What does it mean to be a disciple, a follower of Jesus Christ? This is a question that John 8:30-47 compels us to ask. ‘As he was saying these things, many believed in him. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”’
Jesus is speaking to men and women who had ‘believed’ in him – but Jesus knew what was in a man (John 2:25). It is because Jesus knew the perversity of our hearts that he speaks as he does in vv. 31-32. Jesus is applying to these ‘believers’ a test of authenticity: if they truly were his disciples – his forgiven, heaven-bound disciples – then their lives would be defined, shaped, and styled by them abiding (continuing) in Jesus’ word.
