“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:31-32).
Did you catch the relationship between obeying and knowing? There are a couple of surprises in what Jesus tells us about obeying and knowing.
First, we tend to think that knowing and understanding comes first. But Jesus leads with obedience. “If you hold to my teaching…” If you obey, you are really my disciples. Obedience leads to knowing. So many of us have this backwards. We don’t obey because we understand. Disciples obey because Jesus is Lord. Obedience comes first. Obedience is a given.
Did you catch the “If…then…”? Jesus says, “If you hold to my teaching…then you will know the truth…”
Obedience comes first, then knowing. Obedience leads to greater knowledge and truth.
Second, knowing the truth has nothing to do with whether we like it or agree with it or not. Truth is truth because Jesus said it. Truth doesn’t care about our feelings or our likes and dislikes. Truth is truth.
I say this because we live in a world that has changed our fundamental question regarding truth. The question our culture asks regarding “our” truth is whether we like it or agree with it. That’s why you hear people say, “What is true for you works for you. But leave me out of your truth.” Unfortunately, truth doesn’t work like that. Truth is true regardless of our likes and dislikes.
When a society determines truth by asking, “Do I like it? Do I agree with it?” instead of asking “Is this true?” that society is in trouble.
So disciples of Jesus at the Little Church and Lakewoodgrace, listen to what Jesus tells us: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Praxis: Faith in Action 