(Tap footnote to read it. Old Testament quotations are underlined. "Love" with a caret ("^love") is agapé.1"agapé" The Greek words ἀγάπη (agapé, noun), and ἀγαπάω (agapaó; verb) are typically translated "love". However, unlike our English word "love" – which primarily speaks of affection and feelings – agapé centers on choice and behavior. It’s the "love" based on will, choice, behavior, and action; not feelings. (Feelings-based love is the Greek word φιλέω (phileó), which properly means "brotherly love/affection".) Thus, you could hate someone passionately and still treat him with "agapé". Agapé "love" is best understood as the pursuit of what is most beneficial to someone or something, regardless of the cost to yourself or the type of response received from the person or thing. It can also indicate a preference for someone or something over other things. )
Note: to read John 7:53-8:11 (the story of the woman caught in adultery, which most scholars believe wasn’t written by John) click here; link opens in new tab.
Jesus and testimony
- Therefore, Jesus spoke to them again saying: “I am the light of the world. The man following Me definitely won’t walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”
- So the Pharisees told Him: “You testify about yourself; your testimony isn’t true.”
- Jesus answered and told them: “Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is true because I *know where I came from and where I’m going. But you don’t *know where I come from or where I’m going.
- “You judge according to the flesh; I don’t judge anyone.
- “But even if I judge, My judgement is true because I’m not alone, but it’s I and the Father who sent Me.
- “And even in your law it is *written that the testimony of two men is true.1quotation/allusion to Deuteronomy 19:15
- I am the One testifying about Myself, and the Father who sent Me also testifies about Me.”
- So they were saying to Him: “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered: “You haven’t known Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would’ve also known My Father.”
- He spoke these words in the treasury while teaching in the temple, and no one seized Him because His hour hadn’t come yet.
From below and from above
- So again He told them: “I depart and you will seek Me, and you will die in your sin. Where I depart to, you aren’t able to come.”
- So the Jews were saying: “He won’t kill Himself, will He? Because He says ‘Where I depart to, you aren’t able to come’.”
- And He was telling them: “You are from below, I am from above. You are from this world, I am not from this world.
- “Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins, for if you don’t believe that I am,2“I am” Many translations reader this “I am He” here, with the “He” referring to Jesus being the Anointed (messiah). However, the word “He” is not found in the text. It’s an interpretation which is supported by the context, but still an interpretation and by no means certain. you will die in your sins.”
- Therefore, they were saying to Him: “Who are you?” Jesus told them: “I’m telling you that, even from the beginning.”
- “I have many things to say and to judge concerning you. But the One who sent Me is true, and what I heard from Him, I speak these things to the world.”
- (They didn’t understand that He was speaking to them about the Father)
- So Jesus told them: “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am,3“I am” see previous note, on verse 24. and that I do nothing from Myself. But I speak these things just as the Father taught Me.
- “And the One who sent Me is with Me. He didn’t leave Me alone because I always do what’s pleasing to Him.”
- Through Him speaking these things, many believed in Him.
Of which father?
- So Jesus was saying to the Jews who have believed in Him: “If you remain in My word, you’re truly My disciples.
- And you will know the truth, and the truth will free you.”
- They answered to Him: “We’re Abraham’s seed, and we *served as slaves to no one at any time. How do you say that ‘You will become free’?”
- Jesus answered them: “Amen, amen I tell you that every man practicing sin is a slave of sin.
- “And the slave doesn’t remain in the house through the age; the son remains through the age.
- “So if the Son frees you, you will truly be free.”
- “I *know that you are Abraham’s seed, but you seek to kill Me because My word isn’t making a place in you.
- “I speak what I have seen with the Father. Therefore, you also do what you heard from your father.”
- They answered and told Him: “Our father is Abraham.” Jesus tells them: “If you are Abraham’s children, you should be doing the works of Abraham.”
- “But now you seek to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham didn’t do this.
- “You do the works of your father.” So they told Him: “We haven’t been born from fornication; we have one Father; God.”
- Jesus told them: “If God was your Father, you would ^love Me, for I came from God and am here, for I haven’t even come of My own initiative, but He sent Me.
- “Why don’t you understand My speech? Because you aren’t able to hear My word.
- “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the cravings of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he wasn’t standing in the truth because there isn’t truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks it from his own initiative because he’s a liar, and the father of lying.
- “And you don’t believe Me because I speak the truth.
- “Who from among you convicts Me of sin? If I speak the truth, why don’t you believe Me?
- “The man who is of God hears the words of God. You don’t hear because of this, because you aren’t of God.”
I Am
- The Jews answered and told Him: “Don’t we rightly say that you’re a Samaritan and have a demon?”
- Jesus answered. “I don’t have a demon, but I honor My Father and you dishonor Me.
- “And I don’t seek My glory, there is One seeking it and judging.
- “Amen, amen I tell you: if someone keeps My word, he definitely won’t see death through the age.”
- Therefore the Jews told Him: “Now we *know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets too; and yet you say: ‘if someone keeps My word, he definitely won’t taste death through the age’.
- “You aren’t greater than our father Abraham who died, are you? And the prophets died too. Whom do you make yourself out to be?”
- Jesus answered: “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing. My Father is the One glorifying Me; He of whom you say: ‘He is our God’.
- “And you don’t *know Him, but I *know Him. And I say that if I don’t *know Him, I will be like you men: a liar. But I *know Him and keep His word.
- “Your father Abraham jumped for joy that he might see My day, and he saw it and rejoiced.”
- Therefore, the Jews said to Him: “You don’t have fifty years yet, and you have seen Abraham?”
- Jesus told them: “Amen, amen I tell you: before Abraham was, I Am.”4quotation/allusion to Exodus 3:14
- Therefore, they picked up stones so they might throw them at Him. But Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple [going through their midst and was departing this way].
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