JOHN 7:14-19b UNADULTURATED TRUTH

14 Not until halfway through the Feast did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. 15 The Jews were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having studied?”

16 Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. 17 If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. 18 He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. 19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law.

Knowledge and the application of knowledge called wisdom are passed from one generation to the next through the medium of teacher to student. In Jewish circles a rabbi would be taught by studying under an established rabbi. So, the authority of one’s teaching would be based on its being the interpretation of some famous rabbi. All of us experienced the power of this method when we were taught to write term papers in high school. Although we often emphasized that if an idea was not your own, you needed to give credit where credit was due, the other side of that coin was that the footnote indicated the authority behind the statement made. Only those thoughts that were your own, or at least common enough that they were part of the general pool of knowledge, could go unreferenced.

The Jews accused Jesus of not using footnotes according to established rabbinical practice. Jesus’ response was that he did not need footnotes for two related reasons. First, he was just “reading” what the author, God, said. And second, as such his role was not that of rabbi but of prophet; one who speaks the words of God and not his own.

The law is given by God, but all human interpretation is tainted by our nature which is to rationalize and try to fit the law into our way of living. So, Jesus could say to the rabbis that they have the law but none of them is keeping the law – as it was given. Only Jesus is the Incarnate Word and has come from the Father. Therefore, only Jesus has the authoritative interpretation of God’s Word.

This does not mean that the true message of God can only be known by every man individually encountering the Bible. What it does say is that God’s word is infallible, its authoritative interpretation is Jesus and that any other interpretation or application must be tested against Scripture in the community of believers and made intentionally under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Thank you, Father, for having sent your Son to demonstrate the true meaning of your Word. Help me Lord, to conform my life to your Word and avoid conforming your Word to my life. Give me a contrite and humble spirit so that I might live in obedience to your revealed will. Amen.