John 8:41
“You do the works of your father.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father, God.””
What does John 8:41 mean?
Jesus has just accused the Jewish leaders of acting like children of the devil because they're trying to kill him and reject his message. When he says they're doing "the works of your father," he means they're acting like their spiritual parent, not God. The phrase cuts deep because these were religious authorities who prided themselves on their faithfulness to God and their moral standing. Their defensive response, claiming they weren't born of sexual immorality and that God is their father, shows they completely missed Jesus's point. They thought he was insulting their physical birth or questioning their heritage as God's chosen people. But Jesus wasn't talking about family trees or sexual morality, he was saying their actions—their resistance to truth, their desire to harm him—revealed who they actually served spiritually. This moment invites us to ask ourselves an honest question: what do our actions actually reveal about what we're following? It's not about our credentials or what we claim to believe, but about what we're actually doing.