Get the True Picture

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"

Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know you are Abraham's descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word. I am telling you what I have seen in the Father's presence, and you do what you have heard from your father" (John 8:31-38).

By the time Jesus said, "The truth will set you free," he had turned water to wine, healed the boy in Capernaum, healed the thirty-eight-year invalid, multiplied a small amount to feed thousands, and walked on water. The claims he made regarding his identity were believable to many. They were convinced that he was telling the truth.

He told them that if they would live what they believed - hold to his teaching - then they would know the truth and the truth would set them free.

Do you notice the important connection between knowing the truth and living in the truth? The Jews needed an accurate understanding in order to make the righteous decision regarding Jesus' call to freedom. If they believed Satan, the Father of Lies, then what they did would be wrong; because their actions would have been based on falsehoods.

We withhold the truth. We hide information. We use terminological inexactitudes to keep the truth from being known. We lie because we are habitual liars, or because we are protector liars, avoid-trouble liars, or get-ahead liars. And because we don't allow the truth to be known, truth can't be lived; and bondage remains.

Winston Churchill said, "The great thing is to get the true picture, whatever it is." Knowing the true picture is the great thing because then you can do some great thing about it! That's Life at Work!