Three points:
1. Continue in my word.
Continue = no stopping point, no side tracts, no going backwards. It is to continue; it is without change. If we change it, we are not continuing in His word. According to Thayer the word has three ideas: in reference to place (not to leave), to time (endure), and to a state or condition (no change, no change into something else). What Jesus taught and lived, these teachings, doctrines, are not to be forgotten, changed, reinterpreted for today, be take allegorically, or wrested. What are we to continue in? It is His word. His word is recorded in the Bible.
2. Truly my disciples
If we leave this teaching, then what are we?
3. Know truth and be set free.
Know has the ideas of knowing by experience as “I know what dandelion ice cream tastes like.” Know also has the idea of knowledge. This would indicate not a repeating of facts but to be able to explain the facts, and how they work together. Know in this verse has the idea of knowing truth, what it is, how it works, recognizing error, and experience. This truth will set us free--free from lies, ignorance, harm, foolishness, and stupidity. Bad things may happen to us beyond our control, but we will know the truth.
So do we continue in all the words of Jesus? Do we know them? Can we defend them from liars and false teachers?
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