Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                   Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                               Verses 41-47

Because of the stubbornness of these Jews and their refusal to learn from the written Word of God or hear Jesus' true preaching about it, Jesus became very blunt and direct with His preaching to them. Jesus boldly told them that they were actually doing the evil deeds of their father because they sought to kill Him. These unbelievers represent all humans who wholly give their lives over to the influence of evil. But even the worst humans still possess a living soul and spirit that God put into them that He can never lose. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Luke 20:38.

These Jews then openly revealed the fact that they had investigated the life of Jesus. They did so to try to find something that they could use against Him. They had learned that Jesus' mother had been pregnant before she married her husband Joseph. Like so many self-righteous and cruel people in history, they implied that something was wrong with Jesus simply because of the way He was born. They were actually accusing Jesus of not being a child of God when they told Him that God was their father, and they implied that Jesus could not be a child of God because they thought He was illegitimate.

Jesus rebuked them by telling them that if God were their Father, they would love Him because He had shown nothing but the love and mercy that the Old Testament taught about God. Jesus preached to them that they could not hear the truth of God's Word because they had wholly given themselves over to practice evil.

Jesus bluntly told them that because they had chosen to be cruel and evil, that meant that the Devil was their real father. The Devil had put the idea into their hearts to murder Him. But even the very best humans have pondered this idea at some time in their lives. Jesus told them that the Devil had always been a murderer and a liar, and they could not hear and believe the truth because they listened only to the lies of the Devil. The Devil and the demons never tell humans anything but lies. They may speak some half-truths, but these are only very clever lies. Genesis 3:5.