John 8:31-36 (ESVST)
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “ If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Jesus is still in Judea at the temple where he was attending the feast of booths that had ended but he remained preaching to those that were there and since cheater 5 after Jesus healed a man on sabbath, Jesus has had to defend his authority and defend his testimony against the Pharisees and the Chief priest who according to John 5:18, already wanted to kill him for breaking sabbath and making himself equal with God.
In verse 29 in this chapter, just before the verse above, John tell us that many believed in him. Here Jesus is talking to those who believed in him and he says the next step to prove indeed that you are genuinely and truly his disciple, it is to abide in his word. The word abide in Greek “meno” which means to continuously remain or to endure or to persevere. Jesus is saying continuously remaining and enduring the word of God is an indication of true discipleship. Jesus says in doing this, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
There is absolutely no point of being a Christian if you don’t even get a chance or make time to open and read the word of God. Lack of reading and understanding the word of God causes people to be easily misled by false pastors, prophets, bishops and the like. The truth can only be found in the word of God and the word of God is found in the scriptures.
33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free ’?”
The Jews’ statement that they had “never been slaves of anyone” was an amazing disregard of their Roman overlords — as well as of their Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian and Syrian oppressors. So, it is not clear why they said this because even at the current time of making this statement, they were under the Romans. Maybe the Jews here meant religiously they were never a slave to anyone else’s religion.
34 Jesus answered them, “ Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Jesus then explained himself and told them that they are indeed spiritually slaves for anyone who continues to practice sin is indeed a slave to sin. Jesus then comtinues to say, a slave does not remain in the house forever, at some point, the services of a slave would not be required and he would have to go but the son remains in the house forever. Jesus told then that if the son of the house sets you free, you will be free indeed. Jesus is the son of God and the son of the house, he will remain forever as the son of God but we as slaves to sin, will at some point need to be judged and kicked out of the house but if Jesus sets us free from sin slavery, then we would be free indeed. Those who still think that one can loose his salvation must read this verse carefully because once a slave is set free, he does not become a slave again. Once saved by Jesus, you are always saved.