Too Good to Be True

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." John 8:31-32


One of the most frustrating to me is ‘reading the fine print.’ A prime example of that was when I was in Best Buy purchasing a DVD player, and they asked me if I wanted to get 3 free issues of Sports Illustrated. “Sure! It’s an offer too good to be true,” I thought to myself. All I had to do was cancel it after the 3 issues were received. Or so I thought. Apparently, I had to cancel before my 3rd issue had arrived. It was of great surprise to me when I saw the $59.99 charge on my credit card just before I had received my final issue. Needless to say they did cancel it, but of course if I had read the fine print, I would have cancelled it as soon as I got home. Of course, the Best Buy employee had simply omitted this fact from the conversation we had. The bottom line was if she had told me the whole story, I probably would not have agreed to the offer in the first place.

In scripture, we will often hear of specific verses in the Bible only to find in reading them in context, it has an entirely different meaning. In looking at John 8:31-32, many of us know the 32nd verse (Then you will know the truth . . . ), which is what most people will recite when confronted by someone who they believe is not being above board. An individual will speak of the so called ‘truth’, and therefore they are soon to be liberated. However in studying this closer, ‘the ‘truth’ spoken of here is not about being truthful at all. ‘The Truth’ here speaks of God’s glory, and once revealed, it has ultimate power. Jesus is the light of the world, which He spoke of earlier in this same chapter (verse 12), and as is stated in today’s verse, He speaks of “the truth.” His truth is that of being God’s only son; the Son of Man, and to believe in this is to set us free from all sin. This is much more powerful than discussing whether we gain favor by being truthful or not. Thus by using this verse in reference to general truth, we are like that Best Buy employee not telling the full story. Again, the truth that sets us free is that Jesus Christ is God the Son, and that only through Him are we free from God’s condemnation of our sins. This is not to say that being untruthful is not sinful as stated in the ninth commandment. However by acknowledging what God’s true intent is here, we gain something greater (salvation) than what we will sometimes try to fit it into (freedom from the guilt of untruths).

God wants us to fully understand what His truth is. There is no greater truth than that this; through Jesus dying on the cross for our sins, we are indeed saved if we acknowledge Him as the savior and salvation in our lives. We must be dependent on reading the word fully to understand what God is truly saying and not fall into the traps of half truths or incomplete stories. My prayer is that we are always willing to dive into the full word of God for its truths and not be subject to an offer too good to be true. Amen.