John 8:47 … Hearing the Word of God (04/24/17)
“Whoever is from God hears the words of God.”
~ Jesus (John 8:47)
First & foremost, it is important to realize that Jesus does not say that “Whoever is from God literally believes the words of the Bible,” but rather that “Whoever is from God hears the words of God.” And this is a critical distinction, for Jesus made it very clear that he came not to blindly champion the texts of the Old Testament, but rather came to “fulfill” them – with the Greek word for “fulfill” in Matthew 5:17-18 being “pleroo;” a word that meant not “to follow” or “to abide by” but rather “to hone”, “to perfect” &/or “to bring to completion.”
And this is exactly what Jesus did over the course of his three year ministry – radically expanding the Old Testament laws that were too weak, radically limiting the Old Testament laws that were too strict, and abolishing altogether the Old Testament laws that were immoral & outdated … As such, many were left to wonder just what were “the words of God”; many were left to wonder which interpretations of the Bible were to be followed and which were to be “fulfilled” or even dismissed.
And Jesus had an answer for those wondering the same – an answer he provided in Matthew 7:15-20 when he said “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits … A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits.”
As such, to know which words of the Bible (&/or which preachers of the Scriptures) are “of God” we simply have to put their teachings into practice and see which ones bear Good Fruit – i.e. which ones create Peace & Harmony & Joy & Love, and which ones do not (see Galatians 5:22-23 & Matthew 21:43). And this makes perfect sense, for if God is an essence of perfect, selfless, unconditional Love (Matthew 5:48 & 1 John 4:8 et al) then the “words of God” must be equally so.
Note as well that we can only truly Hear God not when we pray for ourselves but rather while we are serving others. We truly Hear God not while asking for peace for ourselves but rather while bringing Peace to the downtrodden. We truly Hear God not by begging for salvation for ourselves but rather by bringing Love to our enemies – those most in need of the same …
Note too that we are dealing here with whomever is “of God,” not whomever is from God – those who are acting as agents of the Divine, not those who are verbally professing to be the same …
As a final aside, note that Paul was clearly not a man “of God” (seeing as how he was an open champion of division and passive-aggressive criticism, not Harmony or all-accepting Love) and thus he most certainly did not hear God on the Road to Damascus — nor probably at any other time, for that matter.
;