John 8:44
“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Their father is the devil, revealed in their lust for murder and their resistance to truth.
Context
Jesus directly identifies the spiritual source of their opposition: they belong to the devil, whose nature is murderous and false.
What Does John 8:44 Mean?
This is the most severe indictment in the Gospels. Jesus is not cursing them arbitrarily. He is identifying the true source of their allegiance. They have said they will do what their father does. Jesus is answering: your father is the devil. His nature is murder, falsehood, and hatred of truth. And you are imitating him perfectly. You wish to kill me. You resist truth. You listen to the father of lies. The devil is a murderer from the beginning: perhaps from the murder of Abel by Cain, or from the first temptation that led to death. He has never stood in the truth because there is no truth in him. His native language is the lie. When he speaks falsehood, he draws from his own being; lying is his mother tongue.
What makes this so searching is that it moves beyond condemnation to diagnosis. We do not become children of darkness suddenly. We become children of what we listen to, what we love, what we emulate. In choosing to reject truth, in choosing to resist love, in choosing to harm the innocent, they have aligned themselves with the author of those choices. The remedy is not harsher words but a turning around: to listen to a different Father, to choose truth, to follow the way of self-giving love.
In the Original Language
pseudomai (pseudomai), 'lie, falsify' -- to tell or speak lies, to deceive deliberately
Application
Where do we belong? Our choices align us either with the One who is Truth or with the one whose father is the lie. There is no neutral ground.