My Father, whom you claim as your God...
“My Father, whom you claim as your God…” - John 8:54
Be careful not to be like the people in the crowd who initially put their faith in Jesus, then tried to murder Him after a brief verbal exchange in which He bore witness to the falsehood from which they refuse to depart, the deceitfulness and love of lies characteristic of their father, the devil, which causes them to reject Him because they reject God (8:12-59). As Jesus says elsewhere, and the other scriptures also testify, merely to believe in Him and claim His name means nothing in itself, though it is also the bedrock of our salvation. When Jesus speaks the truth to us, we have to believe and obey, for He is the Truth — He alone, and nothing else. If we do not believe, it is because we have not obeyed and we want nothing to do with Him. What good is it for our sins to be forgiven if we refuse to depart from them? If we cling to sin, to false things, we call Jesus a liar and would stone Him to death if we had the chance.
Do not think that to claim Jesus, His Father, and the Holy Spirit as your God means you belong to Him. You belong to Him if you truly believe and obey what He says, what He testifies about His Father and Himself. If you hate what He loves and love what He hates, if you reject what is true and cling to what is false, you reject Him though you claim otherwise. When His word comes, you will kill the one who brings it even though you claim to welcome it.