Who's Your Father?

I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father. (John 8:38)

When I first noticed the difference in this verse a few days ago between Jesus seeing and the Jews doing, I thought that there was something possibly quite significant about it. But upon further investigation this morning I realize that meaning of this verse is much more ambiguous than I first thought based on those words. After looking at several translations and at the Greek I saw that even the NASB is not as accurate here as it usually is and that there may be many other potential meanings or possible applications for this verse.

First of all, on looking up the Greek I saw that there really is no difference whatsoever in these words like there is in the NASB. The very same word is used in both places which means to see or observe. Why the NASB used the word heard in the second instance is not clear to me but there is yet more ambiguity than even that. At first glance it would appear that a more accurate translation might be like this:

I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father. (John 8:38 NKJV)

But then after more research I came across a translation that had a whole different view that made me look even closer.

I declare what I have seen in the Father's presence; as for you, you should do what you have heard from the Father. (John 8:38 NRSV)

This potentially puts a completely different perspective on what Jesus might have been trying to say to these men. Instead of assuming that He was referring to their father as being Satan, He may well have been trying to appeal to them to act more in line with their claims that God was their Father.

I began to look around at the immediate context and noticed that on both sides of this verse are references to a different father altogether besides either God or Satan. These Jews were insisting that Abraham was their father and Jesus was challenging that claim, not their biological ancestry but in their spirit. On seeing this I am now leaning more toward believing that the last translation may be the closest to Jesus' intent, except that He may have been appealing to them to have an attitude more in line with that of Abraham who was a personal friend of God rather than having such animosity toward Him.

What is more significant and is another good clue along this line is the distinction that Jesus makes in His choice of words in the verses just before and after this verse. In verse 37 Jesus acknowledges that in fact these Jews could technically be traced back biologically to the sperm of Abraham (the literal translation of the word Jesus used). But in verse 39 Jesus uses a different word, one meaning child, a son or daughter. In this later verse Jesus strongly implies that though someone could be proven to have come from the sperm of Abraham, heaven had reason to doubt that they were really his children. What I hear from Jesus in this passage is that from heaven's perspective the way we act and the spirit we choose to foster has a great deal more to do with what family we actually belong to than the physical lineage we may be able to trace or the denominational identity we claim.

Likewise I also see a reinforcing parallel in these two adjoining verses with the distinction found in verse 38 between what Jesus was speaking in contrast with the actions of the Jews. In this respect the KJV seems to have rendered it closer to the original with both phrases referring to what they see in their fathers. Jesus' distinction is on the speaking that results in His life from what He sees, while the emphasis of these religious leaders is on the doing, the outward performances that results from what they see. Jesus points out that their outward activities betray the fact that they were going about plotting ways to kill Jesus which revealed that their spirit was more in line with Satan than with either Abraham or God as a father. The reason Jesus gave for their condition was because His word had found no place in them. As a result of this deficiency, their lives were more reflective of the attitudes and actions of Satan than with any of the other fathers mentioned.

Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this." (39-40) Clearly Jesus was pressing home the truth that all of us need to hear, that it makes little difference what our lineage may be, what our claims or labels or ancestry may imply. What really exposes us in heaven's eyes is the spirit that we choose to possess, the example we emulate, the source of light (or darkness) that we focus our soul mirror on and in turn reflect to others. While claiming to be loyal descendants of their father Abraham these Jews were in fact not really following his example at all in spirit. They were distorting and misapplying what they had read about Abraham and had established their whole system of religion mostly on false premises and assumptions. They believed firmly that as long as they could claim the right labels, establish the right proofs and maintain an air of piety, all the while using proof texts to defend their positions, that they were safe for God to save.

But Jesus came to this earth to reveal a completely different measurement of worth and identity. Instead of relying on a person's physical lineage to determine their identity or any other such outward labels, Jesus came to show us that real family and heaven's salvation has to do with the values and the words that are cherished in the heart and that result in the outward actions in harmony with their mentor. These Jews, just like most of us yet today, had the mistaken notion that salvation was all about winning arguments and defending labels and keeping up appearances. But Jesus came to show us that real family and real identity is totally based on what is hidden inside, what is cherished in the heart, our disposition and attitudes that result from the choices we make about how we are going to relate to the Word of God that reveals the truth about our real Father in heaven.

Since Jesus was God in the flesh it would have been extremely easy for Him to use that advantage to resist temptation, to live a good life, to satisfy any one of His many needs that He experienced while living on this earth. What I have discovered over the past few years is that indeed this part of Him was potentially His greatest vulnerability, His temptation to tap into the enormous power that was always at His fingertips to use it for His own advantage. None of us has ever faced any temptation even close to what Jesus faced in this regard. And yet in a way we still face a similar temptation. We have the delusion that somehow we can improve our own condition with inherent power that we think we possess and we try to do just that over and over. Then when we seem to have limited success in that way it only reinforces the false premise that God expects us to lift ourselves up, to get rid of sin through a lot of self-effort and with help from God. This is the grand illusion that blinded the Jews from embracing the real truth that Jesus came to show them. And it is still the grand illusion that blinds nearly everyone today who still are trapped under the spell of false thinking about the essence of true godliness.

Jesus lived His whole life on earth not depending for even a single moment on His own inherent abilities to save Himself from any pain or discomfort, but He demonstrated for us a model of reflective response by His intimate relationship with His Father in heaven. In this verse He clearly states that He kept His Father in view, that His words were in response to what He saw with His spirit in His Father and what He perceived from heaven.

This was the example that Jesus gave for us to follow. It is a life of living from the heart, but for us it must be the heart that Jesus gives us, not the deceived, selfish heart that we were born with. As we allow Jesus to give us a new heart, new attitudes, new motives, feelings and impulses, we will find that our outward actions, words and relationships will all begin to be transformed and our lives will begin to reflect more and more the symptoms that are always seen in the lives of those in sync with God. The religious word for that is godliness which simply means looking, acting, feeling and treating others more and more like God does.

The emphasis in the life of Jesus was much more on staying connected with His Father and letting that determine what came out of His mouth. I speak the things which I have seen with My Father... This reminds me of the admonition from the book of James reminding us of our need to pay attention to the same part of our anatomy. The whole of chapter three is a powerful explanation of our need to pay close attention to our tongue and what we say. It is not enough to profess to be a Christian. As James warns us, ...no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. (James 3:8-10)

Toward the end of this chapter James reveals the problem that all of us share with those pious people who resisted Jesus so much. He speaks of two different sources of wisdom and the vast difference they make in our lives. Interestingly the language is strikingly similar to the situation covered here in John.

Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (James 3:13-18)