CINXE.COM
John 14 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>John 14 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/john/14.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; cts.dataset.appid=i;cts.src='https://app.protectsubrev.com/catch_rp.js?cb='+Math.random(); document.head.appendChild(cts); }) (window,document,'head','script','rc-anksrH');</script></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/john/14.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="//biblehu.com/bmcom/john/14-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="/commentaries/">Commentary</a> > <a href="../">Ellicott</a> > <a href="../john/">John</a></div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../john/13.htm" title="John 13">◄</a> John 14 <a href="../john/15.htm" title="John 15">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</div><div class="chap"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-1.htm">John 14:1</a></div><div class="verse">Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.</div>XIV.</span><p>(1) <span class= "bld">Let not your heart be troubled.</span>—The division of chapters is unfortunate, as it breaks the close connection between these words and those which have gone immediately before. The prophecy of St. Peter’s denial had followed upon the indication of Judas as the traitor, and upon the announcement of the Lord’s departure. These thoughts may well have brought troubled hearts. The Lord had Himself been troubled as the darkness drew on (<a href="/john/12-27.htm" title="Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I to this hour.">John 12:27</a>; <a href="/john/13-21.htm" title="When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you shall betray me.">John 13:21</a>), and He calms the anxious thoughts that He reads in the souls of the disciples.<p><span class= "bld">Ye believe in God, believe also in me.</span>—It is more natural to take both these clauses as imperative—<span class= "ital">Believe in God, believe also in Me.</span> Our English version reads the first and last clauses of the verse as imperative, and the second as an indicative, but there is no good reason for doing so; and a sense more in harmony with the context is got by reading them all as imperatives. As a matter of fact, the present trouble of the hearts of the disciples arose from a want of a true belief in God; and the command is to exercise a true belief, and to realise the presence of the Father, as manifested in the person of the Son. There was a sense in which every Jew believed in God. That belief lay at the very foundation of the theocracy; but like all the axioms of creeds, it was accepted as a matter of course, and too often had no real power on the life. What our Lord here teaches the disciples is the reality of the Fatherhood of God as a living power, ever present with them and in them; and He teaches them that the love of God is revealed in the person of the Word made flesh. This faith is the simplest article of the Christian’s creed. We teach children to say, we ourselves constantly say, “I believe in God the Father.” Did we but fully grasp the meaning of what we say, the troubles of our hearts would be hushed to silence; and our religion would be a real power over the whole life, and would be also, in a fulness in which it never has been, a real power over the life of the world.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-2.htm">John 14:2</a></div><div class="verse">In my Father's house are many mansions: if <i>it were</i> not <i>so</i>, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">In my Father’s house are many mansions.</span>—The Greek word used for “house” here is slightly different from that used of the material temple on earth in <a href="/john/2-16.htm" title="And said to them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.">John 2:16</a>. The exact meaning will be at once seen from a comparison of <a href="/2_corinthians/5-1.htm" title="For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.">2Corinthians 5:1</a>, the only other passage in the New Testament where it is used metaphorically. The Jews were accustomed to the thought of heaven as the habitation of God; and the disciples had been taught to pray, “Our Father, which art in heaven.” (Comp. <a href="/psalms/23-6.htm" title="Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.">Psalm 23:6</a>; <a href="/isaiah/63-15.htm" title="Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory: where is your zeal and your strength, the sounding of your bowels and of your mercies toward me? are they restrained?">Isaiah 63:15</a>; <a href="/matthew/6-9.htm" title="After this manner therefore pray you: Our Father which are in heaven, Hallowed be your name.">Matthew 6:9</a>; <a href="/acts/7-49.htm" title="Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will you build me? said the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?">Acts 7:49</a>; and especially Hebrews 9)<p>The Greek word for “mansions” occurs again in the New Testament only in <a href="/john/14-23.htm" title="Jesus answered and said to him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our stayed with him.">John 14:23</a>, where it is rendered abode.” Wiclif and the Geneva version read “dwellings.” It is found in the Greek of the Old Testament only in <a href="//apocrypha.org/1_maccabees/7-38.htm" title="Be avenged of this man and his host, and let them fall by the sword: remember their blasphemies, and suffer them not to continue any longer.">1 Maccabees 7:38</a> (“Suffer them not to continue any longer”—“give them not an abode”). Our translators here followed the Vulgate, which has “mansiones “with the exact meaning of the Greek, that is; “resting-places,” “dwellings.” In Elizabethan English the word meant no more than this, and it now means no more in French or in the English of the North. A <span class= "ital">maison</span> or a <span class= "ital">manse,</span> is not necessarily a modern English mansion. It should also be noted that the Greek word is the substantive answering to the verb which is rendered “dwelleth” in <a href="/john/14-10.htm" title="Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak to you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwells in me, he does the works.">John 14:10</a>, and “abide” in <a href="/context/john/15-4.htm" title="Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in me.">John 15:4-10</a>. (see Note there).<p>“Many” is not to be understood, as it often has been, simply or chiefly of different degrees of happiness in heaven. Happiness depends upon the mind which receives it, and must always exist, therefore, in varying degrees, but this is not the prominent thought expressed here, though it may be implied. The words refer rather to the extent of the Father’s house, in which there should be abiding-places for all. There would be no risk of that house being overcrowded like the caravanserai at Bethlehem, or like those in which the Passover pilgrims, as at this very time, found shelter at Jerusalem. Though Peter could not follow Him now, he should hereafter (<a href="/john/13-36.htm" title="Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where go you? Jesus answered him, Where I go, you can not follow me now; but you shall follow me afterwards.">John 13:36</a>); and for all who shall follow Him there shall be homes.<p><span class= "bld">If it were not so, I would have told you.</span>—These words are not without difficulty, but the simplest, and probably truest, meaning is obtained by reading them as our version does. They become then an appeal to our Lord’s perfect candour in dealing with the disciples. He had revealed to them a Father and a house. That revelation implies a home for all. Were there not “many mansions” the fulness of His teaching could have had no place. Had there been limitations He must have marked them out.<p><span class= "bld">I go to prepare a place for you.</span>—The better MSS. read, “For I . . ,” connecting the clause with the earlier part of the verse. He is going away to prepare a place for them; and this also proves the existence of the home. There is to be then no separation; He is to enter within the veil, but it is to be as Forerunner on our behalf (<a href="/hebrews/6-20.htm" title="Where the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.">Hebrews 6:20</a>). “When Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, Thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-3.htm">John 14:3</a></div><div class="verse">And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, <i>there</i> ye may be also.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">And if I go and prepare . . .</span>—For the form of the expression, comp. Notes on <a href="/john/12-32.htm" title="And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to me.">John 12:32</a>, and <a href="/1_john/2-28.htm" title="And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.">1John 2:28</a>. It does not imply uncertainty, but expresses that the fact is in the region of the future, which is clear to Him, and will unfold itself to them.<p><span class= "bld">I will come again, and receive you unto myself.</span>—This clause has been variously explained of the resurrection; of the death of individual disciples; of the spiritual presence of our Lord in the Church; of the coming again of the Lord in the <span class= "ital">Parousia</span> of the last day, when all who believe in Him shall be received unto Himself. The difficulty has arisen from taking the words “I will come again,” as necessarily referring to the same time as those which follow—“I will receive you unto Myself,” whereas they are in the present tense, and should be literally rendered, <span class= "ital">I am coming again.</span> They refer rather, as the same words refer when used in <a href="/john/14-18.htm" title="I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.">John 14:18</a>, to His constant spiritual presence in their midst; whereas the reception of them to Himself is to be understood of the complete union which will accompany that spiritual presence; a union which will be commenced in this life, advanced by the death of individuals, and completed in the final coming again. (Comp. <a href="/john/17-24.htm" title="Father, I will that they also, whom you have given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which you have given me: for you loved me before the foundation of the world.">John 17:24</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-4.htm">John 14:4</a></div><div class="verse">And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.</span>—The better reading is, <span class= "ital">And whither I go, ye know the way, i.e.,</span> “Ye know that I am the way to the Father, whither I am going.” (Comp. <a href="/john/14-6.htm" title="Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me.">John 14:6</a>, and <a href="/john/13-33.htm" title="Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You shall seek me: and as I said to the Jews, Where I go, you cannot come; so now I say to you.">John 13:33</a>.) They did not, indeed, fully know this, but the means of knowing it was within their reach, and His own words had declared it. (Comp., <span class= "ital">e.g.,</span> <a href="/john/10-1.htm" title="Truly, truly, I say to you, He that enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.">John 10:1</a>; <a href="/john/11-25.htm" title="Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:">John 11:25</a>.) They ought to have known it, and His words now are meant to contrast what they ought to have known with what they really did know, in order that He may more fully instruct them. To know our ignorance, is the first step to its removal.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-5.htm">John 14:5</a></div><div class="verse">Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?</div>(5) <span class= "bld">Thomas saith unto him.</span>—Comp., for the character of Thomas, <a href="/john/11-16.htm" title="Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, to his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.">John 11:16</a>; <a href="/john/20-24.htm" title="But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.">John 20:24</a>; <a href="/john/21-2.htm" title="There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples.">John 21:2</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Lord, we know not whither thou goest.</span>— Our Lord’s words had laid stress upon the “way.” Thomas lays stress upon the “whither.” His mind seeks for measured certainty. In all that he has heard of the Father’s house of many mansions, of being with the Lord, there is much that he cannot understand. The Messiah, they thought, was to reign upon earth. Where was this vast royal home, with dwelling-places for all, to which Christ was going first, and to which they were to follow? They know not whither, and without that knowledge they cannot even think of the way.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-6.htm">John 14:6</a></div><div class="verse">Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">I am the way.</span>—The pronoun is emphatic. “I, and none besides Me.” “The way” is again made prominent, reversing the order which Thomas had used. He and He only is the means through which men can approach to the Father. (Comp. Notes on <a href="/john/1-18.htm" title="No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.">John 1:18</a>, and on <a href="/1_timothy/2-5.htm" title="For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;">1Timothy 2:5</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">The truth, and the life.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">and the Truth, and the Life.</span> The thought of His being the Way through which men come to the Father is the reverse side of the thought, that in Him the Father is revealed to men, that He is Himself the Eternal Truth, that He is Himself the Source of eternal life. (Comp. <a href="/john/1-14.htm" title="And the Word was made flesh, and dwelled among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.">John 1:14</a>; <a href="/john/1-17.htm" title="For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.">John 1:17</a>; <a href="/context/john/6-50.htm" title="This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.">John 6:50-51</a>; <a href="/context/john/11-25.htm" title="Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:">John 11:25-26</a>.) Had they known what His earlier words meant, they would have had other than temporal and local thoughts of the Father’s house, and would have known Him to be the Way.<p><span class= "bld">No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.</span>—This was the answer to the doubt of Thomas. This was the true “whither” which they knew not. The thought of heaven is not of a place far above, or of a time far before, but of a state now and hereafter. To receive the Truth and the Life revealed in the presence of the Son is to come to the Father by the only Way. To be with the Father is home. (Comp. Notes on <a href="/john/1-18.htm" title="No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.">John 1:18</a>; <a href="/john/3-13.htm" title="And no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.">John 3:13</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-7.htm">John 14:7</a></div><div class="verse">If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also.</span>—The thought here is made quite plain by what has preceded; but the form in which it is expressed demands attention. The emphasis of the first part of the sentence is not upon “Me” as is generally supposed, but upon “known.” In the second part the emphatic words are “My Father.” The English word “known” represents two Greek words in the better text which are not identical in meaning. The former means, to know by observation, the latter to know by reflection. It is the difference between <span class= "ital">connaître</span> and <span class= "ital">savoir;</span> between <span class= "ital">kennen</span> (ken, k(e)now), and <span class= "ital">wissen</span> (wit, wisdom). We may express the meaning more exactly thus, “If ye had <span class= "ital">recognised</span> Me, ye would have known <span class= "ital">My Father</span> also.” If ye had recognised who I really am; ye would have known that I and My Father are one.<p><span class= "bld">And from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.</span>—Comp. <a href="/john/13-31.htm" title="Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him.">John 13:31</a>, where the glorifying of the Son of Man is regarded as in the future which is immediately present. He can, therefore, say that from this time onwards, after the full declaration of Himself in <a href="/john/14-6.htm" title="Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me.">John 14:6</a>; <a href="/john/14-9.htm" title="Jesus said to him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you not known me, Philip? he that has seen me has seen the Father; and how say you then, Show us the Father?">John 14:9</a> <span class= "ital">et seq.,</span> they know and have seen the Father.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-8.htm">John 14:8</a></div><div class="verse">Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">Philip saith unto him.</span>—Comp. for the character of Philip <a href="/john/1-44.htm" title="Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.">John 1:44</a> <span class= "ital">et seq.;</span> <a href="/john/6-5.htm" title="When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come to him, he said to Philip, From where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?">John 6:5</a> <span class= "ital">et seq.;</span> <a href="/john/12-21.htm" title="The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.">John 12:21</a> <span class= "ital">et seq.</span> He is joined with Thomas at the head of the second group of the Apostles, in <a href="/acts/1-13.htm" title="And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where stayed both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.">Acts 1:13</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.</span>—He catches at the word “seen “and thinks of some revelation of the glory of God as that vouchsafed to Moses, or it may be of a vision like that which three of their number had seen, and of which others had heard, in the Mount of Transfiguration. One such vision of the Father, he thinks, would remove all their doubts; and would satisfy the deepest longings of their hearts.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-9.htm">John 14:9</a></div><div class="verse">Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou <i>then</i>, Shew us the Father?</div>(9) <span class= "bld">Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?</span>—More exactly, . . . <span class= "ital">hast thou not recognised Me,</span> as in <a href="/john/14-7.htm" title="If you had known me, you should have known my Father also: and from now on you know him, and have seen him.">John 14:7</a>. Comp. the reference in <a href="/john/14-8.htm" title="Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffises us.">John 14:8</a>, from which it will be seen that Philip was one of the first-called disciples, and had occupied a prominent position in the band of Apostles. There is in our Lord’s words a tone of sadness and of warning. They utter the loneliness of a holiness and greatness which is not understood. The close of life is at hand, and Philip, who had followed Him from the first, shows by this question that he did not even know what the work and purposes of that life had been. They speak to all Christian teachers, thinkers, workers. There is a possibility that men should be in the closest apparent nearness to Christ, and yet have never learnt the meaning of the words they constantly hear and utter; and have never truly known the purpose of Christ’s life.<p><span class= "bld">He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.</span>—Comp. Note on <a href="/john/14-7.htm" title="If you had known me, you should have known my Father also: and from now on you know him, and have seen him.">John 14:7</a>, and Philip’s own answer to Nathanael, “Come and see” (<a href="/john/1-46.htm" title="And Nathanael said to him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see.">John 1:46</a>). The demand of Philip is one which is constantly being read, and the answer is one that constantly holds good. Men are ever thinking and saying, “Shew us the Father and it sufficeth us.” “Give us something in religion upon which the soul can rest. We are weary of the doubts, and strifes, and dogmas which are too often called religion. We want something which can be real food for the soul. We cannot feed upon the husks which the swine do eat; and we believe that in the Father’s house there is, even for the hired servants, bread enough and to spare. We are not irreligious, but we are impatient of what is put before us as religion. Give us truth! Give us life! Let it be free and open as the air of heaven, and we will gladly accept it, embrace it, live it.” All this is the heart of the child seeking the presence of the Father. That Father has been manifested in the person of the Son. In the Life and Truth revealed in Him is the full revelation of God. In Him is the Bread of Life to satisfy every want of every man. He that hath seen Him hath seen the Father. How then can men say, Shew us the Father? (Comp. Note on <a href="/context/john/12-44.htm" title="Jesus cried and said, He that believes on me, believes not on me, but on him that sent me.">John 12:44-45</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-10.htm">John 14:10</a></div><div class="verse">Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?</span>—Comp. Note on <a href="/john/10-38.htm" title="But if I do, though you believe not me, believe the works: that you may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.">John 10:38</a>. He had there taught this truth to the Jews; but Philip’s words seem to show that even the disciples did not fully receive it. The order of the clauses is reversed here, in accordance with the thought of the context, which is of knowledge of the Son, and of the Father through the Son.<p><span class= "bld">The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself.</span>—This refers not to His present teaching only or chiefly, but to the whole of His manifestation of the character and attributes of God. All His words had been a revelation of the Father whom Philip now asks to see. (Comp. <a href="/john/8-38.htm" title="I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and you do that which you have seen with your father.">John 8:38</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">But the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.</span>—The better reading is, <span class= "ital">but the Father that dwelleth in Me doeth His own works.</span> This is the proof that He does not speak of Himself; and both clauses are together the proof of the indwelling of the Son in the Father and the Father in the Son. The works manifested in time in the power of the Incarnate Word are not His works, but those of the Father, who abides in the Son, and is revealed through Him. (Comp. <a href="/john/8-28.htm" title="Then said Jesus to them, When you have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father has taught me, I speak these things.">John 8:28</a>, and Note there.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-11.htm">John 14:11</a></div><div class="verse">Believe me that I <i>am</i> in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">Believe me that I am in the Father.</span>—He passes now from Philip, and addresses Himself to the whole body of the apostles. He claims from them a personal trust in Himself, which should accept His statement that He and the Father were immanent in each other.<p><span class= "bld">Or else believe me for the very works’ sake.</span>—If they cannot receive the truth on the testimony of His word, He will take lower ground with them. He will place before them the evidence He had placed before the Jews. Let them, if they will not hear Him, believe on account of the very works which He had done. (Comp. Note on <a href="/context/john/5-19.htm" title="Then answered Jesus and said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do: for what things soever he does, these also does the Son likewise.">John 5:19-20</a>; <a href="/context/john/10-37.htm" title="If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.">John 10:37-38</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-12.htm">John 14:12</a></div><div class="verse">Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater <i>works</i> than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.</div>(12) <span class= "bld">Verily, verily, I say unto you.</span>—Comp. Note on <a href="/john/1-51.htm" title="And he said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, Hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man.">John 1:51</a>.<p><span class= "bld">He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also.</span>—He that by faith becomes one with the Son shall have the Son, and therefore also the Father, dwelling in him (<a href="/john/14-11.htm" title="Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.">John 14:11</a>; <a href="/john/14-20.htm" title="At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.">John 14:20</a>; <a href="/john/14-23.htm" title="Jesus answered and said to him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our stayed with him.">John 14:23</a>), and shall himself become an instrument through which God, who dwelleth in him, shall carry into effect His own works. He shall, therefore, do works of the same kind as those which the Son Himself doeth.<p><span class= "bld">And greater works than these shall he do.</span>—Comp. Notes on <a href="/john/5-20.htm" title="For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all things that himself does: and he will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel.">John 5:20</a>, and on <a href="/context/matthew/21-21.htm" title="Jesus answered and said to them, Truly I say to you, If you have faith, and doubt not, you shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if you shall say to this mountain, Be you removed, and be you cast into the sea; it shall be done.">Matthew 21:21-22</a>. The explanation of these greater works is not to be sought in the individual instances of miraculous power exercised by the apostles, but in the whole work of the Church. The Day of Pentecost witnessed the first fulfilment of this prophecy; but it has been fulfilled also in every great moral and spiritual victory. Every revival of a truly religious spirit has been an instance of it; every mission-field has been a witness to it. In every child of man brought to see the Father, and know the Father’s love as revealed in Jesus Christ, has been a work such as He did. In the world-wide extent of Christianity there is a work greater even than any which He Himself did in the flesh. He left His kingdom as one of the smallest of the influences on the earth; but it has grown up as a mighty power over all the kingdoms of the world, and all that is purest and best in civilisation and culture has found shelter in its branches.<p><span class= "bld">Because I go unto my Father.</span>—The better reading is, <span class= "ital">because I go unto the Father.</span> The words are to be connected not with one clause only, but with all the earlier parts of the verse. They are the reason why the believer shall do the works that Christ does, as well as the reason why he shall do greater works. The earthly work of Christ will have ceased, and He will have gone to the Father. The believers will be then His representatives on earth, as He will be their representative in heaven. Therefore will they do His works, and the works shall be greater because He will be at the Father’s right hand, and will do whatsoever they shall ask in His name.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-13.htm">John 14:13</a></div><div class="verse">And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do.</span>—Comp. <a href="/john/15-16.htm" title="You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.">John 15:16</a>; <a href="/john/16-23.htm" title="And in that day you shall ask me nothing. Truly, truly, I say to you, Whatever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.">John 16:23</a>. The prayer is thought of as addressed to the Father; but the answer here, and still more emphatically in the following verse, is thought of as coming from the Son, who is one with the Father. The width and limitation of the promise are both to be noted. It is “<span class= "ital">whatsoever</span> ye shall ask,” and it is “ask <span class= "ital">in My name</span>.” This means, as My representatives on earth (comp. Notes on previous verse), as persons doing My work, living in My spirit, seeking as I have sought to do the will of the Father. It follows from this that personal petitions are not contemplated here, except as far as they are for the glory of God; and that petitions asked in ignorance may be most truly answered when they are not granted. The prayer of Gethsemane—“If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done,” should teach what prayer in the name and spirit of Christ means. We commonly attach to our prayers, “through Jesus Christ our Lord.” We do not always bear in mind that this implies an absolute self-sacrifice, and is a prayer that our very prayers may not be answered except in so far as they are in accordance with the divine will. (Comp. Note on <a href="/context/2_corinthians/12-8.htm" title="For this thing I sought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.">2Corinthians 12:8-9</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">That the Father may be glorified in the Son.</span>—Comp. Notes on <a href="/john/11-4.htm" title="When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.">John 11:4</a>; <a href="/john/12-28.htm" title="Father, glorify your name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.">John 12:28</a>; <a href="/john/13-31.htm" title="Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him.">John 13:31</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-14.htm">John 14:14</a></div><div class="verse">If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do <i>it</i>.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">If ye shall ask any thing in my name.</span>—This is an emphatic repetition of the width of the promise and of its condition. In the second clause of the verse the pronoun “I” bears the stress. “I (on My part) will do it.” In the parallel passage in <a href="/john/15-16.htm" title="You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.">John 15:16</a>; <a href="/john/16-23.htm" title="And in that day you shall ask me nothing. Truly, truly, I say to you, Whatever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.">John 16:23</a> the Father is thought of as answering the prayer. The passage from one thought to the other is possible because the Father and Son are thought of as one.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-15.htm">John 14:15</a></div><div class="verse">If ye love me, keep my commandments.</div>(15) <span class= "bld">If ye love me, keep my commandments.</span>—Comp. Notes on <a href="/john/14-17.htm" title="Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him: but you know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you.">John 14:17</a>; <a href="/john/13-34.htm" title="A new commandment I give to you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.">John 13:34</a>; <a href="/john/15-10.htm" title="If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.">John 15:10</a>. The connection here is through the condition “in My name,” which includes willing obedience to His commands. The word “My” is emphatic—“The commandments which ye have received from Me.” Those of this last discourse are perhaps prominent in the thought.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-16.htm">John 14:16</a></div><div class="verse">And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;</div>(16) <span class= "bld">And I will pray the Father.</span>—Comp. Note on <a href="/john/16-26.htm" title="At that day you shall ask in my name: and I say not to you, that I will pray the Father for you:">John 16:26</a>. The pronoun is again emphatic—“I have given you your part to do. I on My part will pray the Father.” The word used for “pray” is one which implies more of nearness of approach and of familiarity than that which is rendered “ask” in <a href="/john/14-14.htm" title="If you shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.">John 14:14</a>. It is the word which John regularly uses when he speaks of our Lord as praying to the Father, and occurs again in <a href="/john/16-26.htm" title="At that day you shall ask in my name: and I say not to you, that I will pray the Father for you:">John 16:26</a>; <a href="/john/17-9.htm" title="I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which you have given me; for they are yours.">John 17:9</a>; <a href="/john/17-15.htm" title="I pray not that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil.">John 17:15</a>; <a href="/john/17-20.htm" title="Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;">John 17:20</a>. The distinction is important, but it has sometimes, perhaps, been unduly pressed. Both words occur in <a href="/1_john/5-16.htm" title="If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not to death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not to death. There is a sin to death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.">1John 5:16</a>. (See Note there.)<p><span class= "bld">And he shall give you another Comforter.</span>—The better rendering is probably <span class= "ital">another Advocate.</span> The word is used of the third person in the Holy Trinity here, and in <a href="/john/14-26.htm" title="But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have said to you.">John 14:26</a>, and in <a href="/john/15-26.htm" title="But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, he shall testify of me:">John 15:26</a> and <a href="/john/16-7.htm" title="Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send him to you.">John 16:7</a>. In each of these instances it is used by our Lord. It is found once again in the New Testament, and is there applied by St. John to our Lord Himself (<a href="/1_john/2-1.htm" title="My little children, these things write I to you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:">1John 2:1</a>). In the Gospel the English version uniformly translates it by “Comforter.” “In the Epistle it is rendered by “Advocate.” But the whole question is of so much interest and importance that it will be convenient to deal with it in a separate Note. (Comp. <span class= "ital">Excursus G: The Meaning of the word Paraclete.</span>) The word “another” should be observed as implying that which the Epistle states—the advocacy of the second Person in the Trinity, as well as that of the third.<p><span class= "bld">That he may abide with you for ever.</span>—The thought of the permanent abiding is opposed to the separation which is about to take place between them and the person of our Lord. He would come again to them in the person of the Paraclete, whom He would send to them (<a href="/john/14-18.htm" title="I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.">John 14:18</a>), and this spiritual presence should remain with them for ever. (Comp. Note on <a href="/matthew/28-20.htm" title="Teaching them to observe all things whatever I have commanded you: and, see, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Amen.">Matthew 28:20</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-17.htm">John 14:17</a></div><div class="verse"><i>Even</i> the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.</div>(17) <span class= "bld">Even the Spirit of truth.</span>—Comp. <a href="/john/15-26.htm" title="But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, he shall testify of me:">John 15:26</a>; <a href="/john/16-13.htm" title="However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.">John 16:13</a>, and <a href="/1_john/5-6.htm" title="This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.">1John 5:6</a>. He is called the Spirit of Truth, because part of His special office is to bring truth home to the hearts of men, to carry it from the material to the moral sphere, to make it something more than a collection of signs seen or heard—a living power in living men.<p><span class= "bld">Whom the world cannot receive.</span>—The Holy Spirit can be received only by those who have the spiritual faculty. It cannot be otherwise. The unbelieving world, caring only for things of the senses, has lost its spiritual perception. It has no eye to see and no heart to know spiritual things, for they are spiritually discerned. (Comp. Note on <a href="/1_corinthians/2-14.htm" title="But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.">1Corinthians 2:14</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">But ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.</span>—The better text is,. . . . <span class= "ital">and is in you.</span> The verbs are in the present tense, describing the receptivity of the disciples as opposed to the moral blindness of the world. They had, during our Lord’s work and teaching in their midst, exercised and strengthened their spiritual faculties. They had in part received the Spirit, and by that reception were prepared for the fuller gift. They knew Him. He was in their midst. He was then, and therefore should be in the future, a living power, dwelling in their inmost life.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-18.htm">John 14:18</a></div><div class="verse">I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.</div>(18) <span class= "bld">I will not leave you comfortless.</span>—Better with the margin, <span class= "ital">I will not leave you orphans,</span> which exactly represents the Greek word. “Comfortless” is unfortunate, as it suggests a connection with “Comforter” which does not exist in the original. Our translators have rendered the word by “fatherless” in <a href="/james/1-27.htm" title="Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.">James 1:27</a>, which is the only other passage where it occurs in the New Testament, and Wiclif has “faderless” here. He thinks of them as His children whom He is leaving in the world (comp. <a href="/john/13-33.htm" title="Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You shall seek me: and as I said to the Jews, Where I go, you cannot come; so now I say to you.">John 13:33</a>), but He will not leave them destitute and bereaved.<p><span class= "bld">I will come to you.</span>—This coming, as is shown by the whole context, is the spiritual presence in the person of the Paraclete.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-19.htm">John 14:19</a></div><div class="verse">Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">Yet a little while.</span>—Comp. <a href="/john/13-33.htm" title="Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You shall seek me: and as I said to the Jews, Where I go, you cannot come; so now I say to you.">John 13:33</a>; <a href="/john/16-16.htm" title="A little while, and you shall not see me: and again, a little while, and you shall see me, because I go to the Father.">John 16:16</a>.<p><span class= "bld">But ye see me</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> in the spiritual presence of the Paraclete. The words may indeed have their first fulfilment in the appearances of the forty days (comp. <a href="/acts/10-41.htm" title="Not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.">Acts 10:41</a>), but these appearances were themselves steps in the education which was leading the disciples from a trust in the physical to a trust in the spiritual presence. (Comp. <a href="/john/20-17.htm" title="Jesus said to her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brothers, and say to them, I ascend to my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.">John 20:17</a>.) To the world the grave seemed the closing scene. They saw Him no more; they thought of Him as dead. To the believers who had the power to see Him He appeared as living, and in very deed was more truly with them and in them than He had been before.<p><span class= "bld">Because I live, ye shall live also.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">for I live, and ye shall live.</span> Our Lord speaks of His own life in the present. It is the essential life of which He is Himself the Source, and which is not affected by the physical death through which He is about to pass. They also who believe in Him shall have even here this principle of life, which in them too shall be affected by no change, but shall develop into the fulness of the life hereafter. Because He lives, and because they too shall live, therefore shall they see Him and realise His presence when the world seeth Him no more.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-20.htm">John 14:20</a></div><div class="verse">At that day ye shall know that I <i>am</i> in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.</div>(20) <span class= "bld">At that day ye shall know</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> the day of the gift of the Comforter, in whom Christ shall come to them. In the first reference the Day of Pentecost is meant, but the words hold good of every spiritual quickening, and will hold good of the final coming in the last day. The pronoun <span class= "ital">“</span>ye” is emphatic—“Ye shall know for yourselves.”<p><span class= "bld">That I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.</span>—Comp. Note on <a href="/john/10-38.htm" title="But if I do, though you believe not me, believe the works: that you may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.">John 10:38</a>. The result of this spiritual illumination would be that they should of themselves know the immanence of the Son in the Father, and their own union with the Father through Him. They ask now (<a href="/john/14-8.htm" title="Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffises us.">John 14:8</a>) for a manifestation of the Father. The Spirit should so bring the life of Christ to their hearts that they would read in it the manifestation of the Father, and feel that in and through that life their own spirit has communion with God. The Spirit would witness with their spirit that they were the children of God. They would seek no longer for a Theophany from without, but in the depth of their inmost lives would cry, “Abba, Father.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-21.htm">John 14:21</a></div><div class="verse">He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">He that hath my commandments.</span>—Comp. <a href="/john/14-15.htm" title="If you love me, keep my commandments.">John 14:15</a> and <a href="/john/5-36.htm" title="But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father has given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father has sent me.">John 5:36</a>. This verse points out the successive degrees which led up to the full manifestation of Christ. The first step is the moral apprehension and practical observance of our Lord’s commandments, which necessarily result from love to Christ.<p><span class= "bld">He it is that loveth me.</span>—The next step is the special receptivity of the Father’s love which he who loves Christ possesses, and therefore there is a special sense in which the Father loves him. The words express with fulness of emphasis, “<span class= "ital">He</span> it is, and he only.”<p><span class= "bld">And I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.</span>—The special love of the Son follows from the special love of the Father, and is accompanied by the full manifestation of the Son. This is further explained in <a href="/john/14-23.htm" title="Jesus answered and said to him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our stayed with him.">John 14:23</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-22.htm">John 14:22</a></div><div class="verse">Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?</div>(22) <span class= "bld">Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot.</span>—That he was “not Iscariot” is mentioned to distinguish him beyond all possibility of confusion from him who had gone out into the darkness, and was no longer one of their number (<a href="/john/13-30.htm" title="He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night.">John 13:30</a>). He is commonly identified with “Lebbæus whose surname was Thaddæus” (comp. Note on <a href="/matthew/10-3.htm" title="Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus;">Matthew 10:3</a>), and was a brother or son of James (<a href="/luke/6-15.htm" title="Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes,">Luke 6:15</a>).<p><span class= "bld">How is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?</span>—The word “manifest” has brought to the mind of Judas, as the word “see” had to the mind of Philip (<a href="/john/14-7.htm" title="If you had known me, you should have known my Father also: and from now on you know him, and have seen him.">John 14:7</a>), thoughts of a visible manifestation such as to Moses (<a href="/exodus/33-13.htm" title="Now therefore, I pray you, if I have found grace in your sight, show me now your way, that I may know you, that I may find grace in your sight: and consider that this nation is your people.">Exodus 33:13</a>; <a href="/exodus/33-18.htm" title="And he said, I beseech you, show me your glory.">Exodus 33:18</a>), and such as they expected would attend the advent of the Messiah (<a href="/malachi/3-1.htm" title="Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the LORD, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom you delight in: behold, he shall come, said the LORD of hosts.">Malachi 3:1</a>). But it was contrary to every thought of the Messiah that this manifestation should be to a few only. His reign was to be the judgment of the Gentiles, and the establishment of the Theocracy.<p>The words rendered, “How is it that . . .?” mean literally, <span class= "ital">What has happened that</span> . . .? The words of our Lord, speaking of His manifestation, take Judas by surprise. He wonders whether anything has occurred to cause what he thinks a departure from the Messianic manifestation.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-23.htm">John 14:23</a></div><div class="verse">Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.</div>(23) <span class= "bld">If a man love me, he will keep my words.</span>—Our Lord repeats the condition necessary on the part of man in order that the manifestation of God to him may be possible. This is an answer to the question of Judas, the world in its unbelief and rejection of Christ’s words, and without the spirit of love, could not receive this manifestation.<p><span class= "bld">We will come unto him, and make our abode with him.</span>—For the plural, comp. Note on <a href="/john/10-30.htm" title="I and my Father are one.">John 10:30</a>. For the word “abode,” comp. Note on <a href="/john/14-2.htm" title="In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.">John 14:2</a>. The thought of God as dwelling in the sanctuary and among the people was familiar to the disciples from the Old Testament Scriptures (see, <span class= "ital">e.g.,</span> <a href="/exodus/25-8.htm" title="And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.">Exodus 25:8</a>; <a href="/exodus/29-45.htm" title="And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God.">Exodus 29:45</a>; <a href="/context/leviticus/26-11.htm" title="And I set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.">Leviticus 26:11-12</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/37-26.htm" title="Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the middle of them for ever more.">Ezekiel 37:26</a>), and the thought of the spiritual temple in the heart of man was not unknown to contemporary writers. Philo has a remarkable parallel in his treatise, <span class= "ital">De Cherubim,</span> p. 124, “Since therefore He (God) thus invisibly enters into the region of the soul, let us prepare that place, in the best way the case admits of, to be an abode worthy of God; for if we do not, He, without our being aware of it, will quit us and migrate to some other habitation which shall appear to Him to be more excellently provided” (Bohn’s ed., vol. i., p. 199. See the whole of chap. 29). Schöttgen, in his note, quotes from a Rabbinical writer who says, “Blessed is the man who strives daily to make himself approved unto God, and prepares himself to receive the divine guest.” (Comp. <a href="/1_corinthians/3-16.htm" title="Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?">1Corinthians 3:16</a>; <a href="/1_corinthians/6-19.htm" title="What? know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own?">1Corinthians 6:19</a>; and <a href="/revelation/3-20.htm" title="Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.">Revelation 3:20</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-24.htm">John 14:24</a></div><div class="verse">He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.</div>(24) <span class= "bld">He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings.</span>—He has shown in the previous verse how the Father and the Son can take up their abode in the hearts of the believers. He now shows how they could not be manifested to the hearts of the world. He that loveth not Christ keepeth not His word, and that word is the Father’s. He has rejected the love of God which is revealed in the Son, and has Himself closed the channels of communion with God. God cannot dwell with him because there is in him nothing which can be receptive of the Divine Presence.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-25.htm">John 14:25</a></div><div class="verse">These things have I spoken unto you, being <i>yet</i> present with you.</div>(25) <span class= "bld">These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.</span>—Better, . . . <span class= "ital">while abiding with you.</span> He was about to depart from them. He had been speaking to them words which they found it hard to understand. He now pauses in His teaching, and proceeds to tell them of the Holy Spirit who should interpret His words to them.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-26.htm">John 14:26</a></div><div class="verse">But the Comforter, <i>which is</i> the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.</div>(26) <span class= "bld">But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.</span>—Better, as before, <span class= "ital">but the Advocate</span> . . . (Comp. <span class= "ital">Excursus G: The Meaning of the word Paraclete.</span>) For the words “Holy Ghost” comp. <a href="/john/7-39.htm" title="(But this spoke he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)">John 7:39</a>; <a href="/john/20-22.htm" title="And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, Receive you the Holy Ghost:">John 20:22</a>, which are the only passages where we find them in this Gospel. They are frequent in the earlier Gospels. (See Note on <a href="/matthew/12-31.htm" title="Why I say to you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven to men.">Matthew 12:31</a>.) In four passages in the New Testament (<a href="/luke/11-13.htm" title="If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?">Luke 11:13</a>; <a href="/ephesians/1-13.htm" title="In whom you also trusted, after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,">Ephesians 1:13</a>; <a href="/ephesians/4-30.htm" title="And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed to the day of redemption.">Ephesians 4:30</a>; <a href="/1_thessalonians/4-8.htm" title="He therefore that despises, despises not man, but God, who has also given to us his holy Spirit.">1Thessalonians 4:8</a>) our translators have preferred the rendering “Holy Spirit.” The identification here with the Advocate brings out the contrast between the practical obedience and holiness (<a href="/john/14-23.htm" title="Jesus answered and said to him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our stayed with him.">John 14:23</a>) of those to whom the Holy Spirit should be sent, and the disobedience (<a href="/john/14-24.htm" title="He that loves me not keeps not my sayings: and the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.">John 14:24</a>) of those who rejected the revelation by the Son.<p><span class= "bld">Whom the Father will send in my name</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> as My representative. (Comp. <a href="/john/14-13.htm" title="And whatever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.">John 14:13</a>.) Their Master will depart from them, but the Father will send them another Teacher who will make clear to them the lessons they have already heard, and teach them things which they cannot bear now.<p><span class= "bld">He shall teach you all things.</span>—Comp. <a href="/john/16-13.htm" title="However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.">John 16:13</a>. The words are here without an expressed limitation, but the “all things” here is equal to the “all truth” in the later passage.<p><span class= "bld">And bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.</span>—The limitation, “whatsoever I have said unto you,” is to be taken with this clause only, and is not to be extended to the words, “He shall teach you all things.” For instances of the recurrence of words spoken by our Lord with a fulness of new meaning revealed in them by the Holy Spirit, comp. <a href="/john/2-22.htm" title="When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this to them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.">John 2:22</a>; <a href="/john/12-16.htm" title="These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things to him.">John 12:16</a>. The Gospel according to St. John, with its full records of the words spoken by our Lord, is itself a commentary on this text.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-27.htm">John 14:27</a></div><div class="verse">Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.</div>(27) <span class= "bld">Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.</span>—The immediate context speaks of His departure from them (<a href="/john/14-25.htm" title="These things have I spoken to you, being yet present with you.">John 14:25</a>; <a href="/john/14-28.htm" title="You have heard how I said to you, I go away, and come again to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I said, I go to the Father: for my Father is greater than I.">John 14:28</a>), and it is natural therefore to understand these words as suggested by the common Oriental formulas of leave-taking. Men said to each other when they met and parted, “Shalom! Shalom!” (Peace! Peace!) just as they say the “Salaam! Salaam!” in our own day. (See <a href="/1_samuel/1-17.htm" title="Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant you your petition that you have asked of him.">1Samuel 1:17</a>; <a href="/luke/7-50.htm" title="And he said to the woman, Your faith has saved you; go in peace.">Luke 7:50</a>; <a href="/acts/16-36.htm" title="And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, The magistrates have sent to let you go: now therefore depart, and go in peace.">Acts 16:36</a>; <a href="/james/2-16.htm" title="And one of you say to them, Depart in peace, be you warmed and filled; notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body; what does it profit?">James 2:16</a>; <a href="/ephesians/6-23.htm" title="Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.">Ephesians 6:23</a>; <a href="/1_peter/5-14.htm" title="Greet you one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen.">1Peter 5:14</a>; <a href="/3_john/1-14.htm" title="But I trust I shall shortly see you, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to you. Our friends salute you. Greet the friends by name.">3John 1:14</a>.)<p>He will leave them as a legacy the gift of “peace.” And this peace is more than a meaningless sound or even than a true wish. He repeats it with the emphatic “My,” and speaks of it as an actual possession which He imparts to them. “Peace on earth” was the angels’ message when they announced His birth; “peace to you” was His own greeting when He returned victorious from the grave. “He is our peace” (<a href="/ephesians/2-14.htm" title="For he is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us;">Ephesians 2:14</a>), and this peace is the farewell gift to the disciples from whom He is now departing. (Comp. <a href="/john/14-27.htm" title="Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you: not as the world gives, give I to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.">John 14:27</a>; <a href="/john/16-33.htm" title="These things I have spoken to you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.">John 16:33</a>; <a href="/john/20-19.htm" title="Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the middle, and said to them, Peace be to you.">John 20:19</a>; <a href="/john/20-21.htm" title="Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be to you: as my Father has sent me, even so send I you.">John 20:21</a>; <a href="/john/20-26.htm" title="And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the middle, and said, Peace be to you.">John 20:26</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.</span>—The contrast is not between the emptiness of the world’s salutations and the reality of His own gift, but between His legacy to them and the legacies ordinarily left by the world. He gives them not land or houses or possessions, but “peace;” and that “His own peace,” “the peace of God which passeth all understanding.”<p><span class= "bld">Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.</span>—These are in part the words of the first verse, and are now repeated as a joyous note of triumph. Possessing the peace which He gives them, having another Advocate in the person of the Holy Spirit, having the Father and the Son ever abiding in them, there cannot be, even when He is about to leave them, room for trouble or for fear.<p>The word here rendered “be afraid<span class= "ital">”</span> occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It points especially to the cowardice of fear. The cognate substantive is used in <a href="/2_timothy/1-7.htm" title="For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.">2Timothy 1:7</a>, and the adjective in <a href="/matthew/8-26.htm" title="And he said to them, Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.">Matthew 8:26</a>; <a href="/mark/4-40.htm" title="And he said to them, Why are you so fearful? how is it that you have no faith?">Mark 4:40</a>; and <a href="/revelation/21-8.htm" title="But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.">Revelation 21:8</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-28.htm">John 14:28</a></div><div class="verse">Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come <i>again</i> unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.</div>(28) <span class= "bld">Ye have heard how I said unto you.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">Ye heard how I said unto you.</span> (See <a href="/context/john/14-19.htm" title="Yet a little while, and the world sees me no more; but you see me: because I live, you shall live also.">John 14:19-20</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">If ye loved me, ye would rejoice.</span>—True love seeks another’s good and not its own. Their sorrow at His departure was at its root selfish, as all sorrow for those who depart to be with God is, however little we think so. His departure would be the return to the glory of the Father’s throne, and was matter for joy and not for sorrow. For them also it was expedient. (Comp. Notes on <a href="/context/john/16-6.htm" title="But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.">John 16:6-7</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">For my Father is greater than I.</span>—These words have naturally formed the subject of controversy in every period of the Church’s history, between those who deny and those who accept the truth that the Son is “very God, of the substance of the Father, begotten before all worlds.” And, as in all controversies, statements have been made on either side which cannot be supported by the words themselves. On the part of those who assert the divine nature, it has been contended that the Father is greater than the Son only as regards the human nature of the Son; but this is not here thought of. In this passage, as in others of the New Testament, it is plainly asserted that in the divine nature there is a subordination of the Son to the Father. (See, <span class= "ital">e.g.,</span> <a href="/john/14-16.htm" title="And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;">John 14:16</a>; <a href="/john/17-5.htm" title="And now, O Father, glorify you me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world was.">John 17:5</a>; <a href="/1_corinthians/3-23.htm" title="And you are Christ's; and Christ is God's.">1Corinthians 3:23</a>; <a href="/1_corinthians/11-3.htm" title="But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.">1Corinthians 11:3</a>; <a href="/context/1_corinthians/15-27.htm" title="For he has put all things under his feet. But when he said all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.">1Corinthians 15:27-28</a>; <a href="/philippians/2-9.htm" title="Why God also has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:">Philippians 2:9</a>; <a href="/philippians/2-11.htm" title="And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.">Philippians 2:11</a>; and especially Note on <a href="/john/5-19.htm" title="Then answered Jesus and said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do: for what things soever he does, these also does the Son likewise.">John 5:19</a> <span class= "ital">et seq.</span>) On the part of those who deny the divinity of our Lord, it has been contended that this text asserts the inferiority of His nature to that of the Father, whereas the words could only have been uttered by one who meant in them to assert His own divine essence. If we try to imagine a man saying, “God is greater than I,” we feel at once that He who really said them claimed for Himself that He was truly God.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-29.htm">John 14:29</a></div><div class="verse">And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.</div>(29) <span class= "bld">And now I have told you before it come to pass.</span>—Comp. <a href="/john/13-19.htm" title="Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, you may believe that I am he.">John 13:19</a>. Here, again, He tells them the event before the accomplishment, that it may serve to strengthen their faith. Two interpretations of this verse are possible. (1) That He told them of the coming of the Advocate to teach all truth, and bring all things to their remembrance, in order that in the fulfilment of this they may, with increase of faith, believe in Him. (2) That He told them of His going to the Father, in order that when the hour of departure came they may believe that He had gone to the Father. Upon the whole, and especially considering the close parallel with <a href="/john/13-19.htm" title="Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, you may believe that I am he.">John 13:19</a>, the first seems the more probable meaning.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-30.htm">John 14:30</a></div><div class="verse">Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.</div>(30) <span class= "bld">Hereafter I will not talk much with you.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">I will no more,</span> or, <span class= "ital">I will not continue to talk much with you.</span> The discourse is broken by the thought that the hour of the conflict is at hand, and that He must go forth to meet it.<p><span class= "bld">For the prince of this world cometh.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">is coming.</span> The approach is thought of as then taking place. For the phrase, “prince of this world,” comp. Note on <a href="/john/12-31.htm" title="Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.">John 12:31</a>. The prince of evil is here regarded as working in and by Judas, who is carrying out his plans and doing his work. (Comp. Notes on <a href="/john/6-70.htm" title="Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?">John 6:70</a>; <a href="/john/13-2.htm" title="And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him;">John 13:2</a>; <a href="/john/13-27.htm" title="And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus to him, That you do, do quickly.">John 13:27</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">And hath nothing in me.</span>—The words are to be taken in their full and absolute meaning, and they assert that the prince of this world possesses nothing in the person of Christ. In Him he has never for a moment ruled. For this appeal to perfect sinlessness, comp. Note on <a href="/john/8-29.htm" title="And he that sent me is with me: the Father has not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.">John 8:29</a>. It follows from this that His surrender of Himself is entirely voluntary. (Comp. Note on <a href="/john/10-18.htm" title="No man takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.">John 10:18</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/john/14-31.htm">John 14:31</a></div><div class="verse">But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.</div>(31) The most probable arrangement of this verse is to omit the period after “so I do,” and to consider all down to this point as governed by “that.” We shall read then, “But, that the world may know that I love the Father, and that as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do, arise, let us go hence.” He has asserted, in the previous verse, the sinlessness which makes His act wholly self-determined. He now expresses the subordination of His own to the Father’s will, and summons the Apostles to rise up with Him from the table, and go forth from the room.<p><span class= "bld">But that the world . . .</span>—The words seem to point back to “the prince of this world” who has just been mentioned. The prince cometh, but it is to a defeat; and the very world over which he has ruled will see in the self-sacrifice of Jesus the love of the Father. That love will reclaim them from the bondage of the oppressor and restore them to the freedom of children.<p>It is an interesting question which we cannot hope with certainty to solve, whether or not in obedience to the command they went from the room at once. In other words, were the discourse of John 15, 16 and the prayer of John 17, uttered in the room after the summons to depart, or on the way to the garden of Gethsemane? The immediate connection of the opening words of the next chapter with the present verse naturally leads to the opinion that they were spoken in the same place, and, in the absence of any hint of a change, it is safe not to assume any. The words of <a href="/john/18-1.htm" title="When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples.">John 18:1</a> are probably those which express the act to which the words our Lord has just spoken summon them. But comp. <span class= "ital">Chronological Harmony of the Gospels,</span> p. xxxv.<p><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. Used by Permission. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/">Bible Hub</a></div></div></div></div></td></tr></table></div><div id="left"><a href="../john/13.htm" onmouseover='lft.src="/leftgif.png"' onmouseout='lft.src="/left.png"' title="John 13"><img src="/left.png" name="lft" border="0" alt="John 13" /></a></div><div id="right"><a href="../john/15.htm" onmouseover='rght.src="/rightgif.png"' onmouseout='rght.src="/right.png"' title="John 15"><img src="/right.png" name="rght" border="0" alt="John 15" /></a></div><div id="botleft"><a href="#" onmouseover='botleft.src="/botleftgif.png"' onmouseout='botleft.src="/botleft.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botleft.png" name="botleft" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div><div id="botright"><a href="#" onmouseover='botright.src="/botrightgif.png"' onmouseout='botright.src="/botright.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botright.png" name="botright" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div><div id="rightbox"><div class="padright"><div id="pic"><iframe width="100%" height="860" scrolling="no" src="//biblescan.com/mpc/john/14-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></div></div><div id="rightbox4"><div class="padright2"><div id="spons1"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td class="sp1"><iframe width="122" height="860" scrolling="no" src="/commentaries/ellicott/sidemenu.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></div><div id="bot"><br /><br /><div align="center"> <script id="3d27ed63fc4348d5b062c4527ae09445"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=51ce25d5-1a8c-424a-8695-4bd48c750f35&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script> <script id="b817b7107f1d4a7997da1b3c33457e03"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=cb0edd8b-b416-47eb-8c6d-3cc96561f7e8&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script><br /><br /> <!-- /1078254/BH-728x90-ATF --> <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-2'> </div><br /><br /> <!-- /1078254/BH-300x250-ATF --> <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-0' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br /> <!-- /1078254/BH-728x90-BTF --> <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-3'> </div><br /><br /> <!-- /1078254/BH-300x250-BTF --> <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-1' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br /> <!-- /1078254/BH-728x90-BTF2 --> <div align="center" id='div-gpt-ad-1531425649696-0'> </div><br /><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:200px;height:200px" data-ad-client="ca-pub-3753401421161123" data-ad-slot="3592799687"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> <br /><br /> </div><iframe width="100%" height="1500" scrolling="no" src="/botmenubhchap.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></td></tr></table></body></html>