They Said He Was a Crazy Nigger

The Jews answered and said to Him, "Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?"

The Jews said to Him, "Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You say, 'If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste of death.'" (John 8:48, 52)

As I read this today I realized that if we translated this into our common language that we would not say that He had a demon but that He was crazy. That is the way we talk about people that say things too far outside our comfort zone. When people make radical statements that make us uncomfortable and uneasy we usually say they are crazy. What we really mean is that they need to come back more into line with our opinions and our way of viewing things instead of going off on the deep end.

As far as calling Him a Samaritan, this too would translate differently in our culture more along the lines of using racial slurs or whatever deprecations that might be common to the group we belong to. This would for some mean that He would be called a nigger. For others it might mean calling Him a son of a bitch. For more refined intellectuals it might mean using more subtle insinuations about His heritage. But however it is translated, this label was intended to place Him in the most negative light to discredit Him among those who might be inclined to follow Him and accept His teachings.

During all of this discussion these leaders were doing everything they could think of to discredit Jesus and find some way to condemn Him as a fraud and a deceiver. The bold claims of Jesus that emerge in these passages certainly gave them plenty of fuel for their unbelief if they chose to measure everything by the status quo. Truth always has that effect. The plainer the truth becomes the more unbelievable it appears to those who want to cling to tradition and power. The word truth as defined by the counterfeit systems we live under discredits the kind of real truth that comes from heaven.

Humans think they can figure out truth scientifically, even spiritual truth by simply examining facts, using arguments and testing theories. But the problem with this so-called scientific approach is that we very often rely on our own opinions and preconceived beliefs and biases as our standard of measure, the criteria by which we test everything different. But this method of using assumptions and preconceived ideas is fatally flawed from the very start, for if you start with false assumptions about how to measure other things, ideas or people then all the results you get from your examination and testing will be correspondingly inaccurate without you even becoming aware of your mistake.

Jesus Himself was the greatest standard by which truth could be measured that ever existed on this planet. For anyone to attempt to test His words or His example by using any other standard is insanity in the eyes of the rest of the universe. But the real issue for each one of us is how we will choose to relate to Him. Will we try to measure Jesus by our standards and preferences or will we allow God to reveal what is real to us and allow our lives to be shaped by Him into conformity to what is best and be salvaged back into our original function and design?

The Options of Believing

Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? (John 8:46)

This last question suddenly grabbed my attention this morning and made me begin to think about the various potential answers to it. If one was asked this question and actually tried to respond to it, what might be offered?

One possible answer to this question would be to say they did not want to believe Him. This itself was actually true but it was incriminating truth that would seriously diminish their influence over the people so they certainly didn't want to go with that option. Along this same line they could have offered any number of reasons why they didn't want to believe Him. These reasons would have exposed their own agendas that were in conflict with God's government but would have actually been true if they were willing to admit them. Primarily they didn't want to believe Him because of the implications that would follow. It would have forced them to radically challenge their whole system of governance and all their relationships. They would have been in danger of losing control, losing face, losing wealth and many other things that were far more important to them than being in alignment with God. So they simply could not bring themselves to admit that it was their own hearts that refused to accept that Jesus' words and claims were true.

Jesus stated this question prefaced with an if. That left open the option for them to counter with explanations of why they might think what He was saying was not true; it was an open invitation to dialog about the veracity of what He was saying. If Jesus' words were not true then their claims might be justified that it was He who was a child of the father of lies and not them as He had just stated. In the context of which father they followed, God or the devil, the source of all truth or the source of all lies, this conversation was really a duel between two versions of reality. Either Jesus was telling the truth and all who refused to believe Him were aligned with the opposer of truth, or else Jesus was the one using deceptions which would automatically align Him with Satan's side and they would then have had reason to reject His claims.

But the response that most likely would have surfaced in their minds when Jesus asked this question would have been (though they certainly did not want to say it openly), “It threatens us too much to believe He is telling the truth. That's why we don't believe Him.”

The problem with this answer is that they knew deep in their hearts that Jesus was speaking truth. They were under constant conviction of the Spirit of God that Jesus' words and claims were unavoidably true. The real issue was that they didn't want to believe Him, not that they honestly believed He was telling falsehoods. Jesus knew this was the case which is precisely why He had just told them that they were of their father the devil who is the father of lying. By refusing to admit that and by resisting coming into alignment with the person who was speaking truth to them they were aligning themselves with God's opposition, the father of all falsehoods which is the only other option in life.

What does this have to do with me today? How often do I find myself in conflict with others over truth and deceptions?

I see it taking place on different scales and different levels of intensity. Whenever I dig in my heels to defend my own position rather than desire to know what is really true, the more I become sucked into the realm of deception and lies. Very quickly there develops layers of lies upon lies that not only seek to obscure and distort truth for other people but immediately have the effect of obscuring what is true in my own mind and heart. This choice to enter into the world of deception in order to defend my own position causes my own opinions to reinforce my fallen nature and blinds me to the light of truth. I then subject myself to being a slave to the father of lies, the great tyrant who might offer me satisfaction in going down this path of self-defensiveness. But he is really a bait-and-switch master that traps me in his prison of lies and then tortures me with condemnation, guilt and fear. Then he scandalously leads me to believe that it is God who is condemning me rather than my own heart as he immerses me in ever increasing lies about God. This is the dark pit these religious leaders were in and is the one we are ever in danger of slipping into if we do not remain firmly in the truth.

If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?

This is really an invitation to move from living in the prison of lies into the freedom of submitting to the authority of the One who is always true. It simply makes no sense, if one is willing to be truthful and honest about all the options, to choose to not believe Jesus. Either Jesus is a liar and thus cannot be trusted, or else He is truthful and trustworthy, and the only safe option is to believe that and risk everything on trusting in Him. For the claims and example of Jesus while on this earth are so radical that there is no room for waffling or compromising about His words. If I accept what Jesus says and demonstrates about His Father and the way God relates to His universe and fallen sinners, then it requires that I surrender my previous opinions and beliefs and notions that are out of harmony with the life of Jesus.

That is precisely what God intended when He sent His Son to this earth to reveal to us the truth about Himself. Either we are the liars or God is the liar – there is simply no other possibility. And if we decide that Jesus may not be telling the whole truth we set ourselves up as a judge over God instead of accepting that God is greater than us and is the only one qualified to make valid judgments.

To reject the claims and invitations of Jesus to change our alignment from agreeing with the father of lies is to choose death instead of life.

To embrace the words of Jesus and accept that He is speaking the truth opens me up to receiving real life. I am the one confused and who has been deceived by the father of lies, it is my opinions, feelings and beliefs that need adjusting to enter into life, to accept the option of eternal life and to be rescued from the sin of attempting to live independent from the only Source of life that exists.

In this question I am faced with the choice of who is going to be my father. It seems a bit strange at first for we have always assumed that we had no options as to who our real father would be. But in this whole passage Jesus is challenging that assumption and invites all of us to choose who will be our father. The characteristics of the one we choose to be our father, the authority we choose to embrace and respect and surrender our souls to will determine the kind of reflection that will emanate from our life as a result of that choice.

Another Cave Full of Riches

...I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me.

I do not seek My glory;

there is One who seeks and judges. (John 8:49-50)

Once again I sense that there is a goldmine of insights not far beneath the surface of these words of Jesus. There are parallels and contrasts here that are typically seen in a passage door that leads into rooms full of exciting concepts and convicting truths similar to this everywhere throughout the Bible. Learning to pay attention to these kinds of doors and learning to open them has become more rewarding since I have been using inductive study over the past few years.

I almost never know what is going to emerge when I come across these sorts of doorways, but I always get excited because going through these passageways and exploring the amazing beauties hidden away in the caves below is almost always awe-inspiring. After awhile one begins to anticipate such discoveries with more excitement because the Word of God really is powerful and life-giving. And for me, I have found that writing is a way of finding my way through the doorway and in the process of writing I can better listen to the promptings that come to my spirit as to which way I may need to turn as I ponder each element I encounter.

It is always very exciting to have such an encounter by exploring a passage with others through an inductive study of the Word, but of course that requires that you have friends interested and willing to invest the time to do it together. But so far I have not come across anyone over the past few years interested enough to invest that time to go on these journeys with me, so I have to remain content to travel these expeditions alone for now.

As I have been noticing recently, the surrounding passage has a great deal to do with the concept of fatherhood, who is one's real father and the effects of that in the life. These words are Jesus' response to an open insult against Him accusing Him of having a demon. His protagonists were becoming extremely uncomfortable with Jesus' statements about Himself and the way His words were exposing their own hypocrisy and empty religion. But instead of listening with an open mind and allowing His words to convict their hearts to repentance, they chose to resist His truth and become defensive. Whenever that happens a convicted one almost always go on the attack to discredit and silence anyone who is viewed as a threat to the status quo, who is undermining their comfort zone and the established system in place.

But Jesus is never deviated from speaking truth. He cannot be diverted by intimidation into compromising with self-serving systems designed to prop up counterfeits to God's government. Jesus is the Son of God and God is love. Therefore, everything Jesus spoke was in love but was also clear truth which at times caused those resistant to His love to be anything but loving. When love is resisted that resistance itself distorts the view of reality and causes one to interpret the motives of others as reflective of their own selfishness. Bitterness, antagonism, resentment and finally hatred and violence are always the result of resisting truth and love. This passage is a classic example of this sequence.

I notice the positives and negatives that line up in these verses that help to amplify each other.

I honor my Father. He is the One who seeks and judges. I am not trying to brag about this to get glory but to demonstrate the kind of attitude that all who live in true reality will have – selfless love and interest in others and especially interest in bringing honor to the Father.

You dishonor me, which is symptomatic of all who operate in the counterfeit system of reality. Those in false religion always tend to seek their own glory, but I do not do that. My focus is on attracting attention to the goodness and love of my Father.

The word seek in this last verse is reflective of the idea of worship. When we seek to attract honor for ourself we are in essence both indulging in self-worship and trying to attract worship away from others. Jesus clearly stated that He was not doing that but was pointing everyone to the worship of God.

In addition, Jesus points out here that God is a seeker. Does that mean that He worships others? Well, that should not be completely ignored, and we can look at it by examining carefully the different nuances and real meanings of the word worship. One meaning of worship is who we look to for receiving life. And no, God is not looking to any other source to receive life for He Himself is the only source of life there is. But He is seeking to attract the affections of His created beings to Himself, we who are designed to thrive on receiving and giving love. In this sense He is seeking every one of us, seeking to change our minds about Him and to enlighten our hearts to be willing to reconnect with His heart so that we can begin to experience abundant life.

God is also the only real Judge. In its true meaning the concept of judgment is simply to expose what really is but what has been hidden from public view. God is certainly not in the condemning business and we must be very careful not to allow any notions about condemnation to seep into our feelings about this word in this context, but in the true sense He certainly can expose what is hidden.

I am starting to notice strong parallels to many ideas in this chapter with what I found in chapter seven. There are many linked passages that compliment and explain each other and I want to take some time later to look for some of these links and see what comes out of that study that will bring even more light to my mind and clearer understanding of what Jesus said in these passages.

Fate or Choice?

They said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God." (John 8:41)

Arguing over circumstances that we have no control over while trying to ignore the most important relationships that we do have choices about is one of the great diversions of the enemy. People sometimes obsess over judging others about their parents, their color, their looks or talents etc. But from heaven's perspective, in the true reality which we need to pay most attention to, it is the character you develop that is shaped by the choices you make over time that determines what identity you end up with. Jesus has made His own identity available for all of us but if we refuse to allow Him to adopt us by allowing Him full access to our heart, we will end up being judged by the results of the identity we have carved out on our own.

The only way that we sinners can have the identity and value needed to live in heaven safely is to be 'in Christ' through embracing the salvation provided for us. To choose any other method is to reject the only qualification that can align us with the conditions needed to survive and thrive in the atmosphere of heaven in God's presence.

I have no choice as to who my parents were, what race I came from or even how my parents raised me. God does not hold me responsible for any of those things that have had such a dramatic effect on my life. But I am held responsible and I need to accept responsibility for the choices I make about how I relate to the circumstances I find myself in and how I relate to the offer of Jesus to transform me from what I am currently. I cannot change the past events of my life, even what happened minutes ago. But I can make a difference on my future and I have a great deal of potential to shape what I am going to look like, particularly inside, in the future. If I allow Jesus access to live within me my future can become radically different than my past.

These Jews, like most of us today, were assuming that their value and character were mostly determined by their ancestry and religion. Jesus declared that our identity and character and our relationship with God are totally dependent on how we respond to and what we believe about the One that God sent as His primary representative to this earth to reveal the heart of the Father. This the Jews found very offensive because it destroyed the very foundation of their religious ideas. It is still highly offensive to us today if we believe that our ultimate relationship with God is determined by the church we belong to or is affected by the race we were born into or any other external measurement we mistakenly use to judge each other.

Is it important who your father is? Absolutely! But the issue in this passage is, how do you determine who your real father is and do you have any options about it.

Jesus was unique in that He actually did have a choice as to who His earthly parents would be because He was fully preexistent before He was born. Some religions have mistakenly used this idea and teach that all of us are preexistent before birth and that we too chose our parents. That is a false teaching that attempts to place us on a par with God just as New Age beliefs attempt to do. But that still misses the whole point in this passage, for it is not your physical parents that determine your fate nearly as much as the choices you make from within the context of your life.

Heaven does not measure us with the kind of scales we use with students in school. We are measured more on a scale that is relative. It is sort of like the difference between using percentages or hard numbers. As Jesus pointed out with the poor woman who gave a very small offering that in His eyes was more valuable than all the expensive offerings of the affluent, our characters are also measured by where we started and what we did with what we had, not by comparing us to other people who grew up with very different gifts and opportunities. The only way to better appreciate our responsibility and what we are doing with it is to look to heaven, to the Word of God and to measure our lives and choices using heaven's system of evaluation rather than the counterfeit system of grading we were subjected to by the world throughout our school years.

God is not judging us based on who our parents were, what race we belong to or any other external identification we use so often. God looks at the heart and how we respond to the level of awareness about Him that we are exposed to over time. In this way every person in the world has equal opportunity to respond to God though many may not even have His name associated to them. God's Spirit works with every heart and draws all to Jesus whether they ever learn His identity or not. How we respond to the drawing of the Spirit in our heart at whatever level of awareness we have of God's plan of salvation determines whether we are drawn closer to His light or we incapacitate our ability to respond and be changed. Because this applies to every human being everywhere on earth, God will ultimately be discovered to be totally fair and just in all that He is doing to save humanity irregardless of how much they know about Him.

If we choose to respond to the Spirit's drawing in our hearts we can be mentored by a new Father through the ministry of that same Spirit. We can be adopted into the family of God with the level of awareness which our life opportunities have allowed us and God honors and respects these choices of our hearts far more than the level of knowledge we may have amassed about religious topics. God's ways of evaluation do not penalize us for the parents we were stuck with growing up or any other handicap, but everyone must make the choice to be adopted into the new family of humans in Christ if they wish to enter into real life that will last for eternity.

Too Many Fathers

They said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God." (John 8:41)

This morning I see more in this verse than I noticed previously.

Not only were these Jews wanting to disparage Jesus' reputation by bringing up the questionable circumstances of His birth, they were also challenging the very idea of there being more than one manifestation of God.

On the first instance, since it possibly had been extracted from His parents by those who may have demanded an explanation, Jesus' real Father was claimed to be God Himself and not any human man. However, the spin that the religious people and likely others as well was that most likely Mary had had a sexual liaison with someone else or at best with Joseph before the proper time of marriage. If in fact it had been someone besides Joseph, these Jews in this discussion with Jesus were intimating that maybe that other man potentially His father was even one of the despised Samaritans which in their mind could explain why He seemed to different than a normal Jew.

If this was their insinuation, then in reality there were three assertions as to who might be the real father of Jesus. Jesus Himself along with Mary was claiming that God in heaven was His real Father; Joseph may had corroborated that claim but most people had serious reasons to doubt those claims for it simply seemed to bizarre to accept. At the same time Joseph clearly had raised Jesus from birth until he himself disappeared from the story, possibly dying sometime during Jesus' youth leaving Jesus, Mary and His siblings to care for themselves.

So from these Jew's perspective, there were three potential answers to the question of who was the real father of Jesus, and His claim along with His parents that only God was His real Father was the least likely right answer as far as they were concerned. Besides, Jesus had such conflicting notions about God in contrast to all their established beliefs about what God was like that the only explanation they could offer for this dichotomy was that Jesus must be demoniacally affected. And according to them this could have been the consequence of having been conceived in an illicit relationship by His mother with someone from the race of people that the Jews hated the most and held the greatest prejudice against, those awful Samaritans.

In addition to this constant doubt about Jesus' biological ancestry, the very idea implied in Jesus' claims that God was His real Father challenged the very core of their belief in monotheism. The Jews had for centuries distinguished themselves from other religions of the world by their unique belief that there was only one true God, and that to insinuate that there might be more than one entity claiming to be God would be obvious heresy and would in fact endorse polytheism, something God had already condemned in the Scriptures.

If Jesus' claim to be the Son of God would actually have been considered, it would still seem impossible for them to reconcile that with their staunch belief in only one God. Many today struggle with the very same issue and this is the sticking point that blocks the Muslim world from taking the claims of Christianity seriously. To their minds it is simply nonsense and illogical to try to claim that someone could be God at the same time as Allah, the one and only true God. This crazy notion simply cannot be reconciled in the mind of many. So they assume that to believe that Jesus is the Son of God or to accept any idea of a trinity is to deny the core belief of monotheism or worshiping only one God.

Many Christians also find this very hard to swallow as well. There is quite a number of Christians that refuse to embrace the idea of a trinity God based on similar logic that Muslims use. In many minds it simply cannot be reconciled that there could be three entities claiming to be God and still believe that there is only one God. To them this is simply mental dishonesty, and to try to avoid this glaring fact from their perspective is to not be willing to be authentic or respect intellectual integrity. The only conclusion they can arrive at after considering it from every human angle they can think of is that the idea of a trinity God simply is a fabrication of religious people seeking to gain influence over others for ulterior reasons. In some minds this notion can only be a heresy that entered the church in later centuries and was inserted into Scriptures to prop up this strange invented doctrine.

In order to take Jesus' claims about Himself seriously, not only do Jews, Muslims and many Christians have to grapple with seemingly difficult claims implicating a divine pluralism that seems to conflict with logic, but they find themselves polarized away from their traditional thinking if they follow Jesus' teachings to their logical conclusion. As with the Jews Jesus was speaking to in this chapter, His teachings and claims if taken literally will always disturb and upset our assumptions and traditions because they are so out of tune with this world. All of us have been affected by watering down Jesus claims and teachings because deep inside we are afraid of the implications we know instinctively will be linked if we take Jesus seriously.

If I really enter into the level of belief that Jesus insists is needed to enter into eternal life, I will be forced to surrender much of what I have been taught in religion and even most if not all of what my own natural instincts may tell me is true. Yes, I am created in the image of God and much of that original mental wiring may still be in place. But my fallen condition of sin has predisposed me to view reality from a perspective that is evidently incompatible with the reality described by Jesus and lived out in His life here on this planet. If I choose to actually become a real disciple of Jesus instead of just a religious person conforming to some church's dogma or list of beliefs, the implications are very likely to be just as troubling for my logic and threatening to my status quo as was felt by these religious people long ago.

But in reality that is actually the very doorstep of heaven. Entering into life always requires the surrender of the natural inherent ways of thinking we grow up embracing. Like Nicodemus, that man who thought he understood religion with the best of them, I continue to be challenged that I need a much deeper level of perception, of heart transformation, of letting go of preconceived ideas and beliefs to make room for a new, fresh wind to carry me to places I never dreamed possible before. And if I am willing to let go of my secure grip on the status quo and allow this new wind of the Spirit to lift me up and carry me along, I can enter a whole new dimension of living and thriving and joy that I never knew was possible for me to experience. This is what I long for, what I crave and what I am beginning to taste occasionally. And with each new encounter it whets my appetite for much more.

Truth and Belief

Because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me.

Which one of you convicts Me of sin?

If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? (John 8:45-46)

I felt compelled to come to this study of the book of John for one main reason: to both discover and to enter into the experience of real, soul-saving belief. The word believe and its true meaning has seemed to elude me for much of my life though I have certainly not lacked exposure to discussions about it. I have always been surrounded by religion and the claims of religion along with appeals to believe. But very seldom did I receive satisfactory answers to my queries about just what it means to really believe or what it was I was supposed to believe, at least answers that seemed practical and meaningful. I find this still true today. Usually I am handed religious clichés which only served to frustrate and confuse me instead of helping me to understand and enter into a transforming belief in Jesus Christ.

I knew that John was the one disciple that probably talks and discusses the whole idea of belief more than anyone else in Scriptures which is why I chose to immerse myself in this book. I want to enter into saving belief in Jesus for real and for myself, not just talk about it, expostulate on it and hope that maybe I somehow absorb enough of it to stick. I want my heart to experience true belief at a level so deep that it goes far beyond my conscious awareness, for I suspect that this is the kind of belief that Jesus kept talking about, not the intellectual, fact-oriented, emotion-deprived belief that I generally was taught growing up. While there is a need for accurate facts and the proper use of intellect to grapple with issues and provide a context for checks and balances in my religion, without a far deeper engagement of my heart my head belief will only lead me to end up on the wrong side in the judgment, demanding entrance into heaven based on my performance of religion without really knowing Jesus. And by what I have been learning, that is the prerequisite He identifies as the only valid preparation for entrance there.

So anytime I come across references to belief in these passages I try to engage both my mind and my heart to be open in tandem so as to allow the Spirit of God to draw me deeper into true belief. I want Him to unmask the false ideas I have about it so I can get past them into a more intimate relationship with God. By what Jesus was saying to these very devout, religious leaders in His day, they evidently had similar problems with belief or He wouldn't have had to say such blunt, direct statements to them attempting to get past their stubborn defenses and trying to get closer to their hearts. Because I believe Jesus always spoke the truth in love, I want to get past my own false assumptions about Jesus' attitude and tone of voice when He spoke these words and allow the real truth within them to have its intended effect on my own heart.

What I see in these immediate verses is something like a sandwich. Between the two nearly identical references to truth and belief in the surrounding verses, Jesus inserts this curious question about convicting Him of sin. Of course I have heard the typical explanations for this question along the lines of Jesus being perfect, etc. But now I am starting to sense that maybe there is something much more potent in here, something God may use to unlock yet another area of my heart and expose more false foundations that have prevented me from entering into deeper, genuine belief.

Just what does it really mean to convict someone of sin? That entails making sure I know as well as I can what the words actually mean that are in this question. What does the idea of convict actually convey? What is the true concept of sin implied by Jesus distinguished from the mostly distorted definitions I hear from most religious people around me? And evidently Jesus was inferring here that these religious leaders were trying to convict Him of sin or the statement simply wouldn't fit in this passage or make any sense in the context. And since that is likely the case, how might I fit into this scenario? Is it possible that maybe I am secretly or unconsciously trying to convict God of sin without even realizing what I am actually doing, because it sounds so religiously ridiculous to even suggest such a thing?

If I am willing to admit that maybe I might be having at least part of the same problems as these religious people were having, then maybe the words of Jesus might have more effect in bringing truth into my own mind and heart instead of bouncing off me like they did these men. If I have to struggle to grasp the true meaning of Jesus' words then it may be likely that I have the same problems that these men did who found it nearly impossible to believe in Jesus. But I don't have to follow in their footsteps of unbelief because I can learn from their mistakes and allow the admonitions of Jesus to have better effects in my life. That is what I want to do and I want to grasp more clearly what these words really mean and how they might transform me and draw me into the belief that these men failed to embrace.

I will try to reduce this to the simplest form in order to make it more clear to my mind.

Jesus always says things that are true, in every respect and implication of that term, both factually and in spirit.

These men seemed to live in constant resistance to accepting or synchronizing with most things Jesus was saying. Instead they kept arguing, countering, accusing and feeling more and more angry at Him to the point of wanting to exterminate Him violently

Jesus identified this problem as unbelief, both about His words and His true identity.

At the center of this is this question about convicting Him of sin. As I have been coming to view it, sin is simply all attempts to live life apart from God, out of sync with the principles that God has set up and by which His universe operates. Sin is the attitude of independence from reliance on God which then results in sins, the outward symptoms that we mistakenly identify as the real problems. Sin is an attitude, a perspective about reality more than outward acts or violations of arbitrary rules and demands.

Jesus actually unpacks this in His immediate previous statements about the originator of sin, the devil. In essence He simplifies sin into two main issues with Satan: his actions and his way of interpreting reality. Jesus states unequivocally that Satan lives to take away life, to diminish life to the point of destroying it. And secondly, Satan's whole system of viewing reality is calculated to deceive. He has constructed his whole system of living life apart from God on a massive, confusing but often compelling system of lies that sound very plausible and believable.

Jesus contrasts Satan's government with the government of God or what the New Testament sometimes calls the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus only deals with real truth.

The devil only deals with lies, but so compelling many times that they fool people into thinking they are true. That does not mean that he only lies but that he mixes so much 'truth' into his ideas that they become fatally dangerous and yet very believable.

He who is of God hears the words of God;

for this reason you do not hear them,

because you are not of God. (John 8:47)