19 Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill Me?” 20 The people answered and said, “You have a demon. Who is seeking to kill You?”
Jesus exposed the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders by their inconsistency in understanding Scripture. He dealt with the Jews on their own ground—the Mosaic law.
7:19
Did not Moses give you the law,
Jewish authorities saw themselves as disciples of Moses. They traced what they believed back to the Mosaic law. Jesus appealed to their own interpretation of the law.
yet none of you keeps the law?
None of these religionists consistently kept the law. This is evidence that their thinking about the Bible was unreliable. They manipulated the law for their own ends. The problem was not with the law of Moses but in their keeping or practicing the law of Moses. This dialed up the debate further.
The Greek expects a “yes” answer to this question. None of the people listening to Christ kept the law consistently.
Why do you seek to kill Me?”
If these leaders had kept the law consistently, they would not have sought to murder Jesus. Moses’ law was clear about murder. Jesus made them accountable for their inconsistency in teaching and living the Bible.
Jesus addressed directly His concern about people seeking to kill Him. The Mosaic law clearly prohibited murder, but this is exactly what was happening here. For all their lauding of the law, they nevertheless were guilty of breaking it.
7:20
The people answered and said,
The crowd, not the leaders, responded to Jesus here.
“You have a demon.
The crowd accused Jesus of being controlled by a demon. He was out of His mind as far as they were concerned.
Who is seeking to kill You?”
The crowd did not know that their religious leaders were seeking to kill Jesus. Due to their ignorance, they charged Jesus with paranoia.
PRINCIPLE:
Inconsistency is a sign of false teachers.
APPLICATION:
Cults and false teachers are normally inconsistent in their teaching. Cults constantly use pretext rather than context to interpret the Bible.
