What is the meaning of John 8:55?
You do not know Him
Jesus confronts the religious leaders with their spiritual blindness.
• Despite possessing the Scriptures, they miss the God to whom those Scriptures point (John 5:39-40).
• Their ignorance is willful, springing from hearts hardened by pride (John 3:19-20).
• Cross references:John 8:19 “...you do not know Me or My Father”;John 16:3 “They will do these things because they have not known the Father or Me”;1 John 3:1 “The world does not know us, because it did not know Him.”
The warning is clear: outward religion cannot substitute for a genuine relationship with the living God.
but I know HimIn stark contrast, Jesus claims perfect, personal knowledge of the Father.
• He is the eternal Word who “was with God” from the beginning (John 1:1-2).
• His knowledge is experiential and intimate: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).
• Cross references:John 1:18 “No one has ever seen God; but the one and only Son…has made Him known”;John 10:15 “just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father.”
If I said I did not know HimJesus underscores the impossibility of denying His relationship with the Father.
• Truth defines His very nature (John 14:6).
• Denial would contradict His mission and identity.
• Cross references:Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, that He should lie”;Titus 1:2 “God, who cannot lie”;2 Timothy 2:13 “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”
I would be a liar like youThe charge is direct: rejecting Jesus’ testimony brands the leaders as liars.
• Their lineage is exposed—“You belong to your father, the devil…there is no truth in him” (John 8:44).
• To oppose Christ is to align with falsehood.
• Cross references:Romans 3:4 “Let God be true, and every man a liar”;1 John 2:22 “Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ.”
But I do know HimJesus restates the certainty of His knowledge, leaving no room for doubt.
• Repetition drives home reliability; His words carry divine authority (Matthew 7:29).
• Cross references:John 17:25 “Righteous Father, the world has not known You, but I have known You”;Hebrews 7:26 “holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners.”
and I keep His wordKnowing God is inseparable from obeying God.
• Jesus models perfect obedience: “I always do what pleases Him” (John 8:29).
• His obedience fulfills prophecy and secures our redemption (Philippians 2:8).
• Cross references:John 15:10 “If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments”;1 John 2:3-5 “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.”
summaryJohn 8:55 draws a sharp line between empty religion and true relationship. The leaders, though steeped in Scripture, do not know God. Jesus, eternally one with the Father, cannot deny that relationship; to do so would make Him a liar, aligning Him with His opponents. Instead, He proclaims unwavering knowledge and demonstrates it through perfect obedience. For believers, the passage affirms that genuine knowledge of God produces truth-filled words and obedient lives, echoing the example of our Lord.
