It is the work of the Word and the Holy Spirit to convict humanity of sin which is human disobedience or rebellion against God’s will causing slander to his character. Each one of us are responsible for how we live and conduct our lives—we are to love God and love others in Christ’s righteousness. We will one day give an account to the Lord for how we have represented him as the loving and merciful living Word on earth.
In our passage today, Jesus’ brothers have no real understanding about his purpose to bring salvation. Therefore, their motives and expectations of and for Jesus are misdirected. At the appointed time, the greatest miracle Jesus would ever demonstrate—the one for which he would become famous—was coming and a huge amount of people would be involved but not at the Festival of Tabernacles.
The greatest miracle is appointed to happen during Passover when Jesus planned to respond to the will of God by giving his life—being the sacrificial Lamb—to save humanity from the work of evil that was filling human hearts. Eventually, the brothers of Jesus understood his purpose. Later in his letter to the Jerusalem church, James writes about the work of Jesus for salvation and about the necessity for believers to now develop Christ’s righteous character.
Evil in human hearts can do despicable things; things that grieve the heart of God. It is tempting to blame God for evil, but there is no evil in God; however, there is evil in unredeemed human hearts. But evil must come out of hiding as the Light of Truth takes its stand. Jesus is the Light of the World and the Living Truth of how human beings were created to live. Evil is destroyed as humans live the Truth!
John 7:1-9 NLT Jesus and His Brothers
1 After this, Jesus traveled around Galilee. He wanted to stay out of Judea, where the Jewish leaders were plotting his death. 2 But soon it was time for the Jewish Festival of Shelters, 3 and Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, where your followers can see your miracles! 4 You can’t become famous if you hide like this! If you can do such wonderful things, show yourself to the world!” 5 For even his brothers didn’t believe in him.
6 Jesus replied, “Now is not the right time for me to go, but you can go anytime. 7 The world can’t hate you, but it does hate me because I accuse it of doing evil. 8 You go on. I’m not going to this festival, because my time has not yet come.” 9 After saying these things, Jesus remained in Galilee.
Prayer: Lord, you are righteousness and we thank you for the work you continue to do in our hearts. We need you to deliver us from evil and develop your character within our souls. Your death and resurrection sets us free to live for you. As your sons and daughters, may we live what we say we believe. In Jesus’ name. Amen.