John 8
COMMENTARY:
: 9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. (1651 “convicted” [elegcho] means bring to light, to shame by exposure, reprove, rebuke, convince, tell one’s faults, refute, to correct, to expose, or to find fault with.)
DEVOTION: What’s wrong with this picture? They had a woman who was caught in the act of sinning. If she was caught in the act of sinning, there had to be another person present. Where was the other person? The punishment for the sin was death in the law of Moses. What was the problem? They had only brought one party to the stoning.
Jesus never condoned sin. In this confrontation Jesus taught as he normally taught by asking questions or making statements. Here he simply stooped down and wrote in the sand. They asked him again. He told them that whichever one was without sin should cast the first stone. Then he stooped down and wrote in the sand.
When he looked up, no one was there but the woman. Their God given conscience told them that they were sinners too. They were exposed as sinners. Some commentaries say that Jesus might have been writing down their personal sins on the ground. HE could have done that as HE knew what their sins were. However, HE could have just given time to think about what they were doing. They were only obeying part of the Law of Moses. They were holding the woman guilty while the man was set free.
Jesus told the woman to go and sin no more. HE wanted to give her forgiveness. HE did. She went her way. We don’t know if she stayed away from sin but we know that she had a chance to change her life. The LORD gives us many chances to mature in the faith. We fail many times. HE forgives many times. Praise HIS name.
Now back to these Pharisees. They were a judgmental group. They were quick to see sin in others but not in themselves. We can fall into this trap. We can see others sinning MORE than we sin.
What is our attitude and action when we catch someone we know in a sin? What do we tell them to do? How do we help them? Should our reaction be the same as Jesus? Too often we see people who live in glass houses casting the first stones at others.
CHALLENGE: Don’t cast stones but encourage those who we call fellow believers to sin less by our prayers and help. We are to be ministers of reconciliation.
: 29 And HE that sent ME is with ME: the Father has not left ME alone; for I do always those things that please HIM. (701 “please” [arestos] means agreeable, desirable, giving pleasure and satisfaction, proper, acceptable, or upright.)
DEVOTION: We have been sent by Jesus Christ to go into all the world and preach the gospel. HE sent out HIS disciples with the understanding that they were to make disciples and send them.
The Father sent the Son into the world to be HIS representative. Jesus was sinless and represented the Father to those HE met. HE did everything during HIS time period on this earth to please the Father.
In the same way we are here to please the Father because of what the Son has done for us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our life. Our actions should cause people to glorify the Father.
Many times we fail in our witness. Our lives are not always pleasing to the Father. We are not sinless but we can sin less as we continue to learn how to live the Christian life until we die. We will never stop sinning completely but we can try to not live in sin.
Living in sin is when our pattern of living doesn’t reflect what the Word of God teaches. There are individual sins that we confess daily to be refilled with the Holy Spirit. Living in sin is a time period when we stop confessing our sins daily and seem to not care about what God thinks of our habits.
Those who are living in sin will be chastened by the LORD if their conversion is genuine. If someone who claims to be a Christian is doing things for a long period of time without any chastening of the LORD then there might be reason to reevaluate their conversion.
God is the only one who knows those who are genuine believers but we can be fruit inspectors with an attitude of a ministry of reconciliation toward any individual who seems to be living in sin.
We need to be pleasing the LORD daily with our attitudes and actions. When we fail we need to confess and ask for the help of the Holy Spirit to live the life the LORD wants us to live.
: 44 You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. (5583 “liar” [pseustes] means one who breaks faith, false and faithless man, cheat, perjury or falsifier.)
DEVOTION: The Pharisees thought they were obeying the LORD in their teachings and life. They added more laws to the Mosaic Law to make their appearance look better to those they were teaching. Remember that the LORD said that they made their converts twofold more a child of hell them themselves. They were false teachers.
Not Jesus connects them to the devil. HE states that they are part of the family of the devil. He is their father. He is a murderer from the beginning. He lied to Eve and because she ate the fruit and gave it to Adam who faced the judgment of God. The judgment of God for their disobedience was death. So the devil is guilty of murder. They made a choice but he influenced their decision.
Every time we tell a lie we are sinning against the LORD and honoring our former father the devil. Our new Father once we become a follower of the LORD is one who wants us to always tell the truth. Truth should be our goal each day.
One of the problems we face each day is dealing with flattery. It is sometimes called a compliment wrapped in a lie. We are to compliment people for what we see as their special ability or appearance.
Truth at all times is difficult. We are better off not saying anything at all then to flatter or tell a lie. Our mouth has to be under control at all times.
CHALLENGE: Only with the help of the Holy Spirit can we be truth tellers. We have to fight our old father with the help of the Holy Spirit in our life.
: 58 Jesus said to them, Verily, verily, I say to you, Before Abraham was, I am. (1488 “I am” [ei] means to be, exist, be, take place, be located in, to belong, or to have existence..)
DEVOTION: Jesus and the religious leaders were always at odds with one another. Jesus was always right but the religious leaders would not yield to HIM. They thought HE was just another human being. They knew HE didn’t graduate from one of their schools. They knew that they know more of the truth of the Word of God then HE did. They were wrong.
HE made a statement that Abraham saw HIM and was glad. This really confused these religious leaders. They knew that HE was under the age of fifty. They knew that Abraham had died many years before Jesus came to this earth. They had to accuse HIM of lying.
Remember that their father was the devil and he was the father of lying. Therefore they were accusing HIM of being a child of the devil. Not a very good thing to say about the Messiah. Jesus made this statement which was plain to these religious leaders.
HE claimed to be the “I AM” of the Old Testament. Abraham met with the “angel of the LORD” who was Jesus in a theophany in the Old Testament. Jesus spoke with Abraham in the form of a man.
Abraham was promised that in his seed all the nations of the world would be blessed. It only happened when Jesus came to die for the sins of the world.
CHALLENGE: Jesus is eternal. HE created the world. HE sustains the world. HE is the light of the world.
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