What does it mean to be considered a child of God? And to be a disciple of God.

Many times, in life, we grow up thinking that our heritage is what defines us and makes us who we are.  We look at our surname and think it is how we identify.  That our surname, if well known in the local community, is all we need to get through life.   The history of my father is … and his father is … and so, due to my family tree I should be seen as …. And that’s partly correct for some things in life.

And I believe that is what we see here in our text today.  The Jewish people in our text for today believed that since they were of the lineage of Abraham, they automatically were children of God. There was nothing that they had to do in life to secure their place at God’s table.  But in the beginning of this text Jesus says “…If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (vs 31,32)

What the people of the text failed to see was that if they continued to live a life focused on their heritage and where they came from and not look at how they lived their daily lives and who they served they became slaves to the sins of the world.  

Like them, we too must focus on who we serve and who we become a slave to.  It is so easy to get caught up in the activities that we see happening in the world around us.  And yes we need to admit that sometimes we loose track of God and often put God on the backburner as we focus on what brings us joy and happiness from the world’s point of view.  When we do that, getting caught up in the world, we become slaves to the world because we have put our worldly and earthly ambitions before our godly ambitions, making us slaves of sin. Jesus says in verse 34; “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin”.  But when we look for the voice of God in everything we do and put God at the forefront of who we are and show we live our lives we are no longer slaves to the world, but servants of Christ.

Amen.