What is the meaning of John 8:43? Why do you not understand what I am saying? “Why do you not understand what I am saying?” (John 8:43a) • Jesus has been speaking plainly—declaring His identity (John 8:12), exposing sin (John 8:24), and inviting faith (John 8:31–32). • The crowd’s failure to grasp Him is not due to lack of information; it is a heart issue. Isaiah faced the same closed ears (Isaiah 6:9–10), and Paul later wrote that “the mind of the flesh is hostile to God” (Romans 8:7). • Spiritual truth requires spiritual receptivity. As 1 Corinthians 2:14 notes, “The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God.” • Jesus’ question is diagnostic: it exposes their spiritual condition so they can see their need for Him (John 8:36). It is because you are unable to accept My message. “It is because you are unable to accept My message.” (John 8:43b) • “Unable” points to moral inability, not intellectual incapacity. Like soil that rejects seed (Matthew 13:19), their hearts resist the word. • Their allegiance is elsewhere. In the next verse Jesus names their true father as “the devil” (John 8:44), echoing 2 Corinthians 4:4, where “the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers.” • Sin enslaves the will; only the Son can set free (John 8:34–36). Until He does, people cannot “bear to listen to His word” (John 8:43, NIV alt.), because it confronts and condemns cherished darkness (John 3:19–20). • Yet Christ’s statement carries hope: what humans cannot do, God can. The Father must draw (John 6:44), open hearts (Acts 16:14), and grant repentance leading to knowledge of the truth (2 Timothy 2:25–26). summary John 8:43 shows that misunderstanding Jesus stems from an unwilling, sin-bound heart, not from unclear teaching. His probing question exposes spiritual deafness, and His answer reveals the root problem—an inability to receive His word apart from divine intervention. Recognizing this drives us to depend wholly on the Son, whose liberating truth alone breaks the chains of unbelief and opens ears to hear. |
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