Then
the Jews answered him, “Don’t we say well that you are a Samaritan, and have a demon?” Jesus answered, “I don’t have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. But I don’t seek my own glory. There is one who seeks and judges. Most certainly, I tell you, if a person keeps my word, he will never see death.”
John 8:48-51
John 8 [42.] Therefore Jesus said to them, “If God were your father, you would love me, for I came out and have come from God. For I haven’t come of myself, but he sent me. Why don’t you understand my speech? Because you can’t hear my word. You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and its father. But because I tell the truth, you don’t believe me. Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? He who is of God hears the words of God. For this cause you don’t hear, because you are not of God.”
John 8 [48.] Then the Jews answered him, “Don’t we say well that you are a Samaritan, and have a demon?”
John 8 [49.] Jesus answered, “I don’t have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. But I don’t seek my own glory. There is one who seeks and judges. Most certainly, I tell you, if a person keeps my word, he will never see death.”
John 8 [52.] Then the Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets; and you say, ‘If a man keeps my word, he will never taste of death.’ Are you greater than our father, Abraham, who died? The prophets died. Who do you make yourself out to be?”
Meaning:
Jesus had told his opponents, “For this cause you don’t hear, because you are not of God” (John 8:47). Unable to answer his challenge, they turn to insults. Jesus replies calmly. He refuses to defend his own honour, entrusts himself to the Father, and then offers one of the greatest promises in John’s Gospel.
- “Don’t we say well that you are a Samaritan”
Jews and Samaritans had long been divided by history, worship and mutual suspicion. The Samaritan woman at the well said, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?”, and John explains, “For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans” (John 4:9). To call Jesus a Samaritan was to call him a heretic and an outsider, someone who did not truly belong to God’s people.
The insult is ironic. Jesus had shown kindness to Samaritans. Many of them believed in him and confessed, “this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world” (John 4:42). In his parables a Samaritan is the one who shows mercy (Luke 10:33), and among ten healed lepers only one returned to give thanks, “and he was a Samaritan” (Luke 17:16).
- “And have a demon”
This charge had been made before at the feast (John 7:20) and would be repeated (John 10:20). In Galilee the scribes claimed, “He has Beelzebul” (Mark 3:22). When people cannot answer the truth, they often attack the person who speaks it.
- “I don’t have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me”
Jesus answers only the second insult and ignores the first. He does not return abuse. Peter later wrote of him, “Who, when he was cursed, didn’t curse back” (1 Peter 2:23). Jesus’ whole life honoured the Father; to dishonour him is to dishonour the Father who sent him. He had said earlier that the Father wills “that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father” (John 5:23).
- “But I don’t seek my own glory. There is one who seeks and judges.”
Jesus was not concerned to protect his reputation. The Father would seek his glory and judge between him and his accusers. This is the attitude Paul urges on believers: “Don’t seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to God’s wrath” (Romans 12:19).
- “If a person keeps my word, he will never see death”
Jesus turns from defence to invitation. To “keep” his word is to hold on to it, believe it and live by it. To such a person he promises that he “will never see death.” He does not mean that believers will never die physically, but that death will not hold them or separate them from God. He told Martha, “Whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:26). Earlier he said that whoever hears his word and believes “has passed out of death into life” (John 5:24).
The Significance of John 8:48-51
- Answering insults with grace
Jesus did not trade insults. He spoke the truth calmly and left his reputation with God. Believers are called to follow his example when they are mocked or misrepresented.
- God will vindicate
There is “one who seeks and judges”. We need not fight for our own glory; God sees and will put things right.
- Life through his word
The promise remains open to all: whoever keeps Jesus’ word will never see death. Death is real, but for those who trust him it is not the end.
Cross-References:
John 4:9: "For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans." The background of the insult.
1 Peter 2:23: "Who, when he was cursed, didn’t curse back." Jesus’ example under abuse.
John 11:25: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies." Life beyond death.
John 5:24: "he who hears my word, and believes him who sent me, has eternal life," Eternal life through Jesus’ word.
Conclusion: His opponents called Jesus a Samaritan with a demon. He calmly denied the charge, said that he honoured his Father while they dishonoured him, and left his glory in the Father’s hands. Then he promised that whoever keeps his word will never see death. The passage shows how to answer insults with grace and offers eternal life to all who hold on to Jesus’ word.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible