This expression, '_If ye continue or abide in my word_,' denotes very clearly, I think, that they had not merely listened to a _saying_ which went forth from His lips, and been affected by it; that they had confessed the force of a _word_, which entered into them as light enters into the eye, as heat makes itself felt through the body. And if they traced this word to its source; if they acknowledged the living Word from whom it flowed; if they turned to Him as to one who was near them and with them,--not for a moment, but always; if they trusted in Him, and not in themselves; then they should be--what? saints? divines? doctors? No; but what is much better than any of the three,--what all the three should wish to be raised into,--_disciples_. They will then be learners, learners sitting continually at the feet of the true Teacher.
And this shall be the result of that daily, hourly learning, of that change from the condition of men who know everything to the condition of men who know nothing. '_They shall know the_ TRUTH.' The Word shall guide them, counsel them, encourage them, scourge them. He shall prepare them to see that which is. He shall lead them away from fleeting shadows to the eternal Substance, to Him who changes not. Here is a promise, the highest that the highest Being can make to man; for it is the promise of sharing His own nature, of dwelling with Him and in Him. And there is another appended to it, which, though not greater in itself, comes nearer to human experience; commends itself more directly to our sense of oppression and misery. '_The truth shall make you free._' Truth and liberty are inseparable companions; neither can live long apart from the other. The bondage to appearances, the bondage to death, the bondage to the unseen horrors which haunt the conscience,--how shall this be broken? Our Lord says, '_The truth shall make you free_.' 'If you abide in my word,--if you adhere to me as the Lord of your spirit, you shall come to know Him who is truth, and He shall break every chain from your neck; He shall give you the freedom of the sons of God.'
However unintelligible His other words may have been to them, surely this magnificent promise will have looked most inviting to the Jews; to those, at least, of them who were not vehemently prepossessed against the speaker, who did not count Him an impostor. The next sentence seems to say that it was not so. '_They answered Him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?_' Who were they who said this? We should certainly gather from the previous passage,--'_those Jews who had believed on Him_.' At any rate, St. John takes no pains to distinguish them from the rest. If they were not the only objectors to our Lord's words, they must have joined in the objection. There is deep instruction in the thought that they did. The voice of Jesus had reached them. It had not merely floated about them, but had penetrated within them. He stood before them who did always the things that pleased His Father. The first sense of having discovered the Divine Man must have been one of delight,--the greatest, keenest delight which they had ever experienced. Then this Divine Man points upwards to a truth in which He Himself is believing and resting. He says He can make them inheritors of that. But at the same moment He looks down into them. He detects a hollowness within them,--a quailing at the thought of this truth,--a secret dislike of it--a preference for that which is hostile to it. They are conscious of a chill. The keen pleasure has been succeeded by a pain as keen. The hope which He holds out to them they cannot grasp. The evil which He has laid bare is near and present. Their pride is awakened; they think of the glory of their descent; they cannot bear to be spoken of as slaves.
