John 8:31-32


Then Jesus said to those Jews, who believed in him: "If you continue in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

John 8:31-32 says that if we continue in or hold to the word of Jesus then we get three things:

1. We will be his disciples indeed.

2. We will know the truth

3. The truth will make us free

It is a common thought in our modern world that there is no truth but that everything is relative. This is a rather cynical view may be a result of our being overwhelmed with knowledge. We are constantly bombarded with conflicting ideas. One thing sounds good at one time and another at another. Things seem to keep changing. The Bible says however that we will know the truth if we stay in His word. Ephesians 5:17 (KJV) says "17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is". From this verse we learn that God expects that we can understand his word. God made us and knows what we are capable of. This is not to say that understanding the Bible is easy. Peter said of Paul's writings in 2Peter 3:16 that some of them were hard to understand. Certainly the basics of the Gospel and the plan of salvation can be understood by all but the book of Revelation contains mystery.

The third promise of this verse is that we will be free. What will we be free from? A review of the verses following shows that the Jews thought that Jesus was talking of physical freedom and slavery. Jesus explains that continuing in His word makes us free from sin.