Day 20 – Do you know your real dad?

John 8:31-47

Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you remain in my word, then you really are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

They answered him, “We are the descendants of Abraham, and we have never been slaves to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will be set free’?”

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave doesn’t belong in the household forever. A son belongs forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will truly be free. I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you want to kill me, because my word finds nowhere to belong in you. I am saying what I have seen from my Father, while you are doing what you have heard from your father.”

They answered him, “Our father is Abraham.”

Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do what Abraham did. But now you want to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham didn’t do this. You are doing the works of your own father.”

They said to him, “We are not illegitimate children. We have one Father, God.”

So Jesus said to them, “If God were your father, you would love me, for I came from God to be here. It wasn’t just my own idea to come, but he sent me. Why don’t you get what I am saying? Because you can’t listen to my word. You come from your father the devil, and you want to do what your father is longing to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks his truth, it’s lies, for he is a liar, and the father of lies. But because I tell the real truth, you don’t believe me. Which one of you shows that I am guilty of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? The one who is of God listens to the words of God. This is why you don’t listen, because you are not of God.”

For reflection

What does it mean to you that God is your father?