John 7 is another story of Jesus making himself known to mankind as the Messiah but also that he is not here for religion but instead to testify the truth. The story is also interesting because if it were up to the Jewish leaders, this would have been their opportunity to kill Jesus as they had already began their plot to kill him. God still needed Jesus to carry out his ministry by preaching and revealing himself to the Jewish people. God would not allow this story to be the end before the cross. Another lesson that we can learn from this passage is that hatred of Christians isn’t hatred of the “individual Christian” but instead it is hatred of Christ as “The world hated him first”.
With another nasty election approaching us; it can be very hurtful to hear on the news and see on Facebook the label of “conservative Christians” being thrown out as a term to describe the “enemy” as that is what a lot of Americans truly belief. According to this text, the truth is not that they personally hate you, its that their hearts are so far from Christ that there is nothing but hatred there. We need to pray for those who hate Christ to a point that they attack those who follow him.

The most remarkable passage in this passage comes in verse 38 in which reads “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified” (John 7:38). This is very similar to words that Jesus used to the Samaritan woman in John 4! Living water will flow through the veins of anyone who puts away their religiosity and trusts in the words of Christ who brings us into a relationship with God.