Journey through John 7:45-51

Good Morning Church Family – Journey Through John

Read John 7:45-51

Devo Thought: Questions are incredibly useful in helping people communicate. They invite clarification. They allow for elaboration. Sometimes, they even expose and reveal motivation. In this passage today, a character we met earlier in John’s Gospel shows back up and asks an exposing question. Nicodemus, from John 3, is present as the officials are trying to get the officers to arrest Jesus. The officers don’t want any part of that because they’ve never heard anyone teach like Jesus. Because of this, the Pharisees accuse the officers of believing in Jesus and call the crowd accursed. Nicodemus then asks his very fair and legitimate question: “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” This immediately exposes the Pharisees hypocrisy. They are people who swear by the law, but they aren’t even upholding it regarding their judgment of Jesus. They immediately attempt to slander Nicodemus. I believe they do this because they feel conviction. I think there’s at least a couple of things for us to consider as we think about this story. First, can we at least appreciate the slow and careful work of the Spirit in the life of Nicodemus? He may not have been converted the night he met with Jesus, but something in him definitely began to change. Second, we should not be surprised when we catch flack for calling out sin and hypocrisy. It will happen. Third, we can call out hypocrisy without accusing others directly, but by gently calling attention to it as Nicodemus did.

Let us ask God to show us any hypocrisy in ourselves and then to speak the truth in love.