<p>8:31 <i>Jesus replied to those Jews that had believed him: If you abide in my word, then are you truly my disciples</i>- This credits some of the Jews with believing on Jesus- and yet the Lord goes on to show how they didn&rsquo;t &lsquo;continue in His word&rsquo;, weren&rsquo;t truly confirmed as His disciples, and were still not true children of Abraham. Yet it would appear God is so eager to recognize any level of faith in His Son that they are credited with being &lsquo;believers&rsquo; when they still had a very long way to go.</p><p>The idea that the Gospels are transcripts of the early preaching of the Gospel becomes more obvious when we start to probe how the Gospels would have originated. As accounts and rumours about Jesus and His teaching began to spread around, some would have been sceptical. Those who had met Jesus would have wished to persuade their neighbours and friends that really, what they had seen and heard was really so. People who had met Jesus would share their impressions together and reflect upon the striking things He had said and done. The beginnings of the Gospels were therefore rooted in preaching the good news about Jesus. The Lord speaks of us abiding in His word (Jn. 8:31) and yet also of His word abiding in us, and us abiding in Him (Jn. 15:7). I suggest this refers in the first instance to the new Christian converts reciting over and over in their minds the Gospel accounts. In all situations they were to have the &lsquo;word of Jesus&rsquo; hovering in their minds. To abide in Christ was and is to have His words abiding in us. Paul&rsquo;s evident familiarity with the Lord&rsquo;s words is an example of how one of our brethren lived this out in practice. We have to ask how frequently in the daily grind the words of the Master come to mind, how close they are to the surface in our subconscious&hellip; for this is the essence of Christianity. It&rsquo;s not so much a question of consciously memorizing His words, but so loving Him that quite naturally His words are never far from our consciousness, and frequently come out in our thinking and words. No wonder it seems the early church made new converts memorize the Gospels. See on 1 Jn. 2:24.</p><p>Jn. 8:30,31 records how He spoke about how the Father was with Him, &ldquo;that I am he&rdquo;, with full reference to the Yahweh Name. As He spoke the words, it was evident that they were more than words, they were an expression of the truth that was in this Man. He was the word made into flesh. People are tired of words, of language&hellip; which in any case doesn&rsquo;t convey as well as we may think any lasting impression. People need to see what we believe lived out. They need to see, e.g., that our understanding of the representative nature of Jesus issues forth in our praying and in our feeling for this man &ldquo;whom having not seen ye love&rdquo;. And perhaps this is why it can be observed that Jesus almost never &ldquo;went out of his way&rdquo; to help people but rather walked along and helped the people He met in His path.</p>