Jesus knew exactly waht He was saying to the Jews who believed in Him for a moment, but after He spoke the words, “IF you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Those Jews who had believed, turned on Him very quickly!!
In today's world, the truth has become subjective, it's your truth, or what you believe to be true. The lines have become blurred between the truth and a lie. Many don't know what it means to be deceived because they were never taught the truth in the first place!
Pontius Pilate said two thousand years ago, "what is truth." Jesus answered his question in:
John 17:14-19
"I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth."
Jesus is clearly saying that we can be made clean, holy, transformed, and righteous by the truth! What is truth? God's word IS TRUTH! So that means if you don't believe God's word then you live in deception, you live in a world full of lies and you accept what the world teaches you.
That also means that when you hear the truth of God's word you immediately oppose it, and you don't want it, because if you accept it, then you would have to change the way you are currently thinking! Change your lifestyle, and change your whole way of being!
This is why God supernaturally preserved His word, so that His creation could know the truth and have the choice to OBEY His commands and the teachings of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ!
As Christians we have a moral compass, we have a lamp that guides our path, if we don't obey God's word, then can we expect to receive the blessings and promises of God? NO!
The time has come for the truth to be spoken, without fear of backlash from unbelievers and sinners, who care nothing about the truth of God's word, and don't want to change. The word tells us that men love darkness rather than the light, and will not come to the light, because they don't want their sins to be exposed!
This is why Jesus said, "Whosoever will, let them come," because He knew that many wouldn't come to Him! But He still spoke the truth to all, and gave everyone a chance to repent and come to a knowledge of the truth.
There aren't very many who want to hear the truth about themselves! You have to really love the truth and desire to be different in a world designed to entrap souls. And anyone who doesn't want to engage in the pleasures of this world and become true disciples of Jesus, are called weird and brainwashed, etc......
Satan himself also has a part in all of this because he has the power to deceive the whole world and he also blinds the minds of unbelievers so that they remain deceived until the day they die!
2nd Corinthians 4:1-4
"Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.