Prayer requests, karma, and faith.

Years ago a pastor gave me a book of daily devotions, consisting of E.M. Bounds’s writings. If you’ve not heard of the guy, he’s a 19th-century Methodist who wrote eight of his 11 books about prayer. Because his works are in the public domain, publishers keep adapting and using them to make cheap devotionals. It’s all variations on the same theme: If we wanna grow as Christians, or want our churches to grow, we gotta pray. Gotta. Bounds believed in hours-long daily prayers; I’m more into God-mindfulness. But however you do it, Bounds was right: We gotta pray.

That said, Bounds wasn’t infallible; nobody but Jesus is. Sometimes he’d get it wrong. And some of the excerpts from his writings, which this devotional edits down to one-page daily readings, consist of some of this wrongness. I’ll give you an example from a page from last month.

A life of obedience helps prayer. It speeds prayer to the throne. God cannot help hearing the prayer of an obedient child. Unquestioning obedience counts much in the sight of God at the throne of heavenly grace.

It acts like the flowing tides of many rivers. An obedient life is not simply a reformed life. It is not the old life primed and repainted. It is not a superficial churchgoing life or a flurry of activities.

Neither is it only an external conformation to what society expects. It takes much more than this to be a truly obedient Christian.

It comes from one paragraph from chapter 9 of Bounds’s posthumous 1929 book The Necessity of Prayer. It’s not even the full paragraph.

It sounds correct to many Christians, because when Christians write about prayer, far too few of ’em talk about God’s grace. Instead we talk about karma. Humanity presumes the universe runs on reciprocity. So if you do good deeds, you get good things in return. If you do evil deeds, the universe somehow punishes you.

Or so wealthy westerners believe. Poor easterners know better. Every authoritarian government in the world is proof the universe absolutely does not run this way. There are plenty of good people in North Korea, but they’ve nonetheless been crapped upon by the Kim family for generations. The Kims aren’t good people, but Il-Sung and Jong-Il managed to live comfortably and die peacefully, and someday the same may be true of Jong-Un and Ju-Ae. But I digress: Because easterners regularly witness firsthand how the universe doesn’t come through for good people, their beliefs about karma usually claim reciprocity will happen in the next life. Once they’re reincarnated, good people will have better lives; wicked people will have worse lives. Because in this life, if you’re looking for hope in the universe, you get nothing. You lose. Good day, sir.

But I digress. Instead of a meaningless universe, people figure God is behind all the reciprocity out there—he makes sure the wicked never prosper, and the righteous get mansions and yachts and enough billions to buy elections. So how do we make sure we’re on the receiving end of God’s full-blast firehose of blessings? Duh; we gotta be good. Obey God’s commands, and God will answer your every prayer. Don’t, and God will pass you by.

Does this concept come from bible? Not even close. God’s kingdom runs on grace, not karma. And God’s answers to prayer likewise run on his grace. He doesn’t answer our prayers because we’re good; he answers our prayers because he’s good. Like Jesus says, your Father is happy to give good things to his children. Mt 7.11

The truth will set you free.

John 8.30-38.

We Christians love to quote the passage, “The truth shall set you free,” or “The truth will make you free,” or however your favorite translation renders it. It’s a reminder of how truth’s a good, liberating thing. Truth will set us free. Sometimes we aren’t particular about which truth, and figure any truth will set us free. Well, truth is always better than error and lies.

But in context, Jesus was speaking of something more specific. We Christians don’t always care so much about the context whenever we quote it, but today I’m writing about its context: In the verse right before it, Jesus speaks about if μείνητε ἐν τῷ λόγῳ τῷ ἐμῷ/meínite en to lóyo to emó, “y’all might abide in the word, in mine.” The truth will set us free, but we won’t even know what’s true unless we first have a lifestyle of following Jesus.

Yep, a lifestyle. It’s not enough to believe Jesus is Lord, say the creeds, and pay the appropriate lip service. We gotta actually follow him. We gotta do as Jesus says. Christ Jesus’s teachings about loving God and our neighbors have to be the entire foundation for our way of life. When they’re not, we’re gonna know truthy things; they’ll certainly resemble truth, or certainly feel like truth. Won’t always be truth though. They’ll have just enough truth in ’em to help lead us astray.

So when Jesus taught in temple, and talking about how he’s the world’s light, many chose to trust Jesus… and Jesus had this message for those who trusted him. Also applies to those of us who today claim we trust him.

And, sad to say, our reaction to Jesus’s teachings will often be the very same as that of the Judeans who balked at this teaching.

John 8.30-34 KWL

30In saying these things,

many trust in Jesus.

31So Jesus is saying to those Judeans who trusted him,

“When you² abide in my word,

you’re² truly my students.

32You’ll² come to know the truth,

and the truth will free you.”²

33The Judeans answer Jesus, “We’re Abraham’s seed.

We were never, ever enslaved.

How can you¹ say we’ll become free?

34Jesus answers them,

“Amen amen! I promise you:²

Anyone who commits sin is sin’s slave.”

Pharisee synagogues taught by the Socratic method: The teacher would make a statement, and his students would test it by vigorously questioning it. Thats why you see Jesus get so much pushback from Pharisees in the gospels: That’s how they were trained to deal with teachers. Don‘t just take Jesus’s word for it; question him! Most teachers today don’t bother to teach Socratically, and get offended when you challenge them—and we get offended on their behalf when we like the teacher. So this is why Christians get offended on Jesus’s behalf whenever Pharisees responded, “Hold up; what about this?” Jesus could discern whether these were honest questions, or whether they were trying to undermine him any way they could, and this is why sometimes he responded to questions positively, and other times he didn’t. We’re not always so great with discernment.

So yeah, the whole of John 8 is a really good example of a Socratic dialogue gone awry. Jesus said the truth would free his followers; his followers responded, “Wait, we’re not slaves; we’ve never been slaves; what’re we gonna be freed from?” And Jesus’s response: “Sin. If you sin, you’re its slave. I’m here to free you from that.”

Well duh. But we would say, “Well duh” because we’re used to 20 centuries of hearing Jesus and Paul’s teachings about sin and being slaves to it. For these first-century Judeans, this was a new idea… and it offended them, because the Pharisees had taught ’em all the loopholes which meant they could “follow” the Law without actually following it… so they weren’t sinners. Weren’t slaves to sin. Yet that’s kinda what Jesus was calling them.

John 8.35-38 KWL

35“The slave doesn’t abide in the house in the age to come.

The son abides there in the age to come.

36So when the son frees you,²

you² will truly be free.

37I already know you’re² Abraham’s seed,

but you² seek to kill me

because my word has no place among you.²

38I speak of whatever I saw from the Father,

so you² should do whatever you hear from the Father.”

I should point out the Textus Receptus renders verse 38 a bit differently:

John 8.38 KWL (from TR)

38I speak of whatever I saw from the Father,

and so you² do whatever you² saw from your father.

Rather than encouragement to follow our heavenly Father, Jesus appears to already jump forward to his conclusion in verse 44 how these are the devil’s kids. But nope, he’s not there yet. In any event the discussion goes downhill from here.

Deliberately misunderstanding Jesus.

John 8.21-29.

As you know, some insist Jesus is a great moral teacher and nothing more. When they read of him saying “I’m the world’s light,” they skip it; they prefer to ignore any radical statements Jesus makes about who he is, who sent him and why, and why he does what he does. They refuse to recognize him for who he is. When he made parabolic, roundabout statements about it, they deliberately choose to misinterpret him. When he makes blunt, in-your-face statements about it (as he does here), they kinda want to kill him.

John 8 definitely contains both these things. Both the parabolic and the blunt statements; both the people who chose to misunderstand Jesus, and the people who wanted to throw rocks at him. So let’s get to those things.

Back to temple, Jn 8.20 where Jesus was teaching yet another lesson to skeptical people:

John 8.21-29 KWL

21So Jesus is telling the Phariseesᴾ again,

“I’m going, and you’ll² seek me.

And you’ll² die from your² sins.

Where I go, you² can’t come.”

22So the Judeans are saying, “He won’t kill himself, will he?”

—because he says, “Where I go, you² can’t come.”

23Jesus is telling the Judeans,ᴾ

“You’re² from below;

I’m from above.

You’re² from this world;

I’m not from this world.

24Hence I tell you² you’ll² die from your² sins,

for when you² don’t believe I AM,

you² will die from your² sins.”

25So the Judeans are telling him, “Who are you?”

Jesus tells them, “What have I been telling you²

from the very beginning?

26I have so many things to say—and judge—about you.²

But he who sends me is true,

and whatever I hear from him,

I say these things to the world.”

27The Judeans don’t realize

Jesus is speaking to them about the Father,

28so Jesus tells {them}, “You’ll² know I AM

as soon as you² exalt the Son of Man.

I do nothing on my own,

but I speak these things just as the Father teaches me.

29And he who sends me, is with me.

He doesn’t leave me alone,

for I always do whatever pleases him.”

As the world’s light, those who follow Jesus get our eternal life from him. Jn 8.12 And those who don’t, who have no intention of following him, can’t possibly go into God’s kingdom with him. Aren’t gonna go; don’t wanna go. Yeah, they might imagine they want God’s kingdom, but they have some radically different ideas about what it’ll be like, which look nothing like Jesus describes in the gospels. (Usually something more political.) So what he’s creating, they’ll want no part of. They’ll reject him, which means they reject God’s kingdom and aren’t going in. Their sins will destroy them.

More than a great moral teacher: The world’s light.

John 8.12-20.

If we skip the Adulterer Story as we read John (as we probably should, ’cause whether it happened or not, it didn’t happen at this point in John), this lesson took place right after the feast of Tabernacles was over. After the Judean senators had decided Jesus isn’t a relevant prophet because, among other things, he’s Galilean.

Which only goes to show they didn’t know anything about Jesus’s family and backstory. They could’ve found it out with some very minor investigation. Talk to any of Jesus’s family members; they knew the entire story. But the senators didn’t bother, and stuck with their fairly superficial observations—which Jesus, in today’s passage, calls judging “according to the flesh.” Jn 8.15 They presumed they knew better, and missed their Messiah.

Since they didn’t realize how significant Jesus is, whenever he made appropriately bold statements about himself, they naturally balked. These statements were way too bold for them. You can’t go making unsubstantiated statements like this. Like “I’m the world’s light.”

John 8.12-20 KWL

12So Jesus speaks to the Judeansᴾ again,

saying, “I’m the world’s light.

One who follows me ought never, ever walk in the dark.

Instead they’ll¹ have life’s light.”

13So the Pharisees told Jesusᴾ,

“You¹ testify about yourself.¹

Your¹ testimony isn’t true.”

14In reply Jesus tells the Pharisees,ᴾ

“And when I testify about myself,

my testimony is true

because I know where I came from

and where I’m going.

You² didn’t know where I came from,

nor where I’m going.

15You² judge according to your flesh;

I don’t judge anyone.

16When I judge, my judgment is true,

for I’m not judging alone;

instead it’s me

and the Father who sends me.

17In your² Law, it’s written

that two people’s testimony is true.

18I’m a witness for myself,

and the Father who sends me testifies about me.”

19So the Pharisees are telling him, “Who’s your Father?”

Jesus is replying, “You knew neither me nor my Father.

If you knew me, you should’ve known my Father.”

20Jesus is speaking these words in the treasury

while teaching in temple,

and no one is laying a hand on him,

for his hour hadn’t yet come.

Y’notice Jesus kinda agreed with them: No, he can’t claim unsubstantiated statements about himself. But Jesus’s statements are substantiated, because they’re backed by the one who sent him to us, his Father. (And the Father had said so in the scriptures.)

Then Jesus made another radical statement: These Pharisees don‘t know his Father. If they did, they’d listen to the Father, and know from him Jesus is legit. They didn’t, so they don’t.

The Adulterer Story… if it even happened.

John 7.53 – 8.11.

Today’s passage is known by scholars as the Pericope Adulterae, the Adulterer Story, about a woman caught committing adultery, whom Jesus was expected to judge, and didn’t. It’s a really popular story in Christendom, and even pagans know the line, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” Jn 8.7 KJV It’s used as the basis for a lot of live-and-let-live, “who am I to judge?” beliefs.

Two things though.

• That’s not what Jesus meant by “He that is without sin.” I’ll get to that.
• This entire story isn’t found in the earliest copies of John. Nor the gospels. It got added in the 300s. It’s a textual variant.

That second thing tends to really freak out Christians when I point it out to them. But just about every copy of the bible but the KJV points this out. The whole passage is put in brackets, or prefaced by “The oldest copies of John don’t have this story.” Some more daring bible translations even put the whole thing in the footnotes, and John 7.52 is immediately followed by John 8.12.

The greenish text is a reminder this comes from the Textus Receptus. The UBS6 has a version if it, but since it’s all spurious I figure it doesn’t matter if it includes the Textus’s additions to the text.

John 7.53 – 8.11 KWL

7.53{Each person goes to their house,

8.1and Jesus goes to Mt. Olivet.

2At dawn Jesus again goes to temple,

and all the people come to him.

He sits to teach them.

3Scribes and Pharisees bring Jesus a woman

caught red-handed in adultery.

They stand her in the middle.

4They tell Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught

in the act of adultering.

5In our Law Moses commanded us

to stone such people to death. Lv 20.10

So what do you¹ say?”

6They’re saying this to test Jesus,

so they might have an accusation on him.

Stooping down, not paying attention,

Jesus is writing on the ground with his finger

7while they continue to question him.

Then Jesus stands and tells them,

“The sinless party among you:²

Throw the first stone at her.”

8And again Jesus bends down

to write on the ground.

9One by one the listeners leave,

convicted by their consciences,

beginning with the elders.

Only Jesus, and the woman in the middle, are left.

10Standing, seeing no one but the woman,

Jesus tells her, “Woman, where are they?

No one condemns you?”¹

11She says, “No one, sir.”

Jesus tells her, “I don’t condemn you¹ either.

Go, and from now on don’t sin.”}

The senators dismiss the Galilean prophet.

John 7.45-52.

You might remember a few verses back, the Judean senators sent their ὑπηρέτας/ypirétas, “underlings” (KJV “officers”) to either go seize Jesus, or at least quiet him. Jn 7.32 Instead, to the great annoyance of the senators, the underlings came back empty-handed, too impressed by Jesus to oppose him.

John 7.45-49 KWL

45So the assistants are coming

to the head priests and Pharisees,

and these leaders are telling them,

“For what reason do you² not bring Jesus?ᴾ

46The assistants answer, “No human ever spoke this way.”

47So the Pharisees answer them,

“You² weren’t deceived too, were you?

48Not one of the leaders believe in Jesus.ᴾ

Nor any of the Pharisees.

49But this crowd, not knowing the Law,

is damned.”

The way I translate verse 49 never fails to get a strong reaction from people. “Damned” tends to be used as a profanity, so your average Christian’s knee-jerk reaction is, “You swore.” Not they swore; not the Pharisees. They’re used to bible translations where the Pharisees only said “cursed.” It’s my fault for using the no-no word.

But this is what ἐπάρατοί/epáratí means. When it’s used in ancient Greek literature, it’s to describe how the gods divinely destined certain humans and city-states for destruction ’cause they did something the gods forbade, like desecrating graves or violating a divine command. When the Pharisees said the crowd is epáratí, they meant the LORD was gonna destroy these people for not knowing the Law of Moses; at least not to the level Pharisees did.

Now wait; isn’t the whole point of Pharisaism to teach the general public the Law? To perpetuate the Law and biblical literacy in Israel, lest the cycle start all over again as God’s people slid back into apostasy and idolatry? Of course. So whose fault is it these people don’t know the Law? Who hadn’t been doing their duty to disseminate truth?—or whatever passed for truth among Pharisees, anyway.

Thing is, in every holiness movement we’re gonna find a toxic faction of legalists who forget to be compassionate and gracious to those who haven’t been taught any better. Christianity definitely has ’em too. Some of us treat pagans like crap, like sinners just doomed to destruction. Some of us even claim God wants to destroy them; that the only reason God created ’em in the first place was to show off his greatness by dumping wrath upon them. It’s a totally messed-up worldview, based on out-of-context verses, but really it’s contrary to scriptures which plainly state God wants to save everyone. 1Ti 2.4 But among Evangelicals, it’s mighty common ’cause some of us find it way more fun to be wrathful than gracious. We forget if it weren’t for God’s grace, we’d be just as lost.

These Pharisee senators were in the very same boat. Pride made ’em presume they knew God better than the crowds. And that they knew better than to believe Jesus was Messiah. Certainly none of them believed in Jesus. “Do any of the rulers believe in Jesus? Or any of the Pharisees?”

Well one of ’em did:

John 7.50-52 KWL

50Nicodemus, who is one of the leaders,

who previously came to Jesusᴾ {at night}, tells them,

51“Our law doesn’t judge the person

when one’s not first heard from them,¹

and knows what they¹ do, does it?”

52In reply the leaders told Nicodemus,

“You’re¹ not also from the Galilee, are you?

Study and see that the Prophet

doesn’t rise up from the Galilee.”

Good on Nicodemus for speaking up, but y’notice the other senators’ rotten attitude, and you can see why Nicodemus likely didn’t bother to speak up often. Their immediate response was, “You’re not also from the Galilee, are you?”

Rivers of living water.

John 7.37-44.

The last day of the feast of Taberancles was treated like sabbath. Lv 23.36, Nu 29.35 Every day, God was presented a ritual food offering; on the last day they presented a ritual drink offering. The priests drew water from the Šiloakh pool (where they washed some of the sacrificial animals; where Jesus later sent a blind guy to wash himself) then walked round the temple’s altar with the water. Then the officiating priest lifted his hand to indicate the ritual was over.

This particular year, possibly right after the drink offering, this happened:

John 7.37-39 KWL

37On the great last day of the feast of Tabernacles,

Jesus stood and called out, saying,

“When anyone thirsts,

come to me and drink!

38One who believes in me, just as the scripture says,

rivers of living water will flow from their¹ guts.”

39Jesus says this about the Holy Spirit,

whom believers in him are about to receive.

The {Holy} Spirit has not yet come,

for Jesus has not yet been glorified.

As John said, this is a prophecy about the Holy Spirit, who wouldn’t come Ac 2.1-4 till after Jesus was raptured and glorified. Ac 1.9-11 Come to Jesus and receive the water of life; receive the Holy Spirit.

Jesus’s statement galvanized the people, who were pretty sure Jesus was either the Prophet or Messiah… although as you can see, there was still some debate about his credentials to be Messiah. Some of the crowd believed nobody knew where Messiah came from; others knew Messiah totally came from Bethlehem. Problem is, this was Jesus the Nazarene, and they knew Messiah didn’t come from Nazareth.

John 7.40-44 KWL

40So, hearers of this message in the crowd are saying,

“This is truly the Prophet.”

41Others are saying, “This is Messiah.”

Some are saying, “No!

For does Messiah come from the Galilee?

42Doesn’t the scripture say this?—

‘From the seed of David and from Bethlehem,

the town where David comes from,’

comes Messiah.”

43So a schism came upon the crowd

because of Jesus,ᴾ

44and some of them are wanting to seize Jesus,ᴾ

but no one is laying a hand on him.

We know Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but I remind you this gospel doesn’t include Jesus’s birth story. He just shows up in his 30s to be baptized by John, gather students, and begin teaching. John states multiple times he came from heaven, sent by the Father, which was good enough for John. Not so much for the Jerusalemites, who were looking for any reason to disqualify him.

Still, Jesus is descended from David ben Jesse, Mt 1.1 and wasn’t just born in Bethlehem but had ancestors from Bethlehem; Nazareth was founded by Bethlehemites. His provenance definitely doesn’t disqualify him from being Messiah. But for doubters, any excuse will do. We get the same way nowadays; all humans do.