John 14:21-24 sits inside this longer paragraph.
9Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ 10Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father who lives in me does his works. 11Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works’ sake. 12Most certainly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father. 13Whatever you will ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14If you will ask anything in my name, I will do it. 15If you love me, keep my commandments. 16I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever: 17the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him and doesn’t know him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you. 18I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. 19Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. 20In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21One who has my commandments and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.”
22Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, what has happened that you are about to reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?”
23Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him. 24He who doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words. The word which you hear isn’t mine, but the Father’s who sent me. 25I have said these things to you while still living with you. 26But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you. 27Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, I give to you. Don’t let your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful. 28You heard how I told you, ‘I go away, and I come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I said ‘I am going to my Father;’ for the Father is greater than I. 29Now I have told you before it happens so that when it happens, you may believe. 30I will no more speak much with you, for the prince of the world comes, and he has nothing in me. 31But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father commanded me, even so I do. Arise, let’s go from here.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv21–24 21. He who hath my commandments. He again repeats…
21. He who hath my commandments. He again repeats the former statement, that the undoubted proof of our love to him lies in our keeping his commandments; and the reason why he so frequently reminds the disciples of this is, that they may not turn aside from this object; for there is nothing to which we are more prone than to slide into a carnal affection, so as to love something else than Christ under the name of Christ. Such is also the import of that saying of Paul,
Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth we know him no longer in this manner. Let us therefore be a new creature, (2 Corinthians 5:16, 17.)
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To have his commandments means to be properly instructed in them; and to keep his commandments is to conform ourselves and our life to their rule.
And he that loveth me will be loved by my Father. Christ speaks as if men loved God before he loved them; which is absurd, for,
when we were enemies, he reconciled us to him, (Romans 5:10;)
and the words of John are well known,
Not that we first loved him, but he first loved us, (1 John 4:10.)
But there is no debate here about cause or effect; and therefore there is no ground for the inference, that the love with which we love Christ comes in order before the love which God has toward us; for Christ meant only, that all who love him will be happy, because they will also be loved by him and by the Father; not that God then begins to love them, but because they have a testimony of his love to them, as a Father, engraven on their hearts. To the same purpose is the clause which immediately follows: —
And I will manifest myself to him. Knowledge undoubtedly goes before love; but Christ’s meaning was, I will grant to those who purely observe my doctrine, that they shall make progress from day to day in faith; “that is, “I will cause them to approach more nearly and more familiarly to me.” Hence infer, that the fruit of piety is progress in the knowledge of Christ; for he who promises that he will give himself to him who has it rejects hypocrites, and causes all to make progress in faith who, cordially embracing the doctrine of the Gospel, bring themselves entirely into obedience to it. And this is the reason why many fall back, and why we scarcely see one in ten proceed in the right course; for the greater part do not deserve that he should manifest himself to them It ought also to be observed, that a more abundant knowledge of Christ is here represented as an extraordinary reward of our love to Christ; and hence it follows that it is an invaluable treasure.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv21–22 I will show myself to him, and be known…
I will show myself to him, and be known of him, as if he saw me with his eyes: but this showing of himself is not bodily, but spiritually, yet so plain as none can be more.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv21–24 21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them,…
21 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.
Ver. 21. And I will love him, and manifest, &c.] Increase of the saving knowledge of Christ is promised as a singular reward of our love to him and fruit of his love to us, εμφανισω, tacite et clam indicabo. By quietness and silence I will point out. (Eras.) Imo palam et in media luce. No indeed, openly and is the midst of light, Beza. This is, saith Agur, "to ascend into heaven," Pro 30:3-4. This is, saith our Saviour elsewhere, the great talent of all others. There is a "much" in it, Luk 12:48. This is, saith St Paul, the Christian’s riches, 1Co 1:5; and David reckons of his wealth by it, Psa 119:32.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv21–24 He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he…
He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: our Lord here doth repeat what he had before said, Joh 14:15, declaring that there is no infallible indication of our love to Christ, but obedience, which is here expressed under two notions.
1. Having Christ’s commandments and keeping them: they must both concur to make a true indication of our love to Christ. It is possible that men may have Christ’s commandments in their ears, in their notion, in their mouths, and yet not keep them; they may hear them, they may know and remember them, they may talk of them, yet they may not keep them; for keeping them denotes universal, diligent and industrious, steady and constant obedience to them; and this alone will speak our love to Christ.
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2. And if any man thus declareth his love to Christ, Christ declareth, that both he and his Father will take a pleasure and delight in him to do him good; and he shall not live only under the real benefits of his love to him, but under the sensible manifestations of it. Here is no mention of the Spirit’s coming with the Father and the Son, because the Son dwelleth in us by the Spirit.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv21–23 Our blessed Saviour in these words repeats what he…
Our blessed Saviour in these words repeats what he had before enjoined at verse 15, namely, to evidence the sincerity of our love to him, by the universality of our obedience to his commands: He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.
Where note, 1. The necessity of knowledge in order unto practice.
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2. The necessity of practice in order unto happiness. We must first have Christ’s commandments, before we can keep them: we must have them in our understandings and judgments, in our wills and affections; not have them only in our eyes to read, in our ears to hear, or in our mouths to talk of them but to hide them in our hearts, that we may not sin against Christ, in the willful violation of them.
Farther, we must keep, as well as have, these commandments. This denotes an universal, diligent, and pesevering obedience to them.
Hence learn, That although many loose professors pretend love to Christ, because they hear, read, know, and can talk of, his commandments; yet in Christ’s account none do truly love him, but those who make conscience of their obedience to him: He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.
Observe next, The gracious promise of Christ to such as thus express their love unto him.
1. He shall be loved of my Father, and of myself.
And shall he not be loved of the Holy Ghost too? Yes, no doubt. But why is he not named then? Because the Son dwelleth in us by the Spirit, and shed his love abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.
2., I will manifest myself unto him: that is, such obedient Christians shall not only enjoy the fruit and benefit of my love, but they shall enjoy the sense of my love, and experience the sensible manifestations and inward diffusions of my love in their own souls.
Learn hence, That the only way to have Christ love us, and to let out his love upon us, and to know that he loves us is to look diligently to our obediential walking with him and before him. We may as rationally think to nourish our bodies with poison, as to enjoy the manifestation of Christ’s love in a way of sin.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv21–24 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them,.... He…
He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them,.... He that has not merely the external revelation of them in the Bible; but has them written on his heart, by the finger of the Spirit of God, and keeps them under the influence of grace and strength received from him:
he it is that loveth me: others may talk of loving Christ, but this is the man that truly does love him; for his observance of Christ's commands is a proof and evidence that he loves him not in word only, but in deed and in truth: and to encourage souls to love and obedience, Christ adds,
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he that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father; not that love to is the cause, condition, or motive of the Father's love to his people; nor does his love to them begin when they begin to love Christ; but this expression denotes some further and greater manifestation of the Father's love to such persons, and shows how grateful to the Father are love and obedience to the Son:
and I will love him; which must be understood in the same manner; Christ does not begin to love his people when they begin to love, and obey him; their love and obedience to him, spring from his love to them; which love of his towards them was from everlasting: but this phrase signs a clearer discovery of his love to them, which passeth knowledge; and some fresh mark and token of his affection for them; and which is explained in the next clause:
and will manifest myself to him; not in a visible way, or in a corporeal form, as he did to his disciples after his resurrection; but in a spiritual manner, as when he makes himself known to his people in ordinances, and favours them with communion with him, and they see his beauty, his fulness, his grace and righteousness, his power, and his glory.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv21, 23 He that hath my commandments - Written in his…
He that hath my commandments - Written in his heart. I will manifest myself to him - More abundantly.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv21–24 Verse 21. He it is that loveth me] See…
Verse 21. He it is that loveth me] See Clarke on Joh 14:15.
And will manifest myself to him.] All my faithful disciples shall see me after my resurrection; and I will manifest my power and goodness to all those who believe in and obey me, even to the end of the world.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv21–24 He that hath ... - This intimate union is…
He that hath ... - This intimate union is further manifested by these facts:
That true love to Jesus will produce obedience. See Joh 14:15. That those who love him will be loved of the Father, showing that there is a union between the Father and the Son. That Jesus also will love them, evincing still the same union. Religion is love. The love of one holy being or object is the love of all. The kingdom of God is one. His people, though called by different names, are one. They are united to each other and to God, and the bond which unites the whole kingdom in one is love.
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Will manifest myself to him - To manifest is to show, to make appear, to place before the eyes so that an object may be seen. This means that Jesus would so show himself to his followers that they should see and know that he was their Saviour. In what way this is done, see Joh 14:23.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv21–22 Now that Christ in this place speaks only of…
Now that Christ in this place speaks only of this imperfect union of affection, appears by the following words: he that keepeth my commandments, loveth me: and he that loveth me, shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him, by a recompense of glory in the next life. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv21–23 He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, &c.--(See…
He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, &c.--(See on Joh 14:15).
my Father and I will love him--Mark the sharp line of distinction here, not only between the Divine Persons but the actings of love in Each respectively, towards true disciples.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv21–24 21. Hath my commandments, and keepeth—Hath them in his…
21. Hath my commandments, and keepeth—Hath them in his knowledge, and keepeth them in his practice.
He it is that loveth me—For there can be no true keeping Christ’s commandments which springs not from love to Christ; and there is no true love to Christ which does not produce a keeping of his commandments.
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Will manifest myself unto him—And this is the true witness of the Spirit with our spirits that we are born of God. This manifestation of Christ to the soul is self-evidencing. There may be false imaginations, just as there may be dreams; but these false imaginations can no more, invalidate or destroy the certainty of that manifestation, than dreams can destroy the certainty of any reality viewed by our waking senses. He who does not recognize from his own inner feelings what this manifestation of Christ to the soul is, stands in great need of a deeper religious experience. It behooves him well to look to it that his interest in Christ is real.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv21, 23, 24 21. hath my commandments, and keepeth them] Bears them…
21. hath my commandments, and keepeth them] Bears them in his mind and observes them in his life.
he it is] With great emphasis; he and no one else.
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will manifest myself to him] Once more willing obedience is set forth as the road to spiritual enlightenment (see on Joh_7:17). The word for ‘manifest’ is not S. John’s favourite word (phaneroun) but one which he uses only in these two verses (emphanizein).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv21–24 (21) He that hath my commandments.—Comp. Joh_14:15 and Joh_5:36.…
(21) He that hath my commandments.—Comp. Joh_14:15 and Joh_5:36. 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.
He it is that loveth me.—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, “He it is, and he only.”
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And I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.—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 Joh_14:23.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv21–24 Then for a moment he turns from the eleven,…
Then for a moment he turns from the eleven, and stretches out his searching gaze and far-sweeping love to every one who hath my commandments as a sure possession and lofty privilege and sufficient standard, and keepeth them , thus proving that he it is that loveth me; returning thus back to Ver. 15, where he said that love would induce and ought to compel to obedience; and he adds another and wonderful benediction: He will be loved by my Father, in a sense more intense than that in which God is said to love the world. (Joh_3:16) God the Father loves those who love the Son, i.e. love the object of his own superlative affection. But who can this wondrous Being be who adds, as a climax of privilege and honor, as though it were more even than the love of the Father, I will love him, and will manifest myself in him (not apokaluqw or fanerwsw), not merely "disclose an undiscovered presence" or make evident a hidden glory, but I will take special means to disclose my Person and nature and goodness to him? Christ will do this to those who have and keep his commandments of self-forgetting love and perfect consecration. This remarkable word, emfanisw , implies that the scene and place of the higher manifestation will be in" (en) the consciousness of the soul. "The kingdom of God is within men.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv21–22 He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he…
Joh_14:21
He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me
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Love to Christ
I.
THE REASONS WHICH JUSTIFY ITS EXERCISE. If we love an object, it is because of something amiable in that object.
1. And is there not real excellency in Jesus Christ--the brightness of His Fathers glory, etc. He is altogether lovely!
2. Is He not nearly related to us (Heb_2:11; Mat_12:48-50)?
3. Is He not our Friend, our kindest and best Benefactor? He gave His life a ransom for us.
II. THE PROPERTIES BY WHICH IT IS DISTINGUISHED. It must be
1. Sincere (Rom_12:9).
2. Supreme. Love to any object should rise according to its worth.
3. Constant.
III. THE TEST BY WHICH IT IS ASCERTAINED. It is good to have the commandments of Christ, to be born in a land of Bibles; but this is not enough. He that hath them, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Him. And what is this keeping the commandments of Christ? Do they keep them
1. Who are ignorant of them, and who discover little concern to become acquainted with them?
2. Who have no relish for them?
3. Who do not obey them?
IV. THE REWARD WITH WHICH IT IS CONNECTED.
1. The favour of the greatest Father.
2. The affection of the kindest Saviour.
3. The presence of the best Friend. From the whole, learn
1. The insufficiency of external privileges.
2. The honour which attends real Christianity.
3. The proper use of religious ordinances, and the spirit in which we should attend them. (T. Kidd.)
Love to Christ
I. THE OBEDIENCE WHICH IS THE SIGN AND TEST OF LOVE. The words are here substantially equivalent to Joh_14:15. Only the former begins with the root and traces it upwards to its fruits, love blossoming into obedience. Our text reverses the process. Note
1. How remarkably our Lord here declares the possession of His commandments to be a sign of love to Him. He that hath, etc. There are two ways of having: in the Bible, and in the heart; before my eye as a law that I ought to obey, or within my will, as a power that shapes it. And the latter is the only kind of having that Christ regards as real and valid. Love possesses the knowledge of the loved ones will. Do we not all know how strange is the power of divining desires that goes along with true affection, and how the power, not only of divining, but of treasuring, these desires is the thermometer of our true love. Some of us, perhaps, have laid away in sacred, secret places tattered yellow old bits of paper with the words of a dear one on them that we would not part with. He that hath My commandments laid up in lavender in the recesses of his faithful heart, he it is that loveth Me.
2. Obedience: There are two motives for keeping commandments, one, because they are commanded, and one because we love Him that commands. The one is slavery, the other is liberty. The one is like the Arctic regions, cold and barren, the other is like tropical lands, full of warmth and sunshine, glorious and glad fertility.
3. The form of the sentence suggests how easy it is for people to delude themselves about their love to Jesus Christ. That emphatic He, and the putting first of the character before He states its root, are directed against false pretensions to love. The love that Christ stamps with His hallmark is no mere emotion, however passionate and sweet; no mere sentiment however pure and deep. The tiniest dribble that drives a mill is better than a Niagara that rushes and foams and tumbles idly. And there is ever so much so-called love to Jesus Christ that goes masquerading up and down the world; from which the paint is stripped by the sharp application of the words of my text.
II. THE DIVINE LOVE AND MANIFESTATION WHICH REWARD OUR LOVE AND OBEDIENCE. Note
1. The extraordinary boldness of that majestic saying: If a man loves Me, My Father will love him. God regards our love to Jesus Christ as containing in it the germ of all that is pleasing in His sight. And so, upon our hearts, if we love Christ, there falls the benediction of the Fathers love.
2. Of course, our Lord here is not beginning at the very beginning of everything. We love Him because He first loved us digs a story deeper down than the words of my text. That being understood, here is a great lesson. It is not all the same to God whether a man is a scoundrel or a saint. Gods love is a moral love; and whilst the sunbeams play upon the ice and melt it sometimes, they flash back from, and rest more graciously and fully on, the rippling stream into which the ice has turned. God loves them that love Him not, but the depths of His heart and the secret sacred favours of His grace can only be bestowed upon those who love Christ and obey Him.
3. If, then, we seek to know that dear Lord, the path is plain. Walk on the way of obedience, and Christ will meet us with the unveiling of more and more of His love. To live what we believe is the sure way to increase its amount. To be faithful to the little is the certain way to inherit the much. He gives us His whole self at the first, but we traverse the breadth of the gift by degrees. The flower is but a bud when we get it, and as we hold it, it opens its petals to the light. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Obedience the proof of love
I. SOME WHO THINK THEY LOVE JESUS ARE MISTAKEN AS TO THE GENUINENESS AND SINCERITY OF THEIR LOVE TO HIM. There is an emphasis on He it is, singling Him out as the only real lover. Men may be misled as to the reality of their love.
1. By regarding strong, keen and frequent feelings of sorrow and compassion for Christ as an innocent sufferer, as evidence of true love. Such an emotion is an element in, but is not love.
2. By substituting an intellectual and moral admiration of Christ. But many infidels evince this.
3. By counting sufficient an outward and decorous attention to His laws and institutions. This is sufficient to keep from sins of a gross nature; but at the bottom it may be self-love, a bid for the worlds good opinion.
II. THEY ONLY WHO HAVE AND KEEP CHRISTS COMMANDMENTS TRULY LOVE HIM.
1. Having Christs commandments implies
(1) A recognition of them as of binding authority being enforced by His love.
(2) An intelligent appreciation of their meaning and spirit.
(3) Treasuring them in the head and heart.
2. Keeping them. We may have without keeping them. Practice and knowledge must keep step.
3. Here is
(1) A test of Christian profession (1Jn_2:3-5; 1Jn_5:1-3).
(2) A ground of comfort to doubting Christians. Their Lord does not insist on warm feelings which are fluctuating, but on obedience.
(3) An inducement to obedience. (A. Warrack, M. A.)
Obedience the sign of love
A king in ancient times made some wise laws for his people, and most of them loved and reverenced him as a father, but not all. Some who professed a great affection for him were very unwilling to obey him; and a few complained that his laws were too strict, and, whenever they could do so without fear of punishment, they broke them. Now the king had a country far off where troubles and tumults bad arisen, and the governor wrote to ask the king to go and visit his discontented people, and try if his own presence would win them to obedience and love. The king promised to go; but before he left, he gave every family a copy of the laws. He was away a long time, and on his return there were loud rejoicings. But when he came to his council chamber, there were some sad stories of rebellion and disobedience, not among the poor alone, but among the nobles, who had been louder than all the rest in their professions of love and songs of welcome. But when the king, having discovered the offenders, asked for a copy of the laws, and one by one read them to the rebels, they were confused and silent. Some, indeed, had lost the paper he had given them; some had wilfully burnt it, and declared that they would not obey; many had broken one or more of the rules. He was a gentle king, but firm and just; and so he gathered his disobedient subjects together, and looking sorrowfully at them, he gravely asked each, If he loved his sovereign? They all answered Yes, but on holding up a copy of his laws, they all hung down their heads. He that hath my laws and keepeth them, he said, he, and he only, loves me. So with Christs laws. (Mrs. Geldart.)
Christ known only to the loving
I. WE CANNOT KNOW CHRIST THROUGH THE INTELLECT. The intellect has tried for ages to find out God, and after all its investigations it has pronounced Him unknowable, The world by wisdom knew not God.
II. WE CANNOT KNOW CHRIST THROUGH THE IMAGINATION. Imagination has filled the world with myths, superstitions and idols, but has never, unaided by the heart, found Christ.
III. WE CANNOT KNOW CHRIST THROUGH AN EXCITED CONSCIENCE. Conscience has formulated a god of vengeance. Christ is God and reveals Himself to the loving. (Homiletic Monthly.)
Character and privilege of true Christians
I. THE PECULIAR CHARACTER OF TRUE CHRISTIANS.
1. They love Christ.
(1) They love Himself
(a) As a Divine person, glorious in moral perfection and loveliness.
(b) As the incarnate Divinity, the image, of Him whom we should love with all the heart, and soul, and strength.
(c) As the God-man Mediator, the Only-begotten of Him whose name and nature is love.
(d) As the man, Christ Jesus, possessed of every quality which can command esteem and excite love.
(2) This love extends to everything in the Saviour--His holiness, as well as His grace; His laws, as well as His promises; the yoke He lays on them, as well as the crown He is to confer; His house, His word, His day, His people, His cause.
(3) This love leads them to seek intercourse with Him; they cannot be happy away from Him.
(4) This love is common to all the saints. They have not all the same measure of it--that depends on the measure of their knowledge and faith and capacity of affection; but they have all the same kind of love.
(5) And as this love is common to all the saints, so it is peculiar to them. To the unbelieving world He has no form nor comeliness, etc.
2. They have His commandments, words, sayings. These are not to be confined to what was preceptive in our Lords teaching; they include all His communications.
(1) To have is something more than to possess the Bible, or even to have a general knowledge of its contents. It is to have it in the mind and the heart.
(2) They who receive our Lords words cannot but love Him, for they, in the degree in which they receive them, know and believe Him to be the proper object of supreme affection.
3. They keep His commandments. As it is by having the words of Christ that men come to love Him, so it is by keeping His words that they manifest and prove their love to Him. They must be kept
(1) As He gives us them. We must not detract from them, nor add to them, nor modify them (Deu_4:2).
(2) In the mind. There are men who find it disquieting to them, and seek to get rid of it as soon as possible. There are others who, ceasing to give it any attention, suffer it to slip out of their mind. And there are others who permit, who invite, the wicked one to come and take away what was sown in their hearts. But the lover of Christ lets the word of Christ dwell in his heart, and often reviews it as his most precious treasure.
(3) By our having no other opinions on the subjects to which they refer than those unfolded in them, and by fashioning the whole system of our sentiments and judgments with a reference to them.
(a) The promises are to be kept by firmly believing them in the most trying circumstances.
(b) The warnings are to be kept by keeping at a distance from their subjects, and by cherishing a habitual holy fear of sin.
(c) His commandments, with regard to tempers and dispositions, are to be kept by keeping our hearts with all diligence.
(d) Those with regard to our general conduct are to be kept by our not following the course of this world, but walking according to the will of God.
(e) Those with regard to institutions are to be kept by observing all things whatsoever He has commanded.
II. THEIR PECULIAR PRIVILEGES.
1. They are loved of the Father and the Son.
(1) As elected in sovereign love to eternal life.
(2) As actually united to Christ by believing.
(3) As transformed and sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
2. This love is discovered in the Sons manifesting Himself to them, and in the Father and the Son coming to them, and making their abode with them.
III. THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE TWO.
1. He only who possesses the character can enjoy the privilege.
2. He who possesses the character must enjoy the privilege.
3. The measure in which the character is possessed is the measure in which the privilege is enjoyed. The more a man loves Christ, the more must both God and Christ love him. (J. Brown, D. D.)
The secret of self-consecration
Here is the secret of self-consecration: in our being possessed by the love of Christ; and feeling--He loves me more than I love Him. Possessed by this love, I yield myself wholly and joyfully to Him. My hand is His, redeemed by Him, sacred to Him, and cannot do unholy work; my foot is His, and cannot go on unholy errands; my ear is His, and cannot listen to unholy words; my eye is His, and cannot look upon unholy deeds; my tongue is His, and cannot utter unholy speeches; my mind is His, and cannot think unholy thoughts; my heart is His, and cannot cherish unholy feelings and desires; my whole being is His, redeemed by Him, sacred to Him, and is surrendered to His will. (J. Culross, D. D.)
Practical religion
Since a vestment ornamented with gold is a beautiful and conspicuous object, but seems much more so to us when it is worn upon our own persons, thus also the precepts of God are beautiful when but praised, but appear far more lovely when they are rightly observed, and conspicuous in our own life. (T. H. Leary, D. C. L.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On v21 21–23. He that hath my commandments, etc. The conditions…
21–23. He that hath my commandments, etc. The conditions on which Christ will be present in each soul, seen, and enjoyed, are here given: (1) One must love Christ; (2) so love him that he will obey from the heart his commandments; (3) this loving, obedient soul will be loved of the Father; (4) Christ will love him; (5) both the Father and the Son will manifest themselves to him; (6) this manifestation is by their coming and abiding in him through the Helper.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v22 Joh 14:22 - Joh 14:24.
John
WHO BRING CHRIST
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Joh 14:22 - Joh 14:24.
This Judas held but a low place amongst the Apostles. In all the lists he is one of the last of the groups of fours, into which they are divided, and which were evidently arranged according to their spiritual nearness to the Master. His question is exactly that which a listener, with some dim, confused glimmer of Christ’s meaning, might be expected to ask. He grasps at His last words about manifesting Himself to certain persons; he rightly feels that he and his brethren possess the qualification of love. He rightly understands that our Lord contemplates no public showing of Himself, and that disappoints him. It was only a day or two ago that Jesus seemed to them to have begun to do what they had always wanted Him to do, manifest Himself to the world. And now, as he thinks, something unknown to them must have happened in order to make Him change His course, and go back to the old plan of a secret communication. And so he says, ‘Lord! what has come to pass to induce you to abandon and falter upon the course on which we entered, when you rode into Jerusalem with the shouting crowd?’
His question is no better in intelligence, though it is a great deal better in spirit, than the taunt of Christ’s brethren, ‘If Thou do these things, show Thyself to the world.’ Judas, too, thought of the simple flashing of His Messianic glory, in some visible, vulgar form, before else blind eyes.
How sad and chilling such a question must have been to Jesus! Slow scholars we all are; and with what wonderful patience, without a word of pain, or of rebuke, He reiterates His lesson, here a little and there a little, and once more unfolds the conditions of His self-revelation, and the fullness of the blessings that He brings. He moulds His words so as to meet both the clauses of Judas’s foolish question-’To us, not to the world’; and quietly tells them the positive conditions and the negative disqualifications for His self-revelation. So my text deals with two things, the crown of loving obedience in the possession of a fuller Christ, and the impassable barrier to His manifestation which unloving disobedience makes. Or to put it into briefer words, we have in one of the verses-first, what brings Christ and what Christ brings; and, in the other, second, what keeps away Christ and all His gifts. Now let us look at these two things.
I. We have what brings Christ and what Christ brings.
‘If a man love Me, He will keep My word’ {not ‘words,’ as our Authorised Version has it}, ‘and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.’ Now notice how here, in the first part of this verse, our Lord subtly and significantly alters the form of the statement which He has already made. He had formerly said, ‘If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments,’ but now He casts it into a purely impersonal form, and says, ‘If a man,’ anybody, not ‘you’ only, but anybody-’If a man love Me, he,’ anybody, ‘will keep My word.’ And why the change? Why, I suppose, in order to strike full and square against that complacent assumption of Judas that it was ‘to us and not to the world’ that the showing was to take place. Our Lord, by the studiously impersonal form into which He casts the promise, proclaims its universality, and says this to His ignorant questioner, ‘Do not suppose that you Apostles have the monopoly. You may not even have a share in My self-manifestation. Anybody may have it. And there is no “world,” as you suppose, to which I do not show Myself. Anybody may have the vision if he observes the conditions.’
Now I need not dwell at any length upon the earlier words of this text, because we have had to consider them in previous sermons on the former verses of this chapter. I need only remark that here, as there, our Lord brings out the thought that the very life-blood of love is the treasuring of the word of the beloved One; and that there is no joy comparable to the joy of the loving heart that yields itself to the Beloved’s will. That is true about earth, and it makes the sweetest and selectest blessedness of our ordinary existence. And it is true about heaven, and it makes the liberty and the gladness of the bond that knits us to Him.
But I would like just to notice, before I come to the more immediate subject of my discourse, that remarkable expression, ‘He will keep My word.’ That is more than a ‘commandment’ is it not? Christ’s ‘word’ is wider than precept. It includes all His sayings, and it includes them all as in one vital unity and organic whole. We are not to go picking and choosing among them; they are one. And it includes this other thought, that every word of Christ, be it revelation of the deep things of God, or be it a promise of the great shower of blessings which, out of His full hand, He will drop upon our heads, enshrines within itself a commandment. He utters no revelations, simply that we may know. He utters no comforting words, simply that our sore hearts may be healed, but in all His utterances there is a practical bearing; and every word of His teaching, every word of His sweet, whispered assurances of love and favour to the waiting heart, has in it the imperativeness of His manifested will, and has a direct bearing upon duty. All His words are gathered into one word, and all the variety of His sayings is, in their unity, the law of our lives. So much by way of observation on the mere language of my text. And now let us look at what, as He says to us here, are the rewards and crown of loving obedience.
Christ will show Himself to the loving heart. That is true on the very lowest level. Every act of obedience to any moral truth is rewarded by additional insight. Every act of submission to His will cleanses the lenses of the telescope from some film that has gathered upon them, and so the stars look brighter and larger and nearer. All duty done opens out into a loftier conception of duty, and a clearer vision of Him. ‘To him that hath shall be given.’ As we climb the hill we get a wider view. Obedience is in all things the parent of insight.
But in reference to our relation to Him, we have to do not with truths only, but with a Person. How do we learn to know people? There is only one way-that is, by loving them. Sympathy is the parent of all true knowledge of one another. They tell us in the foolish old proverb that ‘love is blind.’ No! There is not such a pair of clear eyes anywhere as the eyes of love; and if we want to see into a man, the first condition is that we feel kindly towards him. Sympathy is the parent of insight into persons, as Obedience is the parent of insight into duty.
But both of these illustrations are only imperfect preparations for the great truth here, which is that our loving obedience to the discerned will of Jesus Christ has not only an operation inwards upon us, but has an effect outwards upon Him. I am afraid that Christian people in this generation have but a very imperfect belief in the actual, supernatural, and, if you like to call it so, miraculous manifestation of Jesus Christ, His very Self, to men that love Him and cleave to Him. Do you believe as a simple revealed truth, plain as a sunbeam in such words as these, that Jesus Christ Himself will do something on you, and in you, and for you, if you love Him and trust Him; that His hand will be laid on your eyes as it was laid of old; that He will indeed, in no metaphor, but in reality, show Himself to you? I may be mistaken, but I think that too commonly it is the case, that even good Christian people have a far more vivid and realising and real faith in the past work of Christ on earth than in the present work of Christ in themselves. They think the one a plain truth, and the other something like a metaphor, whereas the New Testament teaches us, as plainly as it can teach us anything, that, far above all the natural operations of truth upon our understandings, hearts, and wills, there is an actual, supernatural, continuous communication of Christ to hearts that love Him, which leads day by day, if they be faithful, to a fuller knowledge, a sweeter love, a larger possession, of a fuller Christ. And it is this that He tells us of, to fire our ambition to attain, in such words as these.
Brethren, one piece of honest, loving obedience is worth all the study and speculation of an unloving heart when the question is, ‘How are we to see Christ?’
Again, Jesus shows Himself to the obedient heart in indissoluble union with the Father. Look at the majesty, and, except upon one hypothesis, the insane presumption, of such words as these: ‘If a man love Me, My Father will love him’; as if identifying love to Christ with love to Himself. And look at that wondrous union, the consciousness of which speaks in ‘We will come.’ Think of a man saying that. It is blasphemous insanity; or else the speech of Him who is conscious of union with the Father, close and indissoluble and transcending all analogies. ‘We will come,’ together, hand-in-hand, if I may so say; or rather, His coming is the Father’s coming. Just as in heaven so closely are they represented as united, that there is but one throne ‘for God and the Lamb,’ so on earth so closely are they represented as united, that there is but one coming of the Father in the Son.
And this is the only belief, as it seems to me, that will keep this generation from despair and moral suicide. The question for this generation is, Is it possible for men to know God? Science, both of material things and of inward experiences, is more and more unanimous in its proclamation; ‘Behold! we know not anything’; and the only attitude to take before that great black vault above us is to say, ‘We know nothing.’ The world has learned half of a great verse of the Gospel: ‘No man hath seen God at any time, nor can see Him.’ If the world is not to go mad, if hearts are not to be tortured into despair, if morality and enthusiasm and poetry and everything higher and nobler than the knowledge of material phenomena and their sequences is not to perish from the earth, the world must learn the next half of the verse, and say, ‘The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.’ Christ shows Himself in indissoluble union with the Father.
Lastly about this matter, Christ shows Himself to obedient love by a true coming. ‘We will come and make our mansion with him.’ And that coming is a fact of a higher order, and not to be confounded either with the mere divine Omnipresence, by which God is everywhere, nor to be reduced to a figment of our own imaginations, or a strong way of promising increased perception on our part of Christ’s fullness. That great central Sun, if I might use so violent a figure, draws nearer and nearer and nearer to the planets that move about it, and having once been far off on an almost infinitely distant horizon, approaches until planet and Sun unite.
Dear brethren, if we could only get to the attitude of simple acceptance of this as a literal truth, and believe that, in prose reality, Christ comes to every heart that loves Him, would not all the world be different to us?
That coming is a permanent residence: ‘We will make our abode with him.’ Very beautiful is it to notice that our Lord here employs that same sweet and significant word, with which He began this wonderful series of encouragements, when He said, ‘In My Father’s house are many mansions.’ Yonder they dwell for ever with God; here God in Christ for ever dwells with the loving heart. It is a permanent abode so long as the conditions are fulfilled, but only so long. If self-will, rising in the Christian heart from its torpor and apparent death, reasserts itself and shakes off Christ’s yoke, Christ’s presence vanishes. In the last hours of the Holy City there was heard by the trembling priests amidst the midnight darkness the motion of departing Deity, and a great voice said: ‘Let us depart hence’; and to-morrow the shrine was empty, and the day after it was in flames. Brethren, if you would keep the Christ in whom is God, remember that He cannot be kept but by the act of loving obedience.
II. Now, in the next place, my text gives us the negative side, and shows us what keeps away Christ and all His blessings.
An unloving disobedience closes the eyes to the vision, and the heart against the entrance, of that dear Lord. Our Master lays down for us two principles, and leaves us to draw the conclusion for ourselves.
The first is, ‘He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My sayings.’ No love, no obedience. That is plainly true, because the heart of all the commandments is love, and where that is not, disobedience to their very spirit is. It is plainly true, because there is no power that will lead men to true obedience to Christ’s yoke except the power of love. His commandments are too alien from our nature ever to be kept, unless by the might of love. It was only the rising sunbeam that could draw music from the stony lips of Memnon, as he gazed out across the desert, and it is only when Christ’s love shines on our faces that we open our lips in praise, and move our hands in service. Those great rocking-stones down in Cornwall stand unmoved by any tempest, but a child’s finger, laid on the right place, will set them vibrating. And so the heavy, hard, stony bulk of our hearts lies torpid and immovable, until He lays His loving finger upon them, and then they rock at His will. There is no keeping of Christ’s commandments without love. That makes short work of a great deal that calls itself Christianity, does it not? Reluctant obedience is no obedience; self-interested obedience is no obedience; constrained obedience is no obedience; outward acts of service, if the heart be wanting, are rubbish and dung. Morality without religion is nought. The one thing that makes a good man is love to Jesus Christ; and where that is, there, and only there, is obedience.
‘Talk they of morals? O Thou Bleeding Lamb!
The grand morality is love of Thee.’
‘If a man love Me not, he will not keep My words.’
Then the second principle is, disobedience to Christ is disobedience to God. ‘The Word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father’s.’ Christ’s consciousness of union so speaks out here as that He is quite sure that all His words are God’s words, and that all God’s words are spoken by Him. Paul has to say, ‘So speak I, not the Lord.’ And you would not think a man a very sound or safe religious teacher who said to you, to begin with, ‘Now, mind, everything that I say, God says.’ There are no errors then, no deterioration of the treasure by the vessel in which it lies. The water does not taste of the vase in which it is carried. The personality of Jesus Christ is never, through all His utterances, so separated from God but that God speaks in Him; and, listening to His voice, we hear the absolute utterance of the uncreated and eternal Wisdom.
Therefore follows the conclusion, which our Lord does not state, but leaves us to supply. If it be true that the absence of love of Him is disobedience to Him, and if it be true that disobedience to Him is disobedience to God, then it plainly follows that what keeps away Christ and all His gifts, and God in Him, is unloving obedience. What brings Him is the obedience of love; what repels Him is alienation and rebellion. If the heart be full of confusion, of the world, of self, of unbridled inclinations, of careless indifference to His bleeding love, He ‘can but listen at the gate and hear the household jar within.’
And so, dear friends, from all this there follow one or two points, which I touch very briefly. One is, that it is possible for men not to see Christ, though He stands there close before them. It is possible to grope at noonday as at midnight, to see only ‘bracken green and cold grey stone’ on the hillside, where another man sees the chariots of fire and the horses of fire. It is possible for you-and, alas! it is the condition of some of my hearers-to look upon Christ and to turn away and say, ‘I see no beauty in Him that I should desire Him,’ whilst the man beside yon, looking at the same facts and the same face, can see in Him the ‘Chief among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely.’
Another thought is, that Christ’s showing of Himself to men is in no sense arbitrary. It is you that determine what you shall see. You can hermetically seal your heart against Him, you can blind yourself to all His beauty. The door of your hearts is hinged to open from within, and if you do not open it, it remains shut, and Christ remains outside.
Another thought is, that you do not need to do anything to blind yourselves. Simple negation is fatal. ‘If a man love not’; that is all. The absence of love is your ruin.
And the last thought is this, that my text does not begin at the beginning. Jesus Christ has been speaking about manifestations of Himself to the loving and obedient; but there are manifestations of Himself made that we may become loving and obedient. You can build a barrier over which these sweeter revelations, of which loyal love and docile submission are the conditions, cannot rise. But you cannot build a barrier over which the prior revelations to the unthankful and disobedient cannot rise. No mountains of sin and neglect and alienation can be piled so high but that the flood of pardoning grace will rise above their crests, and pour itself into your hearts. You ask, How can I get the love and obedience of which you have been singing the praises now? There is only one answer, brethren. We know that we love Him when we know that He loves us; and we know that He loves us when we see Him dying on His Cross. So here is the ladder, that is planted in the miry clay of the horrible pit, and fastens its golden hooks on His throne. The first round is, Behold the dying Christ and His love to me. The second is, Let that love melt my heart into sweet responsive love. The third is, Let my love mould my life into obedience. And then Christ, and God in Him, will come to me and show Himself to me; and give me a fuller knowledge and a deeper love, and make His dwelling with me. And then there is only one round still to roach, and that will land us by the Throne of God, in the many mansions of the Father’s house, where we shall make our abode with Him for evermore.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v22 kosmos = world-system. Joh 15:18; Joh 15:19; Joh 7:7.…
world
kosmos = world-system. Joh 15:18; Joh 15:19; Joh 7:7. (See Scofield "Rev 13:8").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv21, 24 The effects of the mystical union:
The effects of the mystical union:
v. 21. 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.
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v. 22. Judas saith unto Him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us and not unto the world?
v. 23. 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.
Not the having only, but the keeping of the commandments of Christ is an evidence and proof of faith. For the love of Christ, which grows from faith, is a principle prompting obedience. There must be evidence and expression of faith by observing the commandments of Christ in life. But where a person is found with such proofs of the faith of his heart, he would receive a wonderful proof and manifestation of the love of both Father and Son. The love of the Father will rest upon, be communicated to, such a one. And Jesus Himself will show the greatness of His love by appearing and manifesting Himself to the believer as the Son of God and the Savior of the world. This is a most comforting promise. For a believer does not always live and move in blissful emotions, but is troubled more or less often by doubts concerning His salvation and other matters pertaining to His Christian life. In such cases, however, he must cling firmly to the Word and its promises, continue his work for Christ with undiminished vigor, and know that Christ is his Savior in spite of all attacks. Judas Jacobi here interrupted the Master. He had understood so much from the exposition of Jesus that the hope of the disciples for a temporal Messianic kingdom would not be realized. He wanted to know now why Christ intended to manifest Himself only to His believers, and not to the whole world, perhaps in the form of a conquering hero. Judas (Lobbies or Thaddeus) had always held that opinion concerning Messianic glory that it would be in the nature of a great demonstration, with much display of temporal power. He could not understand what had prompted Jesus to determine it otherwise. Once more Jesus, therefore, patiently explains. It is impossible for Him to reveal Himself to the world, because the world rejects Him and His Word. But if any man, filled with true faith toward Him, now also shows his faith in love, the proof will be found in the fact that he keeps His Word, that he clings to the Gospel of grace and mercy. To him Jesus and the Father will come, in him They will make Their abode, through the Spirit; his house and table Companions They will be forever. That is the mystery and the beauty of the mystical union. The Triune God Himself, personally, lives in the hearts of the believers, not only with some manifestation of His power and strength, but with His actual essence. There is no need for the Christian to sigh longingly for the union with the Triune God in heaven, for His throne is also right here on earth, wherever his Word is preached and He enters into the hearts of the believers. That is a blessed mystery and a glorious fact.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv21, 23 This kind of love comes from God and focuses…
loves
This kind of love comes from God and focuses on the good of others, even when it does not benefit oneself. This kind of love cares for others, no matter what they do.
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he who loves me will be loved by my Father
You can translate this in an active form. AT: "my Father will love anyone who loves me" (See: Active or Passive)
my Father
This is an important title for God. (See: Translating Son and Father)
Judas (not Iscariot)
This refers to another disciple whose name was Judas, not to the disciple who was from the village of Kerioth who betrayed Jesus. (See: How to Translate Names)
why is it that you will show yourself to us
Here the word "show" refers to revealing how wonderful Jesus is. AT: "Why will you reveal yourself only to us" or "Why will you only let us see how wonderful you are?"
not to the world
Here "world" is a metonym that represents the people who oppose God. AT: "not to those who do not belong to God" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
command
love
God the Father
world
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv22–23 14:22 Several men are named Judas in the New…
14:22 Several men are named Judas in the New Testament. Judas, the brother of Jesus, (Mark 6:3) wrote the epistle of Jude. Judas, the son of James, whom John is referring to here, is listed as an apostle in Luke 6:16; he is elsewhere identified as Thaddaeus (Matt 10:3; Mark 3:18). • Lord, why? Judas posed an important question. If Jesus planned to return mightily from death, why not use the opportunity to reveal himself definitively to the world and validate his power and identity?
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.