Today, I am reading and commenting on John 8-9.

John writes that Jesus told the Jews who believed Him that if they followed His teachings, they were His disciples, and that they would know the truth and the truth would set them free.  To which they responded that, as Abraham’s descendants, they were already free.  Jesus then told them that anyone who sins is a slave to sin.  Further, He says that they are trying to kill Him, because they have no room for His word.  I was struck today by the fact that John starts by saying this conversation was between Jesus and Jews who believed Him.  Yet, the discussion quickly turned confrontational.  Did the Jews who believed Jesus turn against Him when He told them they needed to be free?  Or, did Jews who already opposed Jesus insert themselves into this discussion because they thought they saw an opportunity to turn some of His followers against Him.  All of this resulted from Jesus saying that following His teachings will show us the truth and the truth will set us free.  I want to tie that together with the account John gives about Jesus healing a man born blind.  When the Pharisees confronted the man saying that they knew Jesus was a sinner, the man replied that he did not know about any of that, all he knew was that he had been blind but now he could see.  A little later, Jesus says that He came into the world so that the blind would see and those who can see will become blind.  Let us follow the example of the blind man and know only what Jesus has done for us.  If we do that, we will be able to see and He will reveal Truth to us so that we may be free.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 8-9.

Today’s passage begins with the account of the woman caught in adultery.  The oldest sources do not contain this story, which suggests that it was not in the original.  Nevertheless, I think the fact that it became ubiquitous in later versions of the Gospel of John suggests that God intends for us to learn lessons from it.  I think the most important of those comes from Jesus’ final statement to the woman.  “Neither do I condemn you.  Go now and leave your life of sin.” (or, as other translations put it, “Go, and sin no more.”)  We should not condemn those who sin, but we should call them to stop sinning (just as we should strive to stop committing whatever sins come into our lives).

This passage contains two stories I think teach us a lot about following Christ.  The first I wrote about in the first paragraph.  The second is the story of the man born blind.  Jesus’ disciples thought that the man had been born blind either because of sins he later committed, or because his parents had sinned.  That is a potentially interesting theological debate, which the disciples took to Jesus, probably because they thought that His answer would reveal a lot about His understanding of God.  And it did, but not in the way in which they expected.  His answer tells us that people do not necessarily experience what we consider suffering because of sin.  In this case, the man was born blind so that Jesus could demonstrate God’s power through him.  When we see people suffering, our question should not be about why they are suffering.  Our question should be, “How can God’s power be displayed through relieving the suffering so that people will glorify God?”  When we see people suffering we should seek ways to relieve that suffering in a manner which brings glory to God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 8-9.

As I study today’s passage I see Jesus trying different ways to express the same idea while those listening to Him keep missing His point.  John has written about Jesus teaching about light before this, but starts today’s passage with Jesus telling those who followed Him that those who  follow Him will always walk in the light.  From there He goes on to say that if we do not believe that “I am he” we will die in our sins.  Jesus then returns to His theme, if we hold to His teachings we will know the truth and the truth will set us free.  Which led those listening to dispute that they needed to be freed.  Jesus answered them by saying that those who sin are slaves to sin.  Those to whom He was speaking were unwilling to accept this, revealing themselves to be more invested in a lie than in hearing the truth.  Finally we get to the account of the man born blind.  When the Pharisees questioned the man born blind about his healing they said, “We know this man is a sinner.”  To which the man born blind replied, “One thing I know, I was blind and now I see.”  The Pharisees heard what Jesus said and saw what He did, but refused to believe and so were made spiritually blind.  The man born blind had faith and thus was given sight, both physically and spiritually.

Some people say that there are many paths to God.  This is often said as a criticism/contradiction of the claim by Christians that no one can come to God except through Jesus.  I want to say that I agree that one can follow one of many different paths in order to find God…but they all lead to Jesus.  No matter what path one chooses to follow in seeking God, that path will sooner or later either lead you to Christ, or it will never lead you to God at all.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 8-9.

Today’s passage begins with the account of the woman caught in adultery.  The earliest manuscripts currently known do not include this passage, which suggests it may be a later addition.  This leads me to suspect that the event recounted here did not actually happen.  However, based on my understanding of how God works in preserving the Truth contained in the Bible I believe it still communicates a message about how we should interact with people.  Jesus’ statement to those who brought the woman to him makes a great model for us to remember when we are tempted to condemn others: Let him who is without sin cast the first stone (using the most common paraphrase).  I want to point out though that does not mean passing off the sins of others as of no consequence.  After all, Jesus’ last words to the woman were “Go, and sin no more.” (using the most common translation).  We should not condemn others for their sins, but we should encourage them to give them up.

I did not mean to spend that much space on that, because the meat of this passage for me is the account of the man born blind.  First, the primary point of the story: the man was not born blind as punishment for sin, neither his nor his parents.  Not all suffering comes as punishment for sin.  However, my Dad pointed out to me a message in this account which now strikes a strong chord within me.  When the Pharisees questioned the man about how he received his sight, they told him that they knew that Jesus was a sinner.  To which the man replied “I don’t really know about that. All I know is that I was blind and now I see.” (paraphrasing)  The man born blind refused to get into a debate about fine theological points.  When they pushed him harder on this the man stuck to his point, “He opened my eyes.”  The man born blind allowed Jesus to open his eyes, while the Pharisees intentionally closed their own eyes.  Will you allow Jesus to open your eyes? Or will you close them to avoid seeing the Truth?

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 8-9

Jesus says, “you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”  He continues by saying that those who sin are slaves to sin, but that the Son can set them free.  All too often, we lie to ourselves about our sin, just as Jesus’ listeners were lying to themselves about their sin.  They refused to acknowledge that they were enslaved by their sins and, as a result, were unable to accept being freed from those sins.  The devil and those who serve him hate the truth because it reveals their sins.  Indirectly then, lies are the root of all sin.  All of this fits in with what Jesus said earlier in today’s passage when He said that He was the light of the world.  Light and truth both reveal what was hidden by darkness and lies.  Those who wish to be freed from slavery to sin will seek both light and truth so that their sins may be revealed.  Those who wish to continue in their sins avoid light and truth so as to avoid acknowledging the hurt and suffering which their sin creates, both in themselves and others.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 8-9

The story of the woman caught in adultery is not in the oldest manuscripts which we have of the Gospel of John, which suggests that it was not in the original.  However, it has been in the Bible since the Fourth Century, which leads me to believe that the Holy Spirit approves of the lessons we can learn from it.  So, what lessons can we learn.  First, only those who are free from sin may condemn others for sin.  This does not mean that I cannot point out that something is a sin, but I cannot claim to be any better than the person to whom I am pointing it out.  Instead of condemning them we should help them overcome the consequences of their sin.  Which brings us to the second lesson.  When we have helped the sinner back up our message to them is, “Go, and sin no more.”  When people are in need we help them, even if their need is the result of their own actions.  However, once we have helped them we should show them how they can avoid returning to the same bad place.

I love the story of Jesus healing the man born blind.  My initial love for this story comes from a point my Dad made about it.  When the Pharisees were questioning the man they told him that Jesus was a sinner.  The man born blind responded (paraphrasing), “I don’t know about your complex theology. But I do know that I was blind and now I see.”  When faced with questions regarding complex issues our faith should boil down to that one statement.  At some point you will face (or have already faced) a point where you have to choose whether or not you believe Christ.  I can tell you from experience that if you choose to believe Christ ever after you will face things which you do not understand saying, “One thing I know, I was blind, but now I see.”

I also love this story for what it tells us about suffering, a message which is important to remember in light of the messages we learn from the story of the woman caught in adultery.  People do not necessarily suffer because of their own sin, or even the sins of others.  Sometimes people suffer in order to give us an opportunity to demonstrate God’s love.  In fact, when we see someone suffering we should not see it as an opportunity to provide someone else with an object lesson on the danger of sinning.  Instead we should view it as an opportunity to bring glory to God by demonstrating His love.