John 8:39-47

John 8:39-47

They answered and said to Him, “Our Father is Abraham.”  Jesus says to them, “If you are children of Abraham, you all were doing the works of Abraham.  But now you all seek to kill me, a man who has spoken the truth to you all which I heard from God.  Abraham did not do this.  You all do the works of your father.”  Therefore they said to Him, “We have not been born out of sexual immorality.  We have one Father: God.”  Jesus said to them, “If God was your father, you all were loving me.  For I came forth out of God and I am present.  For I have not come from myself, but that one sent me.  For what reason do you not understand my speech?  Because you are not powerful enough to hear my words.  You are out of the father the Devil and you all desire to do the evil desires of your father.  That one was a murderer from the beginning and he was not standing firm in the truth because the truth is not in him.  Whenever he speaks lies, he speaks on his own accord because he is a liar and the father of it.  But because I say the truth, you all do not believe me.  Who out of you convicts me regarding sin?  If I speak truth, for what reason do you not believe me?  The one who is out of God hears the words of God.  Because of this you do not hear: because you are not out of God.”

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Jesus continues the debate about Abraham with the Jews around Him.  This is a very interesting passage, because here Jesus subtly unravels a neat concept.  The Jewish leaders believe that they are out of Abraham because they have Abraham’s genealogy within them.  However, Jesus makes a completely different point.  If they were truly Abraham’s seed, they would receive the truth that is within Him.  Here’s Jesus’ point.  It is not biology that makes one a participant in the family of faith.  To be in the family, one receives Christ and the truth within Him.  Abraham receives God’s promise of faith; so do his true children.  It is faith, not biology, that God cares about.

How do you receive Christ?  Upon what does your faith stand?

Second Thought:

This is now several passages in a row that Jesus speaks about the Jews seeking to kill Him.  Jesus is blunt when He says that they are not acting like Abraham.  When a person is acting like Abraham, that person does not seek to thwart the plans of God.  Granted, we are human beings and we don’t always get what God is doing up front.  But the Jewish people are actively looking to kill Jesus.  They are not even open to Him.  Abraham may not have fully understood God’s promises and how He would make them come to bear, but at least he was open to God doing something!

Where are you open to God working in your life?  Where in your life are you resisting God and trying to snuff out what He is doing within you?

Third Thought:

The Jewish peoples’ comment about being a product of sexual immorality sets up the whole rest of the passage.  Of course we know that the Jewish people were the natural product of Abraham and Sarah.  In that sense, they are correct.  However, there is a deeper level of meaning here.  When the Jews were in rebellion prior to the Babylonian exile, the prophets compared the Hebrew people to an adulterer who was behaving in a manner of infidelity with respect to God.  Jesus is trying to tell the Jews that by seeking to destroy God’s work in Him they are returning to their idolatrous behavior that led them into the Babylonian exile.  Because of their idolatry they are unwilling to hear Jesus.  In fact, Jesus says that they are not even powerful enough to hear Him.

What in your life gets in the way of hearing God?  How can you work to keep yourself in a position of being open to God?

Passage for Tomorrow: John 8:48-59