The Truth That Frees Us (John 8:31-31) and Why that is NOT Synonymous with a Daily Quiet Time

“Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’”  John 8:31-32

This verse is usually used to remind all “us good Christian folk” to engage in a daily Bible reading time.  I know that’s what I learned in Bible college: “soak in the Word, soak in the Word.”  By that, they meant to spend a lot of time reading your Bible.  We had Bibles everywhere.  Other people’s back-pockets might have had a Copenhagen wear mark, but ours had Pocket New Testament lines, compliments of the Gideon’s.  I read and I read and I read, and when I wasn’t reading the Bible, I was listening to it on tape. 

 

This post isn’t to downplay reading the Bible.  It’s just to say that I don’t think it’s what Jesus was talking about.  Jesus had just been talking to a crowd of people and many came to believe in Him, so when He said, “Abide in My word,” He wasn’t talking about reading the New Testament or about having a daily quiet time, because there was no such thing then, on both accounts.  He was talking about the words that He had just said. 

I’m thinking He was saying something along the lines of, “Keep yourselves rooted and grounded in what I am telling you (don’t become indifferent to my words, don’t leave them).  That’s how you’ll know you belong to Me.  This stuff is for real—I’m brimming with true Life—and the power of that Life going to loose you from every last lie-forged chain that’s keeping you down.“ 

The Kingdom of the Truth-bringer is a lot like a tiny tree root eventually cracking the concrete sidewalk.  The Government of the Chain-breaker is sort of like what happens when you plant a little thirsty shoot into a big bucketfull of rich loamy dirt.  His words are life, power, breath, not because there’s something the phonetic syllables themselves, or a magic spell inserted between every chapter and verse indention, but because what He says comes straight from Him.    

While I’ve been writing this post, I’ve hollered at my kids twice.  See, it’s really easy to write about Him, just like it’s really easy to read about Him.  And that’s the point.  He wasn’t saying to read what He said.  He was saying to eat, drink, and breath it—to be in it.  The postmoderns are partly right in their damnation of modernity’s lust for “absolutes,” for truth was never meant to be thought of as a mere collection of facts.  Facts don’t set one free (though they don’t hurt).  Jesus does.