined it to be in their minds. Anything further from Jesus is rejected.
To the unbeliever, truth means nothing because they have chosen not to believe what has already been said.
To the scoffer, truth that doesn't line up with their own is something to immediately and vehemently be mocked and attacked.
2. IF YOU ABIDE IN MY WORD. So here is where the genuine issue comes in. Many hear the beautified Gospel of Jesus, believe it, and decide they'll accept Jesus, then move into the wooden religious rituals of go to church, read 3 min devotional, do a good deed, live life like usual, rinse, repeat.
However, Jesus goes deeper as He clearly says, IF YOU ABIDE in my word. Abide in Greek is meno and is: to remain, abide, be held, kept continually, remain as one. It's to be knit together, so wherever one goes, the other goes.
How many of us Christians, believers, followers of Christ Jesus, can honestly, with God as our witness, say right now, "I abide in the Word of God."?
This isn't talking about showing up for church on Sunday. It isn't talking about you following a tik tok or social media person who gives a 3-minute sermon. This isn't talking about a 5 minute devotional in the Bible app on your phone. All of those are good things but they CANNOT and WILL NEVER replace reading and abiding in God's Word, period.
This is not some legalistic call that you must read so many chapters a day or you are wrong... NO... this is BELIEVING Jesus is who He says He is and died on the cross for our sins, and rose again from the dead, ascended to Heaven alive, and now sits beside God the Father as an advocate for those who are His. Then it's ABIDING with Him as He's told us to, so we get to know Him more, and are knitted to who He is. Then He CHANGES us from the inside out, by renewing our minds from all that abiding in His Word, walking with Him, talking with Him. We cannot live as Christians without these things. If you do, you're under water with no air supply and eventually YOUR air will run out.
3. …you ARE TRULY MY DISCIPLES, AND you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. We find there is quite a lot more Jesus had to say leading up to truth setting us free.
Verse 32 is a beautiful and powerful verse, but the fact the Christian Church seems to have unhitched the pretty things in God's word from the heavier, confrontational, anchoring things like verse 31, is why we have a powerless, frustrated church in America.
Most of us Christians, have lost the truth held in the WHOLE of God's word, in reading it in context, and sadly, in reading it at all.
To borrow from another person I saw online, May We Do Better as Christians. May I do better!
Don't take my word on any of it. Please, don't! Read it for yourself, let God speak to you in it.
You are loved. You are prayed over. You are not alone.
SIDE NOTE: Today's picture is one the Lord led me to draw back on Sun 10/23, in the post 'Broad, Narrow, Whole, Half'. However, He led me to cut the image in half and put on me the whole would be used later. Today when I prayed on the image to draw, He led me today was the day to reveal the WHOLE of His Truth and Love in that picture. God is so awesome!
Comments