Individualism Gains God's Trust

“But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.” (Joh 2:24-25 AV)

I will have to admit; these verses have always bothered me.  It has to do with a misunderstanding of the word ‘…commit…’  I always took that to mean that Jesus would not make a commitment to the sinner to minister to him.  But that is not what it means at all.  It means to entrust.  The context of this event bears this out.  This happened in Jerusalem.  The book of John is primarily in the later part of the LORD’s ministry.  He was getting closer to His death on Calvary’s hill just outside of Jerusalem.  These verses are actually very simple in that Jesus Christ would not entrust himself to the people of Jerusalem because His time had not yet come.  There was a probability if He remained in Jerusalem and committed his safety to the people of that city, they would turn on Him.  The crucifixion would have been hastened out of the timetable of the Father.  Most commentators rightly mention that a group can be pretty fickle and predictable at times.  This is to what Jesus Christ was responding.  His effectiveness lay in the manageable numbers He had with His twelve apostles and the 500 disciples.  The commentators also make a point that managed information is a prudent practice when dealing with crowds.  But what of us?  How do we apply this to our own hearts?

What is common since the beginning of time is group manipulation.  The devil went after the entire human race in the garden of Eden.  He stirred up the nation against Moses, Samuel, David, etc.  Groups are made up of individuals.  When this happens, the individual is lost to the group.  That is, unless the individual remembers that he or she is an individual.  The greater the organization of individuals into groups, the greater the potential for error.  Remembering that first and foremost, we are an individual who will have to give account for our individual actions to an individual God will keep us from getting swept up in group think.  Knowing what the word of God says and how we are individually accountable for it goes a long way in keeping us from being influenced by the group.

What Jesus Christ says here is that He cannot trust this group.  He knows what happens when a group gets too large.  Individual accountability disappears.  People no longer think for themselves.  This is our nature.  This is our behavior.  When that happens, the LORD cannot trust us.  He cannot commit His plan to mankind when we lose our ability to think as individuals.  The application to us this morning is to meditate upon this trust that we are not a nameless and meaningless minute part of a huge whole.  We are an individual to whom God can speak and of whom God will hold accountable.  Just because the majority thinks one way does not mean we must as well.  We have individual soul liberty to find God’s truth and follow it.  Then, and only then, will Jesus commit His truth to us.