John 8:42-47
In this passage, Jesus continues His discussion with the Jews at the temple. He tells them that if God was really their Father they would love Him because He comes from God and has been sent by God.
He asks a question “Why don’t you understand me?” (v43) and answers it “Because you cannot hear what I say”. Why can’t they hear what He says? Because their father is the devil. The people listening must have been scandalised at the fact this upstart of questionable parentage from Galilee told them their father was the devil. In fact in the following verses to be looked at next blog they respond to that. In the meantime here is Jesus telling them they cannot hear His words because they have the wrong father. If they were born of God they would be able to hear.
What made them of the devil instead of God? One of the reasons was that they were convinced of their own preconceived ideas. They were not open to hearing anything different (v47 also 10:3-4). Are we guilty of that? I believe we are, both in terms of the churches that exist in the world and rigidly adhere to the doctrines and traditions of their church and in our individual rigidly held beliefs. What is the antidote to that? Humility coupled with the humble desire to accept that God knows everything and we know nothing. This will guide us to hear God’s truths (not our lies) in our reading of the Bible and when in prayer.
Do not be taken in by the popular belief that everyone, if they are good enough, will go to heaven and that all religions lead to God. Here Jesus plainly states that the people, to be children of God, must believe Him. In later chapters this is more explicitly stated.
In stating the Jews’ father was the devil (which is true of anyone who does not believe in Jesus) He was identifying that the problem the people had was spiritual. In our modern world, heavily influenced by the Enlightenment and the belief in the sanctity of scientific thinking as the only truth, it is very hard to accept the spiritual side of our existence. Yet without that understanding we can never know God or hear Jesus’ voice. Sadly, many churches have opted for the scientific approach and have lost the ability to hear Jesus. What can you as an individual do change that?

John 8:31-41
In this passage, Jesus spoke to the Jews who had professed faith in Him. It is apparent from the verses that Jesus knew their profession of faith was not genuine. They had spoken with their mouths, not with their spirit. Jesus told them that if they truly believed in Him they would hold to His teaching. Only then would they know the truth which would set them free. They appeared challenged by this because they answered that they were Abraham’s descendants and had never been slaves of anyone so did not need to be set free. The fact that their nation was occupied by the conquering Roman Army which could command them to do anything it decreed was conveniently ignored. I can picture them making this answer very piously as if to show how perfect they were. Jesus’ answer was that everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Slaves have no permanent place in a family, unlike a son who belongs to the family forever. Jesus was of course referring to Himself. To reinforce this He told them that the Son could set them free, and then they would be free. He knew they were Abraham’s descendants although they didn’t act like them because they had no room for God in their lives. Jesus even went so far as to tell them their father was the devil! (Of course He didn’t spell it out at that time.) He was doing what His Father said and they were doing what their father said. The people seemed to understand enough to see that He was saying Abraham was not their father. They retorted with a dig at Jesus’ parentage by saying “we are not illegitimate children” and claiming the only father they had was God himself.
Of course, if they recognised and worshipped God, they would not have had so much trouble accepting Jesus. I have seen a lot of coverage on the television lately about christians who impose heavy burdens on people while living heavily sinful lives themselves. In one documentary I saw recently, a church attending father was condemning his daughter for being a lesbian when he was having an adulterous affair with a woman and then proceeded to move in with her! Of course he could see nothing wrong with what he was doing, despite the fact he had broken one of the ten commandments (Exodus 20:14, 17). Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! Sometimes people in their piousness get so good at finding the splinter in their brother’s eye that they conveniently ignore the beam in their own. This reference is from Matthew 7:1-8 and I strongly advise you to read it and consider what it says. Don’t get caught up in the idea that you are somehow more virtuous than the person next to you who doesn’t attend church as often as you do, or doesn’t appear to know as many bible verses, or, to your eyes, sins all the time. Remember, we have all sinned and we all fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). That is why we needed Jesus to die on the cross, so that our sin could be paid for. Do not fall into the trap of the people in the temple who believed they were virtuous and better than the others they looked down on. That person you label a ‘sinner’ is no more a sinner than you.
Just make sure that, having accepted Jesus as your saviour, you do not continue to sin.

John 8:21-30
These verses are very plain speaking by Jesus to the people in the temple. He again tells the people, in very plain words, who He is and that He comes from God. He tells them He is going and that, with the way they are misinterpreting His words and looking in all the wrong places for the Messiah, they cannot follow. If they continue down the wrong path, they will never be able to come with Jesus.
At first the people think Jesus is telling them He is going to kill himself. Jesus, however, points out that they are too busy thinking of what is down her on earth and not enough on spiritual things. They are caught up in the mundane and missing the glory of God. Jesus points out to them how they live in terms of what they see and touch. In short, they lack faith. They are missing God in the work of Jesus.
I wonder if that is what we do. We are so caught up in trying to interpret and hedge in doctrine all that Jesus told us in the Bible, that we miss the heavenly input in our faith. Are we concerned with physical buildings, congregations and doctrine or with God, Jesus and the prompting of the Holy Spirit? Do we allow ourselves to become so frightened about following our Shepherd that we try to make it safe and predictable? As I have mentioned before, there is nothing ‘safe’ in human terms with following God through Jesus. Our path is risky, dangerous and unpredictable. The one constant is the infinite love of God that allowed His son, Jesus to live on this earth and the infinite love of Jesus that led Him obediently to the Cross and to resurrection. In our scary and risky walk we have only faith and trust to hold on to. In the verses today, some of the people took that faith and trust and truly believed. Are you willing to do the same?