“I command these things to you, that you may love one another.
Parallel Translations
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“I command these things to you, that you may love one another.
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This commaunde I you that ye love to gedder.
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These things commaund I you, that ye loue one another.
Cross-references (3)
Passages linked to John 15:17 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- John 15:12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you.
- 1 John 3:14-17 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. He who doesn’t love his brother remains in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him. By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But whoever has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, then closes his heart of compassion against him, how does God’s love remain in him?
- 1 Peter 2:17 Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 17. These things I command you. This too, was…
17. These things I command you. This too, was appropriately added, that the Apostles might know that mutual love among ministers is demanded above all things, that they may be employed, with one accord, in building up the Church of God; for there is no greater hindrance than when every one labors apart, and when all do not direct their exertions to the common good. If, then, ministers do not maintain brotherly intercourse with each other, they may possibly erect some large heaps, but latterly disjointed and confused; and, all the while, there will be no building of a Church.
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.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 17 These things I command you, that ye love…
17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.
Ver. 17. That ye love one another] That ye hold together, because the world will hate you. A spirit of perversities made way for the ruin of Egypt, Isa 19:14; Isa 19:16-17. Si collidimur frangimur, if we clash we break. Of the ancient Britons, Tacitus tells us that nothing was so destructory to them as their dissensions, Dum singuli pugnant universi vincuntur. And of the Thracians, Herodotus saith, that if they had been all of one mind they had been invincible. Keep therefore the staff of binders unbroken, Zec 11:7; Zec 11:14 "Keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace," Eph 4:3. In the cause of religion every subdivision is a strong weapon in the hand of the enemy; as in the disagreement of Luther and Zuinglius. The Jesuits have a practice of running over to the Lutherans, pretending to be converts; but it is only to keep up that bitter contention that is between the Calvinists and Lutherans; the virulence whereof is much fomented by these renegade Jesuits.
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 This is but the repetition of the same precept…
This is but the repetition of the same precept we before had; unless we will understand it as a more special charge upon them, considered as ministers of the gospel; the mutual love of ministers being highly necessary for the good and peace of the church of God, over which God hath set them.
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 Observe here, 1. With what frequency and importunity our…
Observe here, 1. With what frequency and importunity our Lord inculcates and presses the duty of mutual love upon his disciples: I command you to love one another.
It denotes the great importance of the duty, and the great averseness and backwardness of our hearts to the performance of it.
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And if we consider the disciples as apostles and ministers of the gospel, it intimates to us the necessity of mutual love amongst the dispensers of the gospel, as conducing exceedingly to the welfare and benefit of the church of God, over which he hath set them.
Observe, 2. The argument which our Saviour makes use of to press his disciples in general, and his ministers and ambassadors in particular, to love each other: and that is, because the world would certainly hate them.
Learn hence, That the world’s hatred of the members and ministers of Christ, is, and ought to be, esteemed by them a strong argument to excite and persuade them to love one another; for this is subjoined as an argument to press mutual love, that we are sure to meet with the world’s hatred.
Observe, 3. The several arguments by way of encouragement which Christ propounds to comfort his members and ministers against the world’s hatred.
The first argument is taken from his own lot and usage; when here, in the world, he met with the very same before them: The world hated me before it hated you.
Learn hence, That hatred and persecution from the world need not seem hard to the saints, if they consider what a stock Christ had before them upon him: he is the prime object of the world’s hatred and they who hate his members much, do hate him more, because of their likeness to him and resemblance of him.
A second argument of comfort under the world’s hatred is this, that it will evidence they are not of the world, but chosen out of the world. Because ye are not the world, but I have chosen you our of the world, therefore the world hates you Joh 15:19.
Hence learn, 1. That the children of God, though in the world, yet they are not of the world, they have not the spirit of the world in them, nor is the conversation of the world led by them.
2. That the differnce betwixt them that are of the world, and those that are chosen out of the world, is of God’s making: I have chosen you out of the world.
3. That such Christians as are separated from the world in judgment, affection, and practice, must for that reason expect to be hated and persecuted by the world: Because ye are not of the world, therefore the world hates you.
The third argument for consolation and support under the world’s hatred, is taken from our relation to Christ, as servants to a master, Remember that the servant is not greater than his Lord Joh 15:20 : as if Christ had said, "Is is equal that you should expect better treatment than myself, either as to your persons or ministry, or that you should expect that the world should better receive your doctrine than it did mine before you.
Learn hence, That neither the members nor ministers of Christ can nor ought to expect better treatment in and from the world, than their master found before them: The servant is not above his master, nor greater than his Lord.
A fourth argument to support them under the burden of the world’s hatred, is taken from the goodness of the cause for which they were to suffer: namely, for Christ’s name’s sake, All these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake Joh 15:21.
Hence learn, 1. That it is the duty of all, but especially of the ministers of Christ, to own the name of Christ, to stand up in defence of his name and truth, his glory and honour, what opposition soever they meet with for the same.
Learn, 2. That the great quarrel of the world against the disciples of Christ, is for the name of Christ; whatever may be pretended, this is the ground of the quarrel.
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 If ye were of the world,.... Belonged to the…
If ye were of the world,.... Belonged to the world, were of the same spirit and principles with it, and pursued the same practices:
the world would love its own; for every like loves its like; the men of the world love each other's persons, company, and conversation:
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but because ye are not of the world: once they were, being born into it, brought up in it, had their conversation among the men of it, were themselves men of carnal, worldly, principles and practices; but being called by Christ, and becoming his disciples, they were no more of it; and as he was not of the world, so they were not of it, though they were in it. The Jews distinguish the disciples of the wise men, from , "the men of the world" (u), pretending that they were not; but this is a character that only belongs to the disciples of Christ, in consequence of their being called by him out of it:
but I have chosen you out of the world: which designs not the eternal election of them, but the separation of them from the rest of the world in the effectual calling, and the designation of them to his work and service:
therefore the world hateth you; and since it was upon that account, they had no reason to be uneasy, but rather to rejoice; seeing this was an evidence of their not belonging to the world, and of being chosen and called by Christ out of it.
(u) T. Bab. Kiddushin, fol. 80. 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Joh 15:17-21. These things I command you, &c. —…
Joh 15:17-21. These things I command you, &c. — Again I would remind you, that if you would continue thus to be the objects of these my Father’s gracious regards, you must carefully practise your duty to each other, as well as to him; you must continue to love one another; and this you should the rather do, as you will be the mark of common hatred and persecution. Yet, if the world hate you — You will have no reason to be offended or surprised at it; for ye know that it hated me — Mild and benevolent as my conduct has always been; before it hated you — Before it discharged its venom and malignity on you. If ye were of the world — If your dispositions and actions were like those of the bulk of mankind; or if your doctrines and practices were conformable to its customs and maxims; the world would love its own — No doubt you would meet with general approbation, and be much caressed; but because ye are not of the world — Because your desires and designs, your spirit and conduct, are quite opposite to theirs, and I have chosen you out of the world — Have called you not only to separate yourselves from, but to oppose its vices and follies, and even to be leaders in that holy and necessary opposition; therefore the world hateth you — Notwithstanding that the cause in which you are engaged is most honourable, and your lives most useful and beneficent. And for the very same reason must the world in all ages hate those who are not of the world. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant, &c. — To reconcile you to the persecutions you are to meet with, you ought always to bear in mind what I told you on this subject the first time I sent you out, (see Mat 10:24,) that no servant can expect to be better treated than his master; and therefore, seeing they have persecuted me, they will naturally persecute you. If they have kept my saying — Have conformed themselves to my doctrine; they will keep yours also — Will be properly influenced by it, and will walk according to it; therefore, by the reception my doctrine meets with, you may judge how yours will be relished. But all these things will they do unto you — All the opposition which they will show to your persons and ministry, will be exerted for my name’s sake — Because of the enmity which they have to me, and the cause in which I am engaged; because they know not him that sent me — Because they are not acquainted with the nature and perfections of that God to whom they boast so near a relation, and who has sent me into the world to declare and establish a religion which shocks their prejudices, and is contrary to their carnal and worldly spirit. And in all ages and nations, they who know not God will, for this cause, hate and persecute those that do.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain The substance of these important verses has occurred more…
The substance of these important verses has occurred more than once before. (See on Mat 10:34-36; Luk 12:49-53, &c.).
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 17. I command you—Inasmuch as I have conferred upon…
17. I command you—Inasmuch as I have conferred upon you grace so stupendous, and a love so perfect, full rightly have I authority to command you. And my command is, that one command most fully authorized by my example—the commandment of mutual love.
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 17. These things I command you, &c.] More literally,…
17. These things I command you, &c.] More literally, These things I am commanding you, in order that ye may love one another. ‘These things’ does not refer to ‘that ye love one another,’ but to what has already been said about being one with Him and with each other. Comp. Joh_15:11, Joh_14:25, Joh_16:25; Joh_16:33.
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 (17) These things I command you—i.e., the things of…
(17) These things I command you—i.e., the things of which He has spoken from Joh_15:1 onwards, and especially from Joh_15:12-16. After speaking them He comes back to the purpose from which this section started, “that ye love one another.”
We must beware of the not unfrequent mistake of interpreting “these things” of the words which follow, as if it were, “I command you this, viz., to love one another.” The thought is, “I am giving you these precepts that you may love one another.”
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 Vers. 17-27. (b) The results of this union with…
Vers. 17-27. (b) The results of this union with Christ to the unbelieving world.
These things do I command you clearly pointing back to Ver. 12that ye may love one another. This entire meditation culminates where it began. The digression comes back to the main theme Westcott regards it as the starting-point of a new theme, but our Lord did not return upon the idea of mutual love, but discusses the effect upon the world of that love to each other and to him which blended their personalities into one mystic unity. This verse shows how the new topic links itself with the previous discussion. His dying for them, thus proving his friendship for them, and all the other signs of his interest and confidence, have been set before them to this great end; for while the world is full of outrage and mutual animosities, the motive of his own entire self-manifestation is to awaken a new and higher type and model of humanity. Well may the familiar legend of St. John in the churches of Ephesus confirm this sublime truth. From this point to the end of the chapter (Ver. 27) Christ unfolded the consequences, to the unbelieving world, of the sacred union between himself and his disciples, and he discussed the reciprocal relations between his own disciples and the world, seeing that they are united with him in such a close incorporation.
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Vers. 17-27. The disciples and the world.
Our Lord turns to a new thought the relation of his disciples to the world.
I THE SCOPE OF ALL CHRIST"S TEACHING IS TO DEVELOP LOVE. "These things I command you, that ye may love one another.
1. This love is to be the characteristic of the new kingdom, and thus the strong attraction of the gospel.
2. Yet, essentially noble as it is, it will challenge the hostility of a world out of all sympathy with Christ.
II THE CAUSE OF THE WORLD"S HATRED TO BELIEVERS. "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
1. It is a terrible indictment against the Jews that they should represent in their relations to Christ the overt hatred of" the world.
2. The hatred in question is a proof of the union between Christ and his disciples. He is the Head, they are the members of the persecuted body.
3. The thought of this union ought to strengthen the disciples in view of the worlds hatred.
4. The principle of this hatred. "If ye were of the world, the world would love its own.
(1) The world"s love is selfish; it loves what is consonant to itself in idea and feeling.
(2) The disciples, not being of the world, but "chosen out of the world," had the distinction of attracting to themselves the natural hostility of a world out of all sympathy with their hopes.
5. The worlds hatred traced to its true source. "But all these things will they do unto you for my Name"s sake, because they know not him that sent me.
(1) The disciples were led to expect persecution as their inevitable lot.
(2) It would be immediately caused by their attachment to Christ"s cause.
(3) Its true source was the world"s ignorance of God.
III THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE WORLD FOR ITS HATRED. It had no excuse for its hostility.
1. There was the testimony of Christs teaching, making the Father known, which would judge the world. "If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin.
(1) It is a fearful thing to sin against light.
(2) It is impossible to escape the just judgment of God.
2. There was the testimony of his miracles. "If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated me and my Father.
(1) The miracles were like no other miracles in respect of their nature and effects.
(2) The miracles were the revelation of the Father through the Son; yet the Jews ascribed them to the power of evil.
(3) The prophetic solution of their hatred. "But this is that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their Law, They hated me without a cause." There was nothing to justify the hatred of such a pure and loving Spirit.
IV THE NEW POWER THAT IS TO SUSTAIN THE DISCIPLES IN THEIR CONFLICT WITH THE WORLD THE HOLY GHOST.
1. The mission of the Comforter. "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.
(1) The qualifications of the Comforter for his office.
(a) He proceeds eternally from the Father. His witness, therefore, will be that of the Father himself.
(b) He will be sent by the Son. This implies the approaching departure of Christ to another world.
(c) He possesses, communicates, and applies the truth; for he is the Spirit of Truth.
(2) The testimony of the Comforter. "He shall testify of me.
(a) To the apostles, who will thenceforth understand the truth;
(b) to the world, in the dispersion of its darkness, in the new light thrown upon the Person and work of Christ, and in all the blessings of an understood gospel. "He witnesseth with our spirits that we are the children of God". (Rom_8:16)
2. The testimony of the apostles themselves. And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
(1) It was necessary to have their personal testimony respecting the facts of his life from the beginning of his ministry. Christianity is more than a life; it is more than a system of doctrines; it is a record of historical facts, which give the doctrines all their meaning, and the life all its blessedness.
(2) The gospel was to be received by faith in all future ages. The earliest witnesses were to guide the faith of the Church.
(3) The apostles accordingly distinguished between their own experience and the internal witness of the Spirit. (Act_5:32)
Choice and appointment.
That these words refer in the first place, and indeed, in their complete application, altogether to the apostles, seems unquestionable. Yet there is a great principle embodied in them which has its working out in the experience of all Christ"s people in every place and through the whole dispensation.
I THE DIVINE SELECTION. Notwithstanding that the Lord Jesus had just expressly repudiated speaking of and treating his disciples as servants, and had just designated them his friends, it is plain that nothing could be further from his thought than any intention to place them upon an equality with himself. They were given clearly to understand that, if they were his friends, it was because he had chosen and designated them to this position.
This relation is indeed not arbitrary, being, like every Divine act, the expression of perfect wisdom. Yet it is impossible for us to comprehend the reasons why Jesus chose those whom he did choose in preference to others. Not all were worthy of his choice, and amongst those who adhered to him there were degrees of attachment, degrees of merit, degrees of usefulness. Considering the case of the twelve, we observe:
1. Their call. This took place early in the Lord"s public ministry. And it was by the presentation of his own Person, by the utterance of his own voice, that Jesus called his apostles. There was not only the outward call; there was the inner, the spiritual summons, which they felt in their souls, and the authority of which they readily recognized.
2. Their appointment or ordination. This was a gradual choice, but it was formally completed when, after our Lord"s resurrection, he expressly commissioned them to go among Jews and Gentiles, proclaiming the gospel of salvation by faith and of obedience unto life eternal.
3. There is what corresponds to this gracious election in the experience of all Christ"s friends and servants. It is his summons which bids them forsake their sins and their self-confidence, and follow him. Thus their spiritual life begins by a holy and an effectual calling. He calls, and the souls of his people respond to the voice from heaven. And whilst Jesus calls his people to the privileges, he calls them also to the consecrated service of the new life. There is a ministry, a mission, though not an apostleship, for every true Christian. Our work for Christ is only authorized by Christ himself.
II THE PURPOSE OF THE DIVINE SELECTION. The first apostles were chosen and ordained for a purpose. The design of the Lord was that they should "go and bear fruit." This involves:
1. Effort and activity. To go, when sent, is to acknowledge the authority of the Sender, and to put forth endeavors to do his will. Religion does not consist in simply receiving truth and enjoying privilege; it comprises what is done in response to truth received and privilege enjoyed.
2. Fruitfulness, as may be learned from the earlier verses of the chapter, consists in a holy character and life, and in benevolent and Christ-like labors for the welfare of our fellow-men. Divine choice and ordination have respect to the Church universal and to the world. Men are elected to posts of honor, of service.
3. The permanence of this fruit is the sign of a veritable election by God. Some work is only apparent and temporary, but that which God blesses and approves is real and lasting. The life which is rooted in God issues in fruit which remains in time and eternity. The fruits of the Spirit endure forever.
III THE PRIVILEGE INVOLVED IN THE DIVINE SELECTION. This is the assured answer to prayer. The connection appears to be this: the purpose of election being that fruit may be borne to the Divine glory, grace is obviously needed in order that this purpose may be realized, that a blessing may rest upon faithful toil; and Christians are assured that whatsoever they may need in order to this end is within their reach. The wonderful language in which our Savior assures us of this privilege demands our careful attention.
1. On God"s side the promise is unlimited. "Whatsoever ye shall ask" shall be given. This corresponds with the munificent provision of Divine bounty assured in the statement, All things are yours.
2. On man"s side there is a stipulation and condition imposed by Christ as of indispensable necessity; what is asked must be asked in Christ"s Name. That is to say, requests must be in accordance with his will, must be presented in reliance upon his advocacy, and will be granted for his sake. T.
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 These things I command you that ye love one…
Joh_15:17
These things I command you that ye love one another (see Joh_15:12)
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Love in the Christian system
The work is all love: love in its hidden source the love of the Father; in its first manifestation, the love of Christ; and lastly, in its full outpouring, the love of believers for each other.
Love is its root, its stem, its fruit. It forms the essential characteristic of the new kingdom, whose power and conquests are owing solely to the contagion of love. This is why our Lord left no other law but that of love to those who had by faith become members of His body. (F. Godet, D. D.)
Brotherly love
As the spokes of a carriage wheel approach their centre, they approach each other: so also, when men are brought to Jesus Christ, the centre of life and hope, they are drawn towards each other in brotherly relationship, and stand side by side journeying to their heavenly home. (J. F.Serjeant.)
Christian love
When a rose bud is formed, if the soil is soft, and the sky is genial, it is not long before it bursts; for the life within is so abundant, that it can no longer contain it all, but in blossomed brightness and swimming fragrance it must needs let forth its joy, and gladden all the air. And if, when thus ripe, it refused to expand, it would quickly rot at heart, and die. And Christian love is just piety with its petals fully spread, developing itself, and making it a happier world. The religion which fancies that it loves God, when it never evinces love to its brother, is not piety, but a poor mildewed theology, a dogma with a worm in the heart. (J. Hamilton, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain Section 5. (Joh 15:17-27; Joh 16:1-27.)
Section 5. (Joh 15:17-27; Joh 16:1-27.)
A new place with God.
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All this involves, as has been seen, a new place with God. We must not expect to have it presented as we find it done by Paul at an aftertime. Only by degrees could the full truth be made known: and for this the Spirit of truth Himself must come. What we have now before us is the result of Christ’s departure from the world. His disciples being left in it as His representatives and witnesses, with the Spirit also in it, and the consequences of this, while with the Father there would be enjoyed a freedom of access in His Name before unknown. It is in fact a new place with God, but in practical life down here, which is so much the theme in all John’s doctrinal unfolding.
1. The identification of. His disciples with their Lord, whose representatives on earth they are now to be is the first thing here. The world itself would identify them. The hatred with which it had followed Him it would now show to His people. They need not Wonder at it If they were separated from it in spirit and character, as also by His choice of them to be His own outside it, then there was consistency in such opposition. He could non commend Himself: how could they? His persecutors would, of course, be theirs: while those who kept His word would keep theirs also. The Object of their hatred was was,~ above all, Himself, and ultimately the Father, who had sent Him. They had had fullest evidence of His mission in His words and works: works unparalleled by those of any other: so that the sin of their rejection of Him Was manifest. They hated, alas! both Himself and His Father. Their own Scripture had been fulfilled, "They hated Me without a cause."
2. Amid all this opposition, they were not alone to be His representatives, but His witnesses: they and the Spirit whom He would send to them from the Father. There would be thus a double witness, -the unseen Spirit being known in the mighty works which would be done. He would be in this way also the Advocate, plead for God and for His people, even though it might be to deaf ears. As the Spirit of truth also, the truth would commend itself to the conscience, if the heart were closed. Their own testimony would be that of men in personal acquaintance with those details of His life and ways which they have, in fact, made known to us. The human witness would be a natural and needed supplement to the divine.
Spite of all, it was necessary to warn them that the opposition of the world to Him would not thus be overcome. They would be put out of the synagogues: nay, men’s hearts would so pervert their consciences that they would kill them, and offer that to God as acceptable service. We find this conspicuously enough in such an one as Saul of Tarsus, "concerning zeal, persecuting the Church:" so little does a good conscience certify a soul to be right with God!
3. The Lord goes on to speak again of the coming of the Spirit, with regard to the character of His testimony. So important for them was it that it was even expedient that He should depart, that the Advocate might come. Again He speaks of Him by that assuring title, which declares how thoroughly He has made their cause His own. According to the divine purpose, Christ must go to the Father, or the Spirit would not come; for it is to a glorified Christ that He testifies. Christianity in its full character is, in fact, the fruit of His ascension, as Paul makes fully plain, who was Himself converted by the "gospel of the glory" (2Co 4:4; 2Co 4:6).
For this, however, we must yet wait: here we have, first, the result of the presence of the Spirit thus sent from the rejected One in glory, as the necessary demonstration of the world’s sin, with the judgment of its prince, and the manifestation of the Father’s righteousness. "He will convict" does not necessarily imply that men will receive the conviction. The guilty do not necessarily own the righteousness of their sentence. The world assuredly, does not own it. None the less has God demonstrated the guilt of the world, and placed men under responsibility to receive His sentence. There lies the way into inconceivable blessing in that salvation for the guilty which the gospel proclaims.
Christ has been in the world: He has been rejected and cast out of it; it is too plain to be denied that He died a malefactor’s death. Men may say for themselves, that individually they had no hand in it. This they do say: how is it possible they can be guilty of what was done by men of another race, and of another time? Well, look at the Jew in the centuries that have elapsed since then: has not His blood been upon them, and on their children? Have they not bought for themselves "a field to bury strangers in" with the "price of blood?" If Christ was not what He claimed, was He not worthy of the sentence under which He suffered? If you do not believe in Him, do you not affirm that sentence to be righteous? Who were these Jews, who put Him to death? Were they not a people carefully prepared for centuries to receive the One they rejected? If you had been among them, would not you have rejected Him too?
Scripture at any rate affirms that "as in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man." It does not say that the life is the same, and the difference in this respect may be due to many causes: but it says, the heart is. And it speaks of Israel as a field specially cared for and cultivated, to show precisely what one may expect from the soil of the human heart. Their own law had given a dreadful description, drawn too from experience, of what God had found in them: and the apostle, quoting it, says, "We know that whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law." Granted, you say perhaps, but that is Israel. See then how he concludes: what the law says it does indeed say to those who are under the law: -true, but for what purpose? why, "that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God" (Rom 3:19). That is, Israel is not an exception as to man’s state before God, but rather, an unexceptionably perfect example. If Israel be found such as this, one need go no further, -the whole world is condemned.
This, though the sentence of the law, applies as well, as must be evident, to the rejection of Christ. The unbelief for which the world is condemned is naturally characteristic of us all: and those who are brought to receive Him are just those who will most fully own this; the language of the prophet will be theirs: He was despised and rejected of men: a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not." If there be difference as to any, it is the mercy of God that has made the difference.
But the presence of the Spirit convicts the world also of righteousness: "of righteousness, because I go unto the Father, and ye see Me no more." We hear in the prayer that follows, His appeal in this way: "O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee: but I have known Thee: and these have known that Thou hast sent Me." Here He puts in contrast the world, which is about to demonstrate its ignorant hatred of the Father by the murder of the Son, with Himself, against whom they are showing their enmity. In this open conflict, with whom will He show Himself? His accusers dare to condemn Him in the Father’s Name; and the bitter cry upon the Cross might seem to justify their accusations. He must come openly out and show with whom He is: and in resurrection from the dead God manifests Himself accordingly. He rises, and with abundant witness, but not to show Himself to the unbelieving world, but to return in glory to the Father. The world sees Him no more till He comes back to judge it. God and the world are in demonstrated opposition.
Righteousness has acted: and righteousness will act further in the nearing future, in taking out of the world which has rejected them also, those whom He has linked with Himself, as in His prayer. Resurrection and ascension will demonstrate as to them also with whom the Father is. In heaven they will be "made the righteousness of God in Him." A marvellous display! but the Lord does not here speak of it. It is of the testimony of the Spirit’s presence in the world that He is here speaking.
But what remains, then, for the world itself? Judgment! and already the prince of this world has been judged. We must not understand this to mean that sentence has been executed upon him: which plainly is not the case. It is pronounced, but certainly he is not shut up in the abyss as yet (Rev 20:1-3); and still less in the lake of fire (ver. 10). Branded with his doom, he yet is suffered, in the wisdom of God, to be still abroad, the subtle tempter or the cruel persecutor of the disciples of Him whom he has, in both characters, assailed before.
The Lord turns to brighter themes: emphasizing once again that it is the Spirit of truth that is to come to them, to guide them into what as yet they could not bear: -in fact, into the whole range of truth, and to lead out into the blessed future. In all this the glory of the Son would be revealed: for all things that the Father hath being His, there remains nothing beyond this of which to speak. As Paul says by the illumination of the Spirit now, "All things were created by Him and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist" (Col 1:16-17). Let us remember with adoring hearts, that we are "heirs of God and joint-heirs of Christ;" and let us seek to enter into the amazing grace of such a revelation with all the energy that the Spirit can give.
4. The Lord again speaks of His departure, in terms which His previous words might have enabled them to understand. He was indeed going to the Father; yet by the coming of the Spirit He would, as it were, again be with them: for, as He had said, in that day they would know as they had never known, that He was in the Father, and they in Him, and He in them. But His words only show them lost in the mysterious sorrow of His departure, -the departure again of Him who had come into the world to bring in the long-expected blessing, and was going back with His end, as it seemed, unachieved, to leave them with their failed hopes! The present sorrow was too heavy upon them for the hope beyond to be realized as yet. The sorrow was plain; the hope was a perplexity.
5. But the Lord goes on to the results Godward of the new place He was about to take, and again declares the value of His Name in access to the Father. It was not to be as if He stood between, and they must come to Him, that He might go to the Father for them. No, He had opened the way for direct approach. Moreover the Father Himself loved them for the love they had to Him whom they had received as come out from the Father. Let them prove for themselves the sweetness of this way of access, that they might realize the fulness of joy resulting from so wonderful a place of intimacy as would now be theirs. For as yet they had asked nothing in His Name: they had not learned to identify themselves with Him who as yet had not taken His place for them with God. But the sanctuary now stood open, the allegories in which He had hitherto spoken to them were to be exchanged for open speech that suited this. There was now to be in the nearest place with God a Man in heaven. Henceforth there is for men an entrance into that within the veil, whither the Forerunner has entered for us.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The result of the Christians’ calling:
The result of the Christians’ calling:
v. 17. These things I command you that ye love one another.
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v. 18. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you.
v. 19. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
v. 20. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also.
v. 21. But all these things will they do unto you for My name’s sake, because they know not Him that sent Me.
The Lord again summarizes all the demands of Christian life in the one command, namely, that the Christians love one another. This is not a command in the sense of the Mosaic injunctions, but a truly evangelical admonition. That must be the principal characteristic of the Christians by which they are distinguished from all men, the mutual love which they show toward one another in all their dealings. But this behavior necessarily implies a segregation from the world, from other people among whom the Christians are living. It brings upon the believers the hatred of the world, an undying, malignant hatred, that may sometimes hide itself under the guise of toleration, but never sleeps. Under these circumstances the Christians should feel neither anxiety nor surprise, for it is altogether in accordance with the nature of the world to hate the believers, as they hated Christ, the Lord, before them. There is that ineradicable contrast between Christ and His disciples, on the one side, and the world, the unbelievers, on the other. If the Christians were of the world, if they had the nature, the manner, the character of the world, the world would immediately recognize the affinity and treat them accordingly. But now Jesus, by His choosing them, has separated the believers from the world. So the natural result is this characteristic hatred of the unbelievers, expressed sometimes only in veiled insinuations, then again in open enmity. Christ’s disciples of all times should therefore keep in remembrance the word that the servant is not greater than his lord; the servant cannot expect to experience better treatment than his master is receiving. The Lord Jesus suffered persecution of the most malicious kind during His earthly stay: His disciples can expect no less. On the other hand, if they have kept, observed, and practiced the Word of the Master, the world will be apt to accord the same treatment to their teaching. That is always a ray of hope in a ministry which otherwise has little to commend it to one eager for the service of Christ. The reason for, and the explanation of, the hatred and persecution of the disciples is very simple. In the first place, the children of the world hate the very name of Jesus as the Savior of the world. The idea of a Redeemer from sins is not only distasteful, but absolutely hateful to them. And then, they had no knowledge of the Father that sent forth Jesus into the world with the aim and object that He avowed to have. Had they known God, they would with. out fail have recognized in Jesus Christ the Ambassador and Son of God. This explanation is the comfort of the disciples under whatever persecutions may come upon them, also in these latter days.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.