What are your particulars here?
If you had done this with John 5:39, you might understand what He was saying.
John 5
24“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
38“You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent.
39“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; 40and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.
It seems that what you want to do is say that the passage is relevant to the crowd of Jews standing around but is not relevant to us today listening to Jesus.
Well, you take Christ's words as speaking to you
WHEN and
IF you like what is being said. But when you
DO NOT like what is being said, then you excuse yourself by saying the context does not allow it.
The truth of
verse 25-40 is every bit as true today, I mean
TODAY as it was then.
The date today is
January 30th, 2017. I don't know where you are but where I am it is not 9:30 PM. And if you hear the voice and the words of Jesus (now as the Holy Spirit) and believe them you pass out of death into life. And you also will not come into judgment.
Particularly, His words about honoring Him as you would honor God the Father in 23 -
" He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. "
If Jesus is not to you as God Himself in honor, you probably are not hearing His word. And you are not believing Him who sent Him. And you then do not have eternal life. And then you are in line to come under judgment and have not passed out of death into life.
Appeals to context do not give us reasons here to close our hearts in unbelief towards Jesus Christ.
Now some people do close their hearts towards Christ to not believe in Him. But because they consider themselves to be pretty good people who really do not need saving by Jesus, they want to derive from His words whatever phrases they can to basically assure themselves that they can ethically make it as good men.
These more agreeable words they deem require no belief in the miracles of Christ, And these words they euphemistically label as His words "while He walked on earth."
Keep in mind the fact that when Jesus is speaking of "the scriptures", He is speaking of the OT. Jesus is saying that in order to have eternal life they need "His word abiding" in them. That the OT (Moses) testifies about Jesus bringing "His word".
That is true that at that time
"the Scriptures" was the Hebrew Bible. Quite true this is.
But it is not true that only the words of Moses are important at this time. Read it again;
"Truly, truly, I say to you, He who hears MY WORD ..."
He does not say there "He who hears Moses's word".
"He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent ME has eternal life ... "
Yes, He does say that they search the Scriptures. But WHO do the Scriptures testify to ultimately? He says they testify concerning Him - Jesus. They do search the Old Testament Scriptures but the Old Testament Scriptures testify to the One Who is standing before them speaking.
So the Old Testament Scriptures which they search with hearts closed to the Son of God (equal with the Father in honor) actually condemns them in their unbelief.
"Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; there is one who accuses you: Moses, in whom you have set your hope.
For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote concerning Me." (v.45,46)
Today as well as then, even though you search whatever Scriptures you search, either Old Testament or New Testament Scriptures, they testify of Jesus Christ. Not coming to Jesus Christ you remain in death. You remain under judgment, You have not received divine life in regeneration and will not be in the resurrection of the righteous (though you will be in the resurrection of those who have done evil). You are condemned even by the words of Moses.
In principle you are condemned by whatever in the Bible you are putting your hope in BESIDES Jesus Christ.
John 5
46“For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.
47“But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”
You now seem to be saying what I am saying.
You would believe Christ's words if you believed the Scriptures.
Not believing Christ words causes you to make explanations about Jesus speaking "while He walked on earth" which actually is code for - " I reject the miracles and the resurrection of Jesus. "
That doesn't sound good when you wish to done on piety. So it is better to say " I do believe the words of Jesus while He walked on earth ." ie. disbelieving the lies, myths, legends supposedly that are an integral part of His testimony that we should honor Him as we honor the Father.
In short, in order to have eternal life, they need to hear His word, believe His word and have His word abide in them.
It is not just "them" it is us today. And that is what He says exactly:
"Truly, truly, I say to you, An hour is coming ..."
This hour, 9:57 pm on January 30th -
THIS hour too.
" ...An hour is coming and it is now, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live."
This is different from
verses 28,29. That hearing is by those who are physically dead in the tombs. Verse 25 is about those who before physical death are already in spiritual death. They need to be made alive in regeneration. They need to be reborn.
Those who hear the words of Jesus and believe rather than reject, pass from death into life. Even before they are resurrected physically from the tombs they receive Jesus as life.
My interpretation of
John 5 is far better than yours. And yours actually seeks to dishonor the Son. But it is dishonoring the Son with something like the kiss of Judas, a facade of affection.
That facade is wrapped up in the expression "Jesus while He walked on earth."