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John 7:21  (King James Version)
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<< John 7:20   John 7:22 >>


John 7:21-24

Jesus' command or instruction is that they quit judging superficially. His statement is interesting because the Pharisaical sect had for centuries been pouring over the Scriptures, and all of that time had been wasted. Jesus said that all of their thinking about the Sabbath was superficial, and they were not judging righteously.

To judge means "to consider"; "to evaluate"; "to size up, to appraise, to discern"; or "to come to an understanding of" to form an opinion. What this means practically is that we will have to gather information, in some cases, from several sources, to compare and to balance them against each other to determine the right way.

Notice that Jesus did not find fault with circumcising on the Sabbath—in fact, He used it as His illustration of a correct judgment. Why? The Jews looked into God's Word and saw that God commanded circumcision. They righteously concluded that it was God's pleasure, will, and desire that the circumcision be performed on the eighth day—or we might say, regardless of the day. They understood circumcision, the seal of the Old Covenant, to be of such overriding importance that its practice superseded any given Sabbath. In that sense, circumcision was greater than the Sabbath.

A Sabbath circumcision did not happen very often in anybody's lifetime. A family might have ten boys, and maybe none of them would be born on a Friday. Perhaps it was a once-in-a-lifetime event for a large family. But when it did occur that the eighth day fell on a Sabbath, they rightly judged that because of what circumcision represented, it should supersede that Sabbath and be performed. It took only a few minutes, and it was over. THe parents took their squalling baby home, and that was that. The covenant was more important than the Sabbath in this regard.

Today baptism—which has some parallels with circumcision—is done on the Sabbath by the true church without one whit of a guilty conscience. Why? For the same reason. Baptism has such overriding importance to a person's making of the New Covenant with God, that it supersedes the Sabbath. Jesus drew on this because it is an easily seen principle. He reckoned that the Jews judged righteously, and of course, He went on to His conclusion that it was therefore not wrong to make a person whole on the Sabbath day for the same reason.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Sabbathkeeping (Part 4)



John 7:21-24

The Jews considered circumcising on the Sabbath a lawful Sabbath activity. Why? The Bible does not give a direct answer. It is in this point that Jesus nailed them to the wall! The Jews knew why circumcision was lawful on the Sabbath: It was a redemptive act because circumcision was an Israelite lad's introduction to entering the covenant. So circumcision was a redemptive act, even as today we consider baptism a redemptive act. And we rightly, lawfully, will baptize people on the Sabbath.

The Jews' reasoning was that it is lawful and right to cut off a piece of skin from one of the 248 (by their count) parts of the body to save the whole man by making this person a part of the covenant. Christ's reasoning, then, was that works of salvation are accomplished, not only by the Father, but also by His servants, who are His agents. In this case, the priests did the work of circumcision. And the Jews considered it lawful.

Jesus' reasoning is beautiful: "If you can do this act to save a man, why can't I also make a person whole and save his physical life on the Sabbath?" He says, "This is the work of God." It is redeeming somebody, setting him free, giving him liberty.

For Christ, the Sabbath is the day to work for the salvation of the whole person, physically and spiritually. If it is legal to cut off a part of a boy's body on the Sabbath because of the covenant, they have no reason to be angry with Him for mercifully restoring a person to wholeness. His opponents, however, cannot perceive this. It somehow does not enter their minds. We can understand why: God just was not working with them yet - it was almost as if they had blinders on. They could not perceive the saving nature of His work. To them, the pallet (John 5:8) and the clay (John 9:15) were more important than the healed man himself.

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Fourth Commandment (Part 3)



John 7:21-24

Jesus, referring to the miracle He had performed in John 5, healing the paralytic on the Sabbath, rebukes the Jews for condemning Him for healing on the Sabbath day. In doing this, they disregarded the fact that they circumcised baby boys on their eighth day, even if that day was a Sabbath. He instructs them not to judge solely according to what they see but with righteous judgment—how God sees things. He sees things far differently than we humans do.

Ryan McClure
Seeing Is Not Believing




Other Forerunner Commentary entries containing John 7:21:

Exodus 31:12-17

 

<< John 7:20   John 7:22 >>



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