To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – John 8:31-32

We hear it all the time: “The truth will set you free.” But we hear it out of the context of this chapter, which I believe is a profound commentary on human behavior. Go back and read it if you get the chance.

It is this conversation in which the people tried to stone Jesus and He walked away without being touched. He tells them the truth will set them free and they are so angry by the end of it that they decide to kill Him.

Much of the misunderstanding here is exactly what we’ve talked about before: Listening with earthly understanding. The people couldn’t understand how Jesus could make the claims He made, so they accused him of being demon possessed or being a Samaritan (how those two go together and make sense in the same insult in this context must have been lost in translation). They’re looking at everything through the lenses of the law and their earthly knowledge, so His teachings seem foreign and unlikely.

It’s understandable that they might not get it at first glance: He’s speaking on a level they could claim ignorance of. It would seem that since they were bound to this earth they ight not have an understanding of Heavenly things, but then we have to look at their history with God Himself.

He had asked them to trust Him as He led them through history. All the stories they told their children had to do with the might and majesty and mystery of God the Father. Their entire lineage was based on God’s sovreignty and goodness in the face of their stubbornness and small-mindedness and they learned those stories at the feet of their teachers from very young ages.
It was the application of the fundamental lessons of the stories that was missing.

He was not asking too much of them when He asked them to understand. Unfortunately what was going on in this passage and throughout the gospels was a blind, pig-headed resistance to the truth because it didn’t echo back to them what they wanted to hear. They would have to let go of things they thought they’d known — those things that allowed them to be self-righteouss and holier than thou, that had allowed them to condemn and look down on others.

If you read this entire passage, you’ll see that it’s their absolute blind pride that made them fight Him tooth and nail, and that’s why it was this teaching that led to them wanting to stone Him.

Different emotions have different vibrations: while it sounds new-agey, it’s a scientific fact. It’s also a weird fact that nothing vibrates higher than the truth, and immersing yourself in that truth can open you up to the recognization of it even more.

Pray that God would open your ears to the truth on a daily basis so that you can hear it more clearly when it comes to you. Pray that you won’t systematically reject it because your system finds it foreign.

Ask Him to allow your heart to accept it even when it’s not what you want it to sound like, and to follow Him in His truth rather than any alternative story the world has to offer. ❤️