And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.
Jesus spoke these words in his discourse following the healing of the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath, after the Jewish leaders accused him of Sabbath-breaking. That healing had been given to free the Sabbath from its added burdens. When he then declared that he worked as his Father works, with equal right with God, the rulers were incensed, counted that equality with God a heinous sin, refused his mission and authority, and would have killed him except for fear of the people.
The meaning is that God's word does not abide in those who do not believe Jesus, the one the Father sent. Their rejection of Jesus showed they had not received the Father's witness to him. Merely possessing Scripture and outwardly knowing it is not having God's word abide within, because Scripture testifies of, points to, and bears witness to the one God sent, so that to reject Christ is to reject God's word.
Though the Jewish teachers possessed Scripture and thought they knew its teachings, boasting superiority over every other people while professing to revere it, pride and selfish ambition led them to misread it with hardness of heart and blind ignorance. They were ignorant of the claims of the law, keeping its forms and ceremonies while ignoring the great principles of truth that are its foundation, and their worldliness, love of praise and power, avarice, and lack of compassion exposed their disbelief. A diligent, rightly guided search of Scripture would have shown that Jesus is the Messiah and that the types and shadows of the Jewish system were being fulfilled in him, giving knowledge of God and wisdom for salvation, for knowing God and Jesus personally is essential to eternal life.
Refusing to come to Christ for life is refusing the life he gives. The same refusal applies to people in the churches who have received great light but neglect it; they must awake, keep their lamps burning, and turn to the Bible and to God in confession before they become spiritually unprepared. The verse stands in the fifth and sixth chapters of John, which contain the mystery of godliness and must be studied, made a part of life, and brought into daily experience, since that study alone gives the knowledge that enables distinguishing the true from the false in days of peril.
Jesus spoke these words in his discourse following the healing of the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath, after the Jewish leaders accused him of Sabbath-breaking. That healing had been given to free the Sabbath from its added burdens. When he then declared that he worked as his Father works, with equal right with God, the rulers were incensed, counted that equality with God a heinous sin, refused his mission and authority, and would have killed him except for fear of the people.
The meaning is that God's word does not abide in those who do not believe Jesus, the one the Father sent. Their rejection of Jesus showed they had not received the Father's witness to him. Merely possessing Scripture and outwardly knowing it is not having God's word abide within, because Scripture testifies of, points to, and bears witness to the one God sent, so that to reject Christ is to reject God's word.
Though the Jewish teachers possessed Scripture and thought they knew its teachings, boasting superiority over every other people while professing to revere it, pride and selfish ambition led them to misread it with hardness of heart and blind ignorance. They were ignorant of the claims of the law, keeping its forms and ceremonies while ignoring the great principles of truth that are its foundation, and their worldliness, love of praise and power, avarice, and lack of compassion exposed their disbelief. A diligent, rightly guided search of Scripture would have shown that Jesus is the Messiah and that the types and shadows of the Jewish system were being fulfilled in him, giving knowledge of God and wisdom for salvation, for knowing God and Jesus personally is essential to eternal life.
Refusing to come to Christ for life is refusing the life he gives. The same refusal applies to people in the churches who have received great light but neglect it; they must awake, keep their lamps burning, and turn to the Bible and to God in confession before they become spiritually unprepared. The verse stands in the fifth and sixth chapters of John, which contain the mystery of godliness and must be studied, made a part of life, and brought into daily experience, since that study alone gives the knowledge that enables distinguishing the true from the false in days of peril.