John 5: 31a
” If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true.”
How should we approach this passage on testimony? If we wanted to dive in deep we could spend several weeks looking into the rules of testimony that Moses laid down at God’s command. These are the rules that Jesus is referring to when he says, “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true.” What he is saying, as I understand it, is that the testimony of one person alone is not valid in a court of law. The Amplified Bible translates this passage this way: “If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not valid.” What is needed when making a legal claim under the Mosaic laws, is a second or third witness who will corroborate the testimony of the first person to speak.
So what Jesus needs is additional authoritative testimony to support his statements about his relationship with God. Tomorrow we will look at how Jesus answers this question, but for now…
Q: In light of what Jesus is saying in this verse, how important is it for you, and me and all other Bible-believing Christians to testify to the world about our Lord Jesus Christ?
Jesus came to bring glory to God the Father, not to Himself.
Applying to to myself…to steal from John the Baptist…He must become greater; I must become less.
It is of the utmost importance,..for if we don’t continue to testify,..who will? Jesus said we will do greater works than He,..He was only in ministry for three very short years and did some amazing things,..He gave us that same power through His blood and Spirit,..when I was a kid I went around telling the people I knew that were sick that they are healed in the name of Jesus,..when I was a kid I wasn’t aware of the power that He gave us,..as I have gotten older and understand a bit more of the power He gave us than I did when I was a kid,..I understand that our words have power,..power to heal and power to kill,..power to lift up and power to let down,..power to proclaim and power to defame,..so it is of the utmost importance that we continue to use the words that He gave us to testify of His love for us through what He did on the cross,..that’s my take on it anyway,..
Thank you, guys! Great comments!!
I came away thinking about how God uses our “testimony” about Jesus to affirm the truth about Jesus in the minds and hearts of others.
AMEN!
The only word I can add to John and Robster.