In a conversation between Jesus and others nearby from John 8:31-58 (which the past couple of articles have been discussing), if those who were protesting were following the faith of Abraham, Jesus’ words would have lined up with what they already knew to be true about God (and from God). However, their viewpoints had been skewed and predisposed in another direction, because they were listening to something else: someone who did not have the truth.
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. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 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. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!
John 8:42-45 NIV
Now, in my mind, there are two main reasons for something to not be true:
- A person can be mistaken, having misunderstood or misinterpreted something. Where an individual holds an incorrect (i.e., non-true) viewpoint, there are times when this should be corrected in a loving manner (if it’s important enough), but a mistake isn’t necessarily malicious.
- The other reason for a non-truth to be shared is an outright lie. In this case, the person telling the falsehood knows that it’s wrong, but still shares it as the real deal.
In this case, the people’s spiritual father is the father of lies: the devil himself. That’s a far cry from the faith of Abraham (who was their biological ancestor).
In fact, what the devil says might be interpreted here as “the lie” [ref. NASB footnote]. We could debate what the ultimate lie from the devil is, but I propose that it might be related to what he told Eve in the Garden of Eden: that we could become like God and that God’s words were not true (see Genesis 3:1-5). The truth is that we can’t be gods, and there are a lot of implications of that reality, including the fact that we don’t get to decide what is truth – what is reality – and what is a lie.
In this passage, those who haven’t been listening to God seem to be unable to even hear the truth. Sometimes, one reaches a point where listening to the same lies long enough makes it super-difficult to hear the truth. If you have been taught something wrong long enough, and choose to keep hearing others tell you the wrong thing, it’s difficult to let the truth overcome a history of bias that gets settled into our minds.
(This is a trick that allows social media companies to keep pulling in advertising revenue: by continuing to show someone articles that reinforce what they already believe, they keep coming back…even if those articles reinforce something that is not true.)
In the same way, if you had a good earthly father, do you end up saying the same things to others that he did? Expanding a little further, do you find yourself saying things that your parents said, even if – as a kid – you were certain that you’d never repeat those things?
This happens in the spiritual realm, as well: whoever we listen to and trust as the source of our truth becomes the source of our speech, our passion, and our focus. Just as people knew me back home as my dad’s son (since he had grown up in that county), people are likely to recognize us as children of our spiritual father.
Sure, other influences blend into our lives, and we make individual decisions that may not always reflect one spiritual father, but for those of us who follow Jesus, we should be recognizable as children of God. If that’s not the case, though, perhaps we need to examine ourselves and ask whether we are listening to God as the source of truth, or if other influences in our lives have too much of a say in what we absorb and believe.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for January 7, 2024
References:
- The Lookout, January 7, 2024, © 2024 Christian Standard Media.
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – John, by Beauford H. Bryant and Mark S. Krause. © 1998 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 