From history books and documentaries, we learn of men and women who secretly carried specific, helpful information of strategy to the troops.  These messengers who ran valuable information from the top chiefs to the ground leaders made the difference between life or death to those fighting the battles daily.  The messengers also delivered truth about the enemy so that moral about the troops could be restored and the enemy could be defeated more quickly.  The enemy would lie about the status of war knowing that if hope was gone the battle could be won. 

It stands to reason that the top leader, looking from the best vantage point over all that was happening, who knew the real truth of the situation at hand, could see the right moves to make for victory over the enemy.  Yes, from this perspective, the one in charge could analyze and strategize the best plan to win over the enemy.  Orders where then sent by messengers to the leaders of battalions of soldiers on the field fighting who could only see what was in front of them. 

When the enemy is defeated in our hearts, minds and souls, we are set free.  This is the truth from Jesus, Savior and Lord, that leaps from the page from our passage today for me.  Allow the words of Jesus, Commander in Chief of our daily skirmishes with evil, permeate our hearts.  He is One sent by God to tell us the Truth.  Jesus is Truth.  Jesus is the Victor.  The war was won, but there are battles we must fight with the enemy daily who still thinks he can take what Jesus took from him—our freedom from sin and death.  Jesus is so much more than a messenger, He is our Savior and Lord!

John—God’s Love

John 8:31-47, The Message

If the Son Sets You Free

^31-32 Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. “If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.”

³³ Surprised, they said, “But we’re descendants of Abraham. We’ve never been slaves to anyone. How can you say, ‘The truth will free you’?”

^34-38 Jesus said, “I tell you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped in a dead-end life and is, in fact, a slave. A slave can’t come and go at will. The Son, though, has an established position, the run of the house. So if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through. I know you are Abraham’s descendants. But I also know that you are trying to kill me because my message hasn’t yet penetrated your thick skulls. I’m talking about things I have seen while keeping company with the Father, and you just go on doing what you have heard from your father.”

^39-41 They were indignant. “Our father is Abraham!”

Jesus said, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would have been doing the things Abraham did. And yet here you are trying to kill me, a man who has spoken to you the truth he got straight from God! Abraham never did that sort of thing. You persist in repeating the works of your father.”

They said, “We’re not bastards. We have a legitimate father: the one and only God.”

^42-47 “If God were your father,” said Jesus, “you would love me, for I came from God and arrived here. I didn’t come on my own. He sent me. Why can’t you understand one word I say? Here’s why: You can’t handle it. You’re from your father, the Devil, and all you want to do is please him. He was a killer from the very start. He couldn’t stand the truth because there wasn’t a shred of truth in him. When the Liar speaks, he makes it up out of his lying nature and fills the world with lies. I arrive on the scene, tell you the plain truth, and you refuse to have a thing to do with me. Can any one of you convict me of a single misleading word, a single sinful act? But if I’m telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? Anyone on God’s side listens to God’s words. This is why you’re not listening—because you’re not on God’s side.”

“Anyone on God’s side listens to God’s words.”—Jesus

We who believe in Jesus fight a battle daily with the one who thinks the war is not over.  Listen to the One sent from God to tell us the Truth.  Truth wins every time because Jesus already won the war.

Father in Heaven, Commander of Life,

We come to you for our marching orders that contain Truth, victory for battle, love, mercy, filled with your grace because you are for us, not against us.  You are the Way, Truth and Life everlasting.  Where else would we go to or depend on for all we need to defeat the enemy of our souls?  Continue to arm us with all the wisdom, insight and understanding of your Truth to defeat the Liar.  Begin in me today.

In Jesus Name, Amen