7:6
Jesus knew when the time would be right to go to Jerusalem, but it was not yet. He also knew what His real purpose was. We need to have an understanding of what God has called us to do and to have a godly appreciation of the importance of our lives. This does not always mean knowing specifics about times and dates, but understanding God’s ways. For instance we may be urged to take some action that would seem to bring about self-fulfilment or riches, but we know that in a particular circumstance something else is far more important. Or in the current climate where the world’s views on sexual morality are so at odds with a Biblical understanding, we need to know to follow God’s truth, even when this puts us in opposition to the world. Sadly much of the church is doing the precise opposite.
Jesus’ brothers had no understanding of the kairos, ie when it is the right time for something.
7:7
This is an important verse, we sometimes have this mistaken view that the world will naturally like Jesus. It won’t, rather it will naturally hate Him. We also get the reason for this, “I testify that its works are evil”. Now that isn’t a very nice thing to say! But it is the truth, and it goes completely against the popular misconception of what Jesus is about. Jesus came because we have sinned, because we are living in rebellion against God, and because this is the root cause of all our problems. The way we are living life is not good, and it is not just the axe murderers and dictators that this applies to. Jesus came to save us from our sins and from our sinfulness.
7:8-10
Jesus tells them that He is not going up to the feast. Some manuscripts add “yet” here, for in verse 10 it says that Jesus did go up to the feast, and the copyists wanted to avoid a contradiction. However, verse 10 says that He went in secret, so want Jesus meant was that He was not going in public. So Jesus made a private visit to the feast.
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