A true Believer

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

A TRUE BELIEVER

John 1:43-51

43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, "Follow me."  44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote — Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." 46 "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked. "Come and see," said Philip. 47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false."  48 "How do you know me?" Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you."  49 Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel." 50 Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that."  51 He then added, "I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." 

NIV

Out of the whole of this exchange between Jesus and Nathanael, we find what Jesus said about Nathanael the most interesting. Why would he call him a true Israelite? Were not all the other disciples Israelites as well? The whole nation were descendants from Jacob, or Israel through one of his twelve sons. However, this additional comment about Nathanael not having any falseness, or guile, or deceit as the Greek word would imply, gives us a clue why Jesus said he was a true Israelite. Nathanael is truly who he professes to be, a Jew, a descendant of the patriarch Jacob, fearing and serving God. He makes no profession that he does not live up to, unlike so many of the Jews of that day. Of course, Jesus was not saying Nathanael was without sin, but simply his heart was right and his desire to be right before God was pure and without deceit or disguise. He had no façade of righteousness as many of the Pharisees did. Here is where we have to do this self-examination thing. Have we established any type of façade, which in reality is a form of deceit? Do people get what they see when they look at us? Is our heart truly right before the Lord? We would hope and pray so. Do we live up to what we profess, that of being a Christian? What we have to remember is this is not about that list we make of things we think we are not supposed to do, which defines our character or fulfills our profession. This idea that Christians don’t smoke, drink, dance, or whatever, just does not cut it as being a Christian when there are real sins which lurk within, like greed, gossip, jealousy, envy and grudges, which is when we refuse to forgive, or other inward sins no one can see. But as long as our façade holds up, everyone thinks we are “Good Christians”. No, if we are a true descendant of Abraham, a child of the promise, we are without deceit. We simply live by faith in Jesus Christ and in His righteousness. That does not mean we go about doing whatever we please, God forbid! That simply means we do not pretend to have any of our own righteousness because we live by this list and we don’t do this or that. What is the condition of our hearts? Are we prideful because we comply with the don’ts on our list? Jesus commended Nathanael because of his heart, not because he acted righteously. We desire Jesus to commend our heart as well, not because we act like we are a Christian, but because we are a Christian, a man of faith, trusting God, believing his Word, not that we are without sin, for surely we have sin to deal with as long as we are captive in this body, but our sin is forgiven, and we have been set free. It is our heart that Jesus wants, not our perfection or the deceitfulness of pretending perfection. King David knew that kind of relationship, although he had sin within, his heart was right before God because he grieved over his sin, God testified about David that he was a man after God’s own heart, he would do everything God asked him to do. That is the way to live. Not by our list of what not to do in order to be a “Good Christian”, but to do everything God asks us to do. That would include living honestly before God and before men. Like Nathanael, having no deceit, no guile, a true believer.