John 8:47Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

For if they do not believe Him who committed no sin, who says that He came from God and was sent by Him, who speaks the truth, and speaks the truth in such a way that He calls everyone to refute Him, then it is clear that unbelievers do not believe in Him because they are fleshly men.

He knew, He surely knew, that sins destroy the soul. Therefore it is said: “Since you have become dull of hearing” (Heb 5:11). Truly, can one who cannot despise earthly things ever philosophize about heavenly things?

Therefore, I implore you, let us strive in every way to amend our life and cleanse our soul, so that nothing impure may become an obstacle for us. Kindle in yourselves the light of knowledge, and do not cast seeds among thorns.

Whoever does not know that covetousness is a vice, how will he learn anything greater? Whoever does not turn away from this earthly thing, how will he desire that heavenly thing?

It is good to seize, but not perishable things. Seize the kingdom of heaven. “The violent,” it is said, “take it by force” (Mt 11:12). Therefore it is not by laziness that one can attain it, but by zeal.

What does “the violent” mean? Great force is needed, because the way is narrow. A youthful and vigorous soul is needed. Those who seize want to get ahead of everyone. They look at nothing, neither reproach, nor condemnation, nor punishment.

They think of only one thing, how they may obtain what they want to seize, and they get ahead of all who are before them. Let us, then, seize the kingdom of heaven. This seizure is not sinful, but praiseworthy. Here the sin is not to seize.

Here our wealth causes no loss to others. Let us strive to seize it. If anger weighs us down, if desires trouble us, let us conquer nature, become meek, and labor a little in order to rest forever.

Do not steal gold, but seize the wealth beside which gold appears as dirt. Tell me, if lead and gold lay before you, which would you take? Is it not clear that you would take the gold?

So when the one who seizes is punished, you choose the better thing. When the one who seizes deserves honor, will you not prefer the better thing? Would you not choose this better thing even if there were punishment for seizing either one?

But here there is nothing of the kind. On the contrary, here there is blessedness. How then, you ask, can one seize the kingdom of heaven? Throw away what is in your hands. As long as you hold this, you cannot seize that.

Imagine a man whose hands are filled with silver. Will he be able to seize gold while he is holding the silver, unless he throws it away and becomes free? The one who seizes must be bound by nothing, lest he be held back.

Even now there are hostile powers that attack us and try to take the kingdom of heaven away from us. Let us flee from them. Let us flee without leaving behind anything by which they can grasp us. Let us cut the cords and strip ourselves of the things of life.

What need have you of silk garments? How long shall we wrap ourselves in these ridiculous clothes? How long shall we bury gold in the earth? I would like to stop speaking about this every time. But you do not allow it, since you always provide the occasion and impulse.

Now, at least, let us leave this, so that by teaching others also through our life, we may receive the promised good things. May we receive them by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father with the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Therefore, He says, "he who is from God" will quickly and willingly receive the divine words, for what is akin is always somehow dear and close.

But the one who is not from God, that is, who in no way values nearness to Him, will not gladly listen to the divine words. Good is not easily implanted in evil men.

In them there is no worthy rivalry in the desire for virtue, since their mind is filled with utter corruption and strives only toward its own will.

When Christ says, "He who is from God hears the words of God," let no one think that He commands us to receive the divine words only by bodily hearing.

For what man, however evil he may be, would be unable to hear every kind of speech, provided the sense of hearing has not been taken from him by illness?

Here He uses "hears" instead of "sympathizes with, obeys, and hides in his mind," according to what is said in Proverbs: "The wise in heart will receive commandments" (Prov. 10:8).

Like some indistinct sound or blow that passes by and troubles the ear in vain, the word disappears from the heart of the senseless and proud. But it enters the heart of the wise as into fruitful soil.

Very clearly rebuking the madness of the Jews and exposing their shameless slander, the Lord says that His words are the words of God.

He teaches them to think of Him fittingly, not to consider Him truly born of Joseph or of anyone else earthly. Rather, they must believe that He appeared from the essence of God the Father as God from God.

Having understood this, they are indignant and burn with still fiercer rage, adding "iniquity to their iniquity," as it is written (Ps. 68:28). Through this they inflict still greater insults upon Him.

What does the Lord say? ‘Therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.’ This is precisely what the Lord says. What will you say to this?”

Listen to what I say. They are both of God and not of God. By nature they are of God; by vice they are not of God. For the good nature, which is from God, sinned by following its will, believing what the devil suggested, and was damaged. Therefore it seeks a physician, because it is sick.

This is what I say. But it seems impossible to you that they should be of God and not of God. Hear why this is not impossible. They are of God and not of God in the same way that they are Abraham’s children and not Abraham’s children.

Here there is what is necessary, and there is not what you Manichaeans say. Hear the Lord Himself. He Himself said to those Jews: “I know that you are Abraham’s children” (Jn 8:37). Does the Lord lie? By no means.

Then what the Lord said is true? True. Then it is true that they were Abraham’s children? True. But hear how He denies it. He said: “If you are Abraham’s children, do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which He heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the works of your father,” that is, the devil (cf. Jn 8:39-41).

How, then, were they both children of Abraham and not children of Abraham? He showed both things in them. They were children of Abraham because of fleshly descent. They were not children of Abraham because of their vicious following of the devil’s persuasion.

Understand the same thing concerning our Lord and God. They were from Him and not from Him. Why were they from Him? Because He created the man from whom they were born. Why were they from Him? Because He is the Creator of nature. He is the Creator of flesh and soul.

And why were they not from Him? Because they damaged themselves. They were not from Him because, by imitating the devil, they became children of the devil.

Therefore the Lord God came to sinful man. You have heard two names: man and sinner. What is man is from God. What is sinner is not from God. Let vice be separated from nature. Let nature be recognized, for which the Creator must be praised. Let vice be recognized, because of which the Physician must be invoked.

“He who is of God hears the words of God. Therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.” He was not dividing the merits of natures. He did not find in men another nature besides their soul and flesh, one that had not been corrupted by sin.

But because He foreknew those who would believe, He called them “of God,” since through adoption they would be born anew from God. To them belong the words: “He who is of God hears the words of God” (Jn 8:47).

What follows, “Therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God,” was spoken to those who were not only corrupted by sin, for this evil was common to all. It was spoken to those whom He foreknew would not believe with the faith by which alone they could be freed from the bonds of sin.

Therefore He foreknew that those to whom He spoke this would continue to persist in what they had received from the devil, that is, in their sins. They would die in the impiety in which they had become like him.

They would not come to the new birth in which they would become children of God, that is, be born of God, who created them as men. The Lord spoke according to this predestination, not according to any man whom He found already to be of God through regeneration, or not to be of God by nature.

For there are some who do not deem the commandments of God worthy of hearing even with the bodily ear. There are some who receive them with the bodily ear, but have no heartfelt disposition toward them.

There are also some who willingly receive the words of God, but after a season of tears return to impiety. Truly, those who despise the words of God in deed do not hear them.

Therefore, most beloved brethren, set your life before the eyes of your mind. With lofty reflection, fear what is heard from the mouth of Truth: "You therefore do not hear, because you are not of God."

Let each of you consider within himself whether this voice of God has been established in the ears of his heart, and whether he senses that he is already from God.

For there are some who do not consent to receive God's instruction with bodily ears. There are some who receive it with bodily ears, but do not grasp it by the striving of the mind.

There are some who willingly receive the words of God and even repent with weeping, but after tears return to lawless deeds. In truth, those do not hear the words of God who neglect to fulfill them in deed.

He was a murderer from the beginning of the history of the human world. Even now he is moving you to kill Me. He does not stand in the truth, εστηκα, 'I have set myself, I stand,' because there is no truth in him, within him.

Falsehood, not truth, is the sphere of both his activity and his inner life. When he speaks falsehood, he speaks from himself, for he is a liar and the originator of all falsehood in the world. All liars are under his influence.

You are children of the father of falsehood. And because I speak the truth to you, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin, αμαρτια, in word or deed, in My teaching or in My life? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe Me?" Verse 47 gives the answer.

Are you silent? You cannot convict Me of falsehood? Therefore I speak the truth. If so, why do you not believe Me? For I speak to you the words of God. If God were your Father, you would hear them. But you do not hear, because you are not of God, because He is not your father.”

“Which of you convicts Me of falsehood?” “Which of you can convict Me of sin?” In the Church Slavonic translation: “Which of you convicts Me of sin?” This is a question with which no man has ever dared, or will ever dare, to address his enemies.

All men, even the most righteous and the holiest, have always known and still know that they can be convicted of falsehood and sin. Among men there are only those more or less sinful, but there are no sinless ones.

And if anyone were so senseless as to decide to put such a question to his enemies, he would immediately be exposed and put to shame. Could men have enemies as embittered as those whom the Evangelist John calls the Jews were toward Jesus Christ?

Only complete consciousness of His own sinlessness and rectitude in everything, in words and in deeds, could give Christ the possibility of presenting Himself before His enemies. Only unconditional certainty that everything He said was spoken by God Himself, and that no one would find darkness in the true Light, could allow Him to offer publicly to be convicted by them of falsehood and sin.

And no one dared to appear as an accuser. Even later, at the trial before the Sanhedrin and Pilate, His malicious enemies could accuse Him only of having made Himself the Son of God (Jn 19:7). They could not convict or accuse Him of falsehood and sin, even with the help of false witnesses.

All this leads to the conviction that Jesus was sinless and spoke only the truth. Since He affirmed, both before and in this significant discourse with the Pharisees, that He spoke only what He had heard from His Father, God, we must believe that everything He said was spoken by God Himself.

Therefore in Him God Himself was revealed to men. We must also believe that Jesus is the most perfect Man, and at the same time God, that is, the God-man, or God incarnate.

In general, one can either believe Jesus Christ fully or not believe Him at all. There can be no middle ground. Since, for the reasons indicated above, it is impossible not to believe Him, we must believe Him fully in everything, even what is incomprehensible to our limited mind.

"Because there is no truth in him," for he has wholly distorted his nature and persists in resistance to God.

"When he speaks falsehood, he speaks his own, for he is a liar and the father of falsehood" (v. 44). This spiritual kinship of the Pharisees with the devil explains their stubborn unbelief and resistance to Christ, the very incarnate Truth (vv. 45-47).

After rebuking the falsehood of the Pharisees, Jesus Christ, conscious of His divine righteousness and purity, exclaimed: "Which of you convicts Me of falsehood?" (v. 46). According to His humanity, Jesus Christ was a Man like us in all things, but He was without sin.

Of all men, only He, the sinless Man, could ask the question cited above.

If you have nothing with which to accuse Me, and if I speak the truth, why do you not believe Me and My words? And that I speak the truth, you yourselves know. Even your corrupted soul convinces you of this.

"But you do not believe, because you are not children of God." The very insensibility of the Jews testifies that they did not belong to God.

"He who is of God hears the words of God," for his heart cannot remain frozen. The words of God are fire. They either kindle the fire of love in man's heart, or consume the unworthy, embittered, and obstinate man.