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Apr 19, 2024 06:00am

Singing the Truth

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There’s a lot of correction that takes place at our house.

“It’s give me the beat, boys, and free my soul. Not give me The Beach Boys.”

“It’s, We’re Caught in a Trap, not We’ve caught us a trout.”

“Babe, it’s Get well, get well soon, we want you to get well. Not, get well we hope you get well soon.”

I could go on and on and on.

In his mind, it’s correct. No matter how wrong it is, that’s what he believes the song says. And you can’t “undo” it. It’s like it’s forever etched in his mind that way.

And sometimes, when he hears what the lyrics really are, he says, “Well, I’m just going to keep singing it my way.”

John 9:1-3
“And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”

Do you find anything odd about this passage? Look at the question from Jesus’ disciples. They didn’t ask how this happened or necessarily why, but instead, they asked, “Who sinned?”

In the Jewish culture, the belief was common among the people that sin was the cause of a disability or birth defect. To these men, the question wasn’t if it was caused by sin because they already believed that to be true.

I love Jesus’ response. Although I probably would have said something like, “Are you dumb? What’s wrong with you?” But He chose something better, of course.

“Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”

No one sinned.

Period.

And then He immediately moves on to something greater.

He uses it as an opportunity to perform a miracle of God so that others might see Him and glorify God.

Imagine if you’re the man who is blind. From the time you were born, you’ve never seen a thing. Stop for a second and feel the enormity of the situation and how he must have felt. Not at the mention of the miracle yet, but of the fact that his blindness wasn’t caused by sin. That probably rocked his world. I can only imagine the smile that might have spread across his face.

And how he must have felt realizing that God was using him to teach that to His followers? Wow!

And now, something even greater. God would be glorified right there!

Jesus then gives sight to the blind man, and everyone questions if this could be true. Could this be a different man than has always been blind? But even he reassures them that it is really him.

Of course, the Pharisees are furious when they hear about it and what do they do? They are enraged because it was on the Sabbath.

Take a moment to read the account (John 8:13-31).

The man who could now see told them, “Since the world began, was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.
If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.”

He was living proof that Jesus was the Son of God, sent to this earth to glorify His Father in Heaven and to do His good will.

God had revealed Himself to them. The truth was right here.

Yet…

They kept singing their old tune.

“They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.”

We can roll our eyes at these Pharisees and question how they could be so ridiculously blind themselves, but…

What do we do when the truth of God is right in front of us? What if it’s different than what we were taught when we were younger? What if it’s not what we’ve always believed to be true?

What if we’ve been singing it wrong all our lives, and we just heard the real lyrics?

Would we change our tune? Or would we be just like the Pharisees?

Because that’s what we’ve always believed.

If we want truth, we have to go to the source. We have to study scripture for ourselves. Don’t just read it and take my word for it. Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you as you read. That’s what we do here every morning. From Genesis to now, we’ve been dissecting the scripture, sometimes a passage at a time, sometimes just a word or phrase. And all to gain a better understanding of the truth. Not just to know more but to know, be changed, and apply it to our lives.

That’s the beauty of the Word of God.

2 Timothy 3:16-17
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

There is purpose in the Word of God and what we learn from it. We are to use it to glorify Him.

Sing. Let your voice belt out the beauty of His truth, your lips declaring His goodness, how you’ve seen His miracles in your own life, how you’ve witnessed first-hand His beautiful and matchless grace.

Sing!