John 5

“Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him” (v23).  Jesus is the definitive, final, and perfect revelation of God (Hebrews 1, John 1, Colossians 1), and our relationship with the Father depends on him (v24).  The religious people of Jesus’ day had fixed ideas about what God was like, and Jesus’ actions (like healing a lame man on the Sabbath) disturbed them.  Jesus said that their unwillingness to recognize him as the Son revealed that their hearts were closed to the truth (v38-40).

Those who rejected Jesus didn’t understand Moses, either (v46).  Truth, on its own, does not persuade us or change us unless our hearts are open to receive it.