John 8:31-32 "Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."
"The truth will set you free" is such a commonly used phrase, today. Many would consider it one of the great laws of life. Only those who study the bible have any idea where it came from. Even people who don't believe in Jesus, believe in this phrase of His, not knowing the source. Here are some top-selling books covering this life principle of Jesus, The Truth Will Set You Free. One of the most fascinating things about reading the Bible, for me, was discovering how many phrases in our modern English originated in the Bible, thousands of years before. A popular TV program is about an F.B.I. agent who seeks the truth. The phrase "the truth is out there" flashes on the screen at the beginning of many episodes. In U.S. court, a witness swears to tell "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." Then they lie up a storm. As a country, we were more upset with our former President for lying to us, than for all the other things he was accused of. We don't have time to list those things, but you may remember a couple. For more information about Jesus see these books on the History of Jesus Christ.
After a while, we get the idea that truth is pretty important to us. Still, how can it set us free? And, free from what? We'll get to that, but first, how many of you believe that truth will set you free? Go ahead and raise your hand? Wow, that's almost all of you. Are you sure? I'm really just sitting in my office and can't see your hands, so you can put them down, now. What if I were to tell you that the statement, "The truth will set you free." Is not true? That's why we're studying it, today, because Jesus was clearly teaching…
There is a condition to be met before we can be free.
1. To be free, we must know the truth: After Sep 11, everyone in the World knew there was a conspiracy to take jumbo jets and use them as giant flying bombs. This thing had been planned for years. The truth existed for years, but it did us no good. If truth, by itself, could have helped us, the attacks would have been prevented. We had to know the truth to prevent the attacks. Truth, by itself, can't free us. After reading the whole story in John 8, we know that Jesus was sitting there telling these people the truth, but they were unwilling to know and accept the truth. Jesus predicted the end result was that they would die as slaves to their sin, and never find Him. All because they were unwilling to know the truth.
2. To know the truth, we must be His disciples: This is an interesting condition to knowing the truth; we must be disciples of Jesus. What makes this interesting is what the word disciple means. Most people would say it means "student", and that's partially true. That's the most common definition today, but what did it mean when Jesus said it, to the people He said it to? If we really want to understand God's Word, those are the kinds of questions we need to ask. A disciple learns what the Master teaches, like a student, but it doesn't stop there. A disciple eats what the Master eats, sleeps where the Master sleeps, does what the Master does, and does what the Master says. Disciples conform their lives to the life of the Master. Instead of "student", "follower" would be a better English word for disciple. Students are about studying and learning. Followers are about doing and being. It's clear what Jesus means, by the next condition He sets for freedom. You see, to be free, we must know the truth, and to know the truth, we must follow Jesus, and…
The second thing is this; we must live our lives in Him, having Him living in us. The book of John captures some things about Jesus the other gospels leave out. It describes Jesus as the "Word", look at John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." The Word was a term used commonly at that time to mean God; it means "the Divine expression". The "Truth" was a name Jesus gave to Himself, as recorded in John. Jesus' whole mission is to free us from sin. It's clear in Chapter 8, that's the kind of freedom He was talking about. I believe Jesus used these very words so we, who follow Him, would understand that it's more than study, and reading and holding to some doctrine. It's more than learning and doing. That's all necessary for growth in Him, but living in his Word is more than that. It's about being! Paul wrote, 'I've been crucified with Christ, I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.' Jesus often said things in "code" to confuse and anger those He was speaking to, but to make a Spiritual point to His true followers. To us, 2,000 years after he spoke, I believe Jesus was saying:
"If you live in Me (my Word), you are truly followers who know Me (the Truth), and I will set you free."
Insights:
A) In Politics, the politicians can tell a lies to win the race in political elections.
B) In Judiciary System, the lawyer can tell a lies to depend the accuse and set him free.
C) In Education System, the Engineers or any Professionals can't accept by themselves that the less educated People is better than them.
D) In Work Environment, many of us are trying to gain progress to our professional growth and believing ourselves that we can do something even with the fact that we have doubt if we can make it or not..
E) In relationship and sex life, many of us have a feeling of lust or desire to others but we are not open enough and denying it with someone that we have the feeling of sexual desire to other woman or a man.
Now tell me! Who among us are telling the truth? We are human and not a God, just like others there is also lies behind of your religious belief. So be aware to judge others because you are also one of them! - And bear on your mind that only GOD has the rights to judge People and you don't have rights to judge others because you don't know exactly who you are?