After the Christ healed the man at Bethesda, the Jews sought to slay the Lord because He had “…done these things on the sabbath day.” Jesus had been doing His Father’s work and the Jews looking to slay Jesus Christ were moving according to their father, the Devil. The Christ taught that Satan is a liar, murderer, and thief. The Jews persecuting Jesus were fools functioning as liars, murderers, and thieves. Christ has called His believers to be distinctly different than the children of Satan.
Jesus Christ taught that there was no truth in Satan from the beginning and that he is a liar. Jesus Christ spoke that Satan, “abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” Satan does not work with truth and neither do his children. The truth is not with them. The Jews were clearly deluded in their thinking as they sought to murder He who had just made whole the man at Bethesda. Had they no good question to ask the man about the miraculous healing the Lord had just performed? Had they no sound thinking with respect to the fact that the man could walk on his own?
The Christ also taught that Satan “was a murderer from the beginning,”. Christ also spoke of Satan’s children as, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.” The Jews sought all the more to kill Jesus because Christ spoke truth when He said, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” Is it that the Jews lusted to kill Jesus and did so with a fool’s thirst for blood over what they truly knew not. God had previously commanded “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” The Jews, children of Lucifer, sought to murder the Christ who is the sabbath for His children and who is always holy… what fools!
How is it the Jews, like Satan, were not functioning in a capacity of thieves as well? By trying to slay Jesus Christ how is it they weren’t trying to rob the people of hope? Christ had just made whole the man at Bethesda and how many more people was He willing to heal? How is it the Jews weren’t trying to rob the people of knowledge? What is it they did not know about Satan and how many people the Christ was going to instruct about the “…god of this world.” The Jews, in their delusion, were also seeking to rob from others “…the light of the world.” Christ taught, “he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” The Jews were of darkness in their effort to keep others from experiencing Christ.
In contrast to Satan’s children are what Christ’s believers are called to live as. Instead of being those who have no truth, a believer of God is called to love truth and grow in knowledge of it. Jesus taught, “I am the way, the truth, and the life:”. The Word of the Lord teaches, “ And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” With that said, what is more paramount for the child of Jesus Christ than love of the truth? What could possibly be greater for a man than to have passion for the truth?
As opposed to being murderers, we are called to be persons of love. We are called to be “…as harmless as doves.” We are instructed that if we love the Lord we will keep his commands. We are commanded with the first and greatest commandment to “…love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength:”. That is, we are called to love love for “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” As like the first and greatest commandment, the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbour as ourself. Is it that with these two commandments the yolk of the believer in the Lord is light and that the believer be thereby free to a life lived with passion for the Christ? As well, is it that the believer be changed with respect to others, for what was once wicked has been changed to be righteous and commanded to love others, even if they be enemies. How different than the Jews is this?
As opposed to functioning as thieves, as the Jews were, the Christian is called to let their light shine before men. The believer is called to be the salt of the earth and to share the light of Christ with others. How is it then that the believer isn’t called to be a being that is to give freely to others and to do so with passion? The good Lord’s Word teaches, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Satan lived as the enemy of Christ and his children, the Jews, lived in that manner as well. The wicked are those that have no truth in them. They are the children of the Devil and as Christ taught, they will do the lusts of their father, who is Satan. They truly are fools in their words and deeds and their lives are lived in vain. The children of God are called to be better than the wicked. We are called to be holy, as our Father is. The believer is called to be a person of truth, to love others, and to give of the Christ freely.
