Friday 11 May 2012

Friday Reading: John 8:39-47

Key Verse: John 8:42
42  Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.

Devotion:
I have always found it interesting how Jesus used the words of those around Him to bring their own faults to the surface. So very often we are so focused on what we do or what we want to believe that we lose focus on the truth that God is trying to get us to see. When the Jews were saying that they were of the seed of Abraham He turned those words right round and made them see that if they were actually committed to Abraham then they would be doing the will of Abraham. And by the same token He then tells them that if they were focused on God then they would be doing what God’s wills them and not following their own will.

Quite often it will take the words of rebuke such as these for us to see that we have got things wrong in our lives. But, by the same token we take these words and try to turn things round for our own good or for our own gain. This is not what Jesus is doing; He is rather trying to open their eyes to what they are focusing on when they lose focus on God.

Jesus drew their attention to the fact that they knew more about the laws of man than they knew about the laws of God. They were building up man’s laws instead of building up and holding up God’s perfect laws. Many of them had probably been born into the positions they had or had been given them by other men. Jesus, on the other hand had been given His position from God and He wanted them to see just how important it is to follow God’s calling rather than man’s calling.

The religious men had begun to depend more on the changes brought in by man than the original laws as laid down by God. They were losing their focus on God and broadening their knowledge and dependency on man’s laws. Jesus’ answer to this was to allow them to see that they either server God or they served man; and if they served man then they were against God. In other words they were effectively serving Satan because he is the master of deceit against God. He then made sure that they knew that He was not a sinful man like all of the religious leaders but was rather a perfect man lead by God alone. How could they then hope to be able to trip Him up with any sin – for He knew no sin!

Points to Ponder:
Who do you think you follow?

Do you think God would agree with your choice?