Journey through John 8:31-38

Good Morning Church Family – Journey Through John

Read John 8:31-38

Devo Thought: Have you ever heard of the etymological fallacy? A fallacy is a mistake in our logic or thinking. Specifically, the etymological fallacy is the mistake that a word’s meaning comes from its origin instead of its customary usage. Basically, it’s the idea that we can discover the meaning or importance of something by tracing it back to its origin/beginning. In this passage, we see a group of people, who when confronted with their slavery to sin, make a type of etymological fallacy. They point back to their supposed origin (Abraham) and say they have never been enslaved. Jesus starts to correct them in this passage by pointing out a couple of things. First, they are slaves to sin because they make a practice of sinning. So, they are, in fact, slaves to sin, as we all are apart from Jesus. This is the very point he makes next. The Son, because he abides in the house, is able to free the slave, who cannot abide in the house. Second, Jesus points out that they aren’t actually sons of the Abraham because, if they had been, they would have believed in him. Instead of believing in Jesus, they want to kill him. The crowd of religious leaders were trying to point back to their origin to explain themselves, and Jesus was pointing out that they were mistaken in trying to do this. He finishes this passage by explaining to them that Abraham isn’t their father. They have a different father, and tomorrow we will look at this. Today, I think it is important for us to remember it's not our origins that define us (our family/religious history, our past “good works”). Jesus is the one who defines us.

Let us thank God that we don’t have to depend on our family history or good works to define us.