August 9, 2016 - "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:31-32)
These words of Jesus sound like He is talking to people who are in bondage, telling them what they must do to be freed from captivity.
Yet, the Old Testament Jews were a group of people whose claim of superiority is that they are "children of Abraham" and were never in bondage to anyone.
Of course they had to get permission from the Roman Governor anytime they were to do anything and they carried Roman money in their pockets.
These people were in spiritual bondage. They were bound by their own sins and many more of them by their rejection of Jesus.
Jesus is assuring the people He is addressing in this scripture, who do believe in Him, that they have received, both truth and freedom. The truth of His words and freedom from their own sinful ways.
He exhorts all to "abide in My word" (abide, means - to have one's abode, to reside or dwell within) We see here that if we are to be useful vessels for the Lord that we must truly "live in and by, the Word of God".
Fruit-bearing is the mark of a true disciple as Jesus said; "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:35)
So if one is a "true" disciple then one will live the truth he has learned by abiding in God's Word and doing the Lord's work.
A false disciple, on the other hand, is one who only professes to be a Christian.
He loudly claims that he is living in Christ, but his actions tell the real truth, he does not know the truth he professes, and is living in the world, and not in Christ.
He has a name of one who lives, but he is dead in sin, in bondage to his sin.
Peter and John, while they were at Antioch were the first to be called "Christian".
Did they give themselves this name, no, they were called Christians because the non-believing Jews could tell by the lives they were living that they had indeed spent time with Christ.
They had been transformed, freed by the power of the Word of God in their lives and the others could readily see the difference in them. By the lives we live each day we too shall be known.
I would suggest that living as false disciples, professing Christ with one's mouth, but denying Him with one's deeds is the greatest obstacle to spreading the Word of God to the world.
If one sees another professing Christ, but living "of the world" then the false disciple has forever made an impression, a bad impression, upon that lost person and has made salvation much, much harder for that person to ever obtain. He has become a stumbling block and not a stepping stone for Christ.
Let us, each and every one, be stepping stones each day for the Lord, let us lead others to Christ by our own lives by being true disciples. Amen...
