Yes, the Truth Can Set You Free… but First You Must Slow Down & Read Carefully

“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'”

John 8:31 (ESV)

Six Summer Weeks in John
Week 3, Day 17:
John 8:1-59

When you’re committed to a Bible reading plan, such as the six-week-long one my small group & I are in the midst of doing, it’s easy to hurry through to “get it done,” especially if you fall behind. If more of our Scripture readings are hurried through than not, however, we need to make ourselves slow down & read carefully. When we try, we will find more time for it than we think.

_{*Click here for more posts from Six Summer Weeks in John.}

Jesus Never Hurried; I Live in a Flurry of Hurry!

Last week I joined a book study at my church on John Mark Comer’s The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. In the first video that accompanies the book, Comer quotes the late Dallas Willard (author of The Divine Conspiracy, one of my favorite books) as giving this one-word description of Jesus: relaxed.

Jesus was relaxed. He never seemed rushed or hurried.

I’ve been asking myself this week as I go through my day, “Are you hurrying?” Yesterday I read John 8:1-59 again and was a little ashamed to discover that, as much as I actually like to read the Bible, to study it, to write about it, I still often hurry through it. I have hurried through John 8 so many times that I missed some important details.

I enjoy encouraging others to read Scripture carefully and check context, yet here I am, reading through The Gospel of John in Six Weeks with my jr. high small group, hurrying to: 1) Get it read; and 2) Find something to write about & share.

Thanks to the Ruthless book study, I asked myself as I was reading John 8 last week, “Are you hurrying?” I made a conscious effort to slow down and, what do you know? I discovered some things.

Familiar, but often misquoted & misapplied

“So Jesus said… ‘you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free…

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.'”

John 8, parts of v.31,36

This is the familiar part of John 8:12-59. The most quoted part, of course, is “the truth will set you free.” But you can’t take six words out of 48 verses and actually understand those six words! Let alone the fact that all of Jesus’ words need to be taken into consideration, along with the entirety of Scripture, if you’re going to get the most accurate picture!!!

For now, start gaining understanding with me by simply not hurrying through these 48 verses that contain the famous six words.

The Whole Enchilada

I challenge you to read John 8:12-59 with me right now. Is this a longer Scripture passage than is usually found in a blog post? Yes. And that is a shame. We all, us, you & me, the Body of Christ, need to ask ourselves: If I can’t slow down right now to read 48 verses about the life of Jesus, then what am I in such a hurry for? What could be more important?

Getting a little personal

I timed myself reading this passage out loud and it only took me 4 min. and 45 sec. — less than 5 minutes! Why do we look at 48 verses as something that will take too long for us to read? OK, I’m going to do something I don’t want to do, but here it goes: I am checking the Screen Time app on my iPhone from yesterday (a Sunday) and typing out how I spent most of my time [I wrote this part of the post on Monday.]:

38 min. on my Web browser, including

• 19 min. on Wikipedia (reading about Elon Musk, because my 9-year-old is reading a short biographical book about him; reading about Alexander I of Russia and Catherine the Great for background info because my 12-year-old & I are reading Tolstoy’s War & Peace — if we finish it, I’ll let you know! 😉 )
• 13 min. on pluggedin.com (researching a movie my 16-year-old wants to watch)
• 2 min. doing the daily Wordle puzzle (because it’s fun!)
• 27 sec. verifying that the Spanish word for “bed” is la cama (to prove to my daughters I was right)

11 min. phone call (My 12-year-old used my phone to call my parents. Hmm… maybe I could be a better daughter? 🙂 )
10 min. playing Sudoku (I’ve discovered numbers can actually be fun sometimes.)
5 min. text messaging (because I must randomly send strange Bitmojis to my teenagers even if they’re in the same room)
2 min. checking my Notes app (It took me two minutes to realize I did not have something in my notes I thought I had in my notes?!?)
34 sec. on my Clock app (resetting my wake up alarm for a later time…)
31 sec. deleting emails (This feels like it takes much longer.)

Glad I picked this Sunday…

Phew! That’s actually pretty conservative (I have spent much, much, much, much more time on my phone in a day.). But even on a day like yesterday when my phone usage wasn’t ghastly, you can clearly see that I had 5 minutes+++ to spare in which to read the Bible! Another challenge: Check your screen time (phone, tablet, laptop, desktop, TV) and see if you can find 5 min.+ to spend in the Word, reading a whole chapter… or more. I bet you can.

[If you’re like, “Whatever, Alicia,” about my pitiful amount of phone screen time from Sunday, let me additionally confess: One night last week I stayed up until 2 a.m. watching episodes of the Lois & Clark TV show from the 1990s on HBO Max. That is certainly the exception and not the usual for me, but, yes — I have a screen problem, too.]

John 8:12-59

The Light of the World; the Light of Life

“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’

Witnesses & Testimonies & Judgments

¹³So the Pharisees said to Him, ‘You are bearing witness about Yourself; Your testimony is not true.’

¹⁴Jesus answered, ‘Even if I do bear witness about Myself, My testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. ¹⁵You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. ¹⁶Yet even if I do judge, My judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent Me. ¹⁷In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. ¹⁸I am the One who bears witness about Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness about Me.’

¹⁹They (the Pharisees) said to Him therefore, ‘Where is Your Father?’

Jesus answered, ‘You know neither Me nor my Father. If you knew Me, you would know My Father also.’

²⁰These words He spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; but no one arrested Him, because His hour had not yet come.

“I Am Going Away…”

²¹So He said to them again, ‘I am going away, and you will seek Me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.’

²²So the Jews said, ‘Will He kill Himself, since He says, “Where I am going, you cannot come”?’

²³He said to them, ‘You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. ²⁴I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am He you will die in your sins.’

“Who Are You?”

²⁵So they said to Him, ‘Who are You?’

Jesus said to them, ‘Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. ²⁶I have much to say about you and much to judge, but He who sent Me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from Him.’

²⁷They did not understand that He had been speaking to them about the Father.

²⁸So Jesus said to them, ‘When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing on My own authority, but speak just as the Father taught Me. ²⁹And He who sent Me is with Me. He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.’

³⁰As He was saying these things, many believed in Him.

To the Jews who had believed Him

³¹So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, ³²and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’

³³They (the Jews who had believed Him) answered Him, ‘We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that You say, “You will become free?”‘

Slaves & the Son

³⁴Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. ³⁵The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. ³⁶So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. ³⁷I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill Me because My word finds no place in you.’

Father Abraham & Father God

³⁸They answered Him, ‘Abraham is our father.’

Jesus said to them, ‘If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, ⁴⁰but now you seek to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. ⁴¹You are doing the works your father did.’

They said to Him, ‘We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father — even God.’

⁴²Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of My own accord, but He sent Me.

⁴³Why do you not understand what I say?
It is because you cannot bear to hear My word.

The Devil’s Own

⁴⁴You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁴⁵But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. ⁴⁶Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? ⁴⁷Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.’

Demons, Dishonor, & Glory

⁴⁸The Jews answered Him, ‘Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?’

⁴⁹Jesus answered, ‘I do not have a demon, but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. ⁵⁰Yet I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks it, and He is the judge. ⁵¹Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death.’

⁵²The Jews said to Him, ‘Now we know that You have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet You say, “If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste death.” ⁵³Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do You make Yourself out to be?’

Who Knows God & Who Doesn’t

⁵⁴Jesus answered, ‘If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing. It is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, “He is our God.” ⁵⁵But you have not known Him. I know Him. If I were to say that I do not know Him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know Him and I keep His word. ⁵⁶Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see My day. He saw it and was glad.’

Jesus’ Mic Drop: “Before Abraham was, I am”

⁵⁷So the Jews said to Him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?’

⁵⁸Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.’

⁵⁹So they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.”

John 8:12-59 (ESV)

_{*Click here to read John 8:12-59 in the NIV, NLT, & CSB.}

5 W’s and an H

I don’t always slow down enough to notice all the who, what, where, when, why, & how of a passage of Scripture. This is probably extra sad for me since I have a journalism degree, but all Bible readers need to take note of these things.

In her book Women of the Word (which I highly recommend), Jen Wilkin says,

“The comprehension stage is probably the most neglected and misunderstood by students of the Bible, mainly because we assume that reading a text and absorbing a sense of its message equates to comprehending it…

If you have read other books about Bible study, you may have heard the first step in the learning process termed as ‘observation’ rather than ‘comprehension.’ I believe comprehension better captures what we want to accomplish.

Observation can be subjective — it can connote a casual perusal, in which I pull out details or thoughts that seem significant to me as I read. Comprehension, on the other hand, is more objective. It seeks purposefully to discover what the original author intended me to notice or ask…

Asking ourselves ‘What does it say?’ is hard work, and it requires us to slow down when we read.”

Women of the Word, p.88-89, 2014

The 5 W’s and an H can help us comprehend a passage. Let’s do that with John 8:12-59… in our next post.

_{*Continue scrolling for a song about slowing down.}

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Thinking of eliminating hurry and slowing down reminded me of a song from 1994 titled “Taking My Time.” Below are the lyrics & a link to the song on YouTube for your listening pleasure.

Taking My Time

^{Written by Christine Dente & Charlie Peacock}