Scripture Reading: John 8:31-59, Romans 6:15-18, Galatians 5:1
My son resembles his Taiwanese heritage with straight midnight hair, tan skin, and dark eyes. So when I came across his text message chain with another kid who posted bowls of rice and other racist images, I told him what he needed to do.
“I don’t need you to teach me,” my son replied. “I know what I’m doing.”
Jesus’s relationship with the Jews reminds me of my son’s comment, “I don’t need you to teach me.” As we come to John 8:30, Jesus had been teaching in the temple and many Jews believed in Him because of what He said. Jesus then offered them a truth that could save them from much more than a text message bully—but they didn’t want Jesus’s teaching. They acted like overly confident teenagers, offended by the aged wisdom of the One that they had just come to believe was the Son of God (vv.28–31).
Jesus might have sounded like a parent while telling them, “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (vv.31–32). He told them that if the Son set them free, they would be free indeed (v.36).
But the Jews pushed back. I imagine they rolled their eyes like my son, brushing off the redirection they thought they didn’t need. “We don’t need your teaching. We’re Abraham’s descendants and don’t need to be set free from slavery” (paraphrase mine). They thought they were in the know—but they didn’t know they were slaves to sin (Romans 6:15–18).
The fact is, however, we need the same truth the Jews rejected. Unless we, too, hold onto, or know and follow, Jesus’s teachings, we, too, can live as slaves to sin. To be a slave is to live in submission to someone or something. Now, of course we are saved by grace through faith and not by works (Ephesians 2:8–9), but we also learn to walk with God by practicing God’s teachings. The more we obey Him instead of the pull of our sin, the more freedom we find.
I see this in my own life.
When I soak my mind in God’s word, I increasingly follow the pattern of the Bible’s teachings. “Hold your tongue.” “Be patient.” “Trust the Lord” (Proverbs 21:23, Ephesians 4:2, Proverbs 3:5–6, Romans 6:17). My life is then filled with increasing freedom from sin.
But when I’m not soaked in God’s word, it’s another world. I live in increasing slavery to my desire for control. Anxiety moves in, along with grumbling, jealousy, and discontentment (Philippians 2:14, James 3:16).
Do you ever notice a difference in your life when you meditate on and practice God’s word versus when you don’t? The Jews who argued with Jesus in John 8 had no room for Jesus’s words (John 8:37) and couldn’t hear, or understand and retain, what Jesus said (v.43).
May we hear. May we be ready and open to be washed in the words of the Bible over and over. May we hold onto Jesus’s teachings (v.31), know the truth (v.32), and obey His Word (v.51) because Jesus’s words bring freedom from the power of sin and death—and it is for freedom we have been set free (Galatians 5:1).
Written by Seana Scott
