Worthy.Bible » STRONG » John » Chapter 14 » Verse 1-31

John 14:1-31 King James Version with Strong's Concordance (STRONG)

1 Let G5015 not G3361 your G5216 heart G2588 be troubled: G5015 ye believe G4100 in G1519 God, G2316 believe G4100 also G2532 in G1519 me. G1691

2 In G1722 my G3450 Father's G3962 house G3614 are G1526 many G4183 mansions: G3438 if it were not G1490 so, I would have told G302 G2036 you. G5213 I go G4198 to prepare G2090 a place G5117 for you. G5213

3 And G2532 if G1437 I go G4198 and G2532 prepare G2090 a place G5117 for you, G5213 I will come G2064 again, G3825 and G2532 receive G3880 you G5209 unto G4314 myself; G1683 that G2443 where G3699 I G1473 am, G1510 there ye G5210 may be G5600 also. G2532

4 And G2532 whither G3699 I G1473 go G5217 ye know, G1492 and G2532 the way G3598 ye know. G1492

5 Thomas G2381 saith G3004 unto him, G846 Lord, G2962 we know G1492 not G3756 whither G4226 thou goest; G5217 and G2532 how G4459 can we G1410 know G1492 the way? G3598

6 Jesus G2424 saith G3004 unto him, G846 I G1473 am G1510 the way, G3598 G2532 the truth, G225 and G2532 the life: G2222 no man G3762 cometh G2064 unto G4314 the Father, G3962 but G1508 by G1223 me. G1700

7 If G1487 ye had known G1097 me, G3165 G302 ye should have known G1097 my G3450 Father G3962 also: G2532 and G2532 from G575 henceforth G737 ye know G1097 him, G846 and G2532 have seen G3708 him. G846

8 Philip G5376 saith G3004 unto him, G846 Lord, G2962 shew G1166 us G2254 the Father, G3962 and G2532 it sufficeth G714 us. G2254

9 Jesus G2424 saith G3004 unto him, G846 Have I been G1510 so long G5118 time G5550 with G3326 you, G5216 and yet G2532 hast thou G1097 not G3756 known G1097 me, G3165 Philip? G5376 he that hath seen G3708 me G1691 hath seen G3708 the Father; G3962 and G2532 how G4459 sayest G3004 thou G4771 then, Shew G1166 us G2254 the Father? G3962

10 Believest thou G4100 not G3756 that G3754 I G1473 am G2076 in G1722 the Father, G3962 and G2532 the Father G3962 in G1722 me? G1698 the words G4487 that G3739 I G1473 speak G2980 unto you G5213 I speak G2980 not G3756 of G575 myself: G1683 but G1161 the Father G3962 that dwelleth G3306 in G1722 me, G1698 he G846 doeth G4160 the works. G2041

11 Believe G4100 me G3427 that G3754 I G1473 am in G1722 the Father, G3962 and G2532 the Father G3962 in G1722 me: G1698 or else G1490 believe G4100 me G3427 for G1223 the very G846 works' G2041 sake. G846

12 Verily, G281 verily, G281 I say G3004 unto you, G5213 He that believeth G4100 on G1519 me, G1691 the works G2041 that G3739 I G1473 do G4160 shall he do G4160 also; G2548 and G2532 greater works than G3187 these G5130 shall he do; G4160 because G3754 I G1473 go G4198 unto G4314 my G3450 Father. G3962

13 And G3739 G2532 whatsoever G3748 G302 ye shall ask G154 in G1722 my G3450 name, G3686 that G5124 will I do, G4160 that G2443 the Father G3962 may be glorified G1392 in G1722 the Son. G5207

14 If G1437 ye shall ask G154 any thing G5100 in G1722 my G3450 name, G3686 I G1473 will do G4160 it.

15 If G1437 ye love G25 me, G3165 keep G5083 my G1699 commandments. G1785

16 And G2532 I G1473 will pray G2065 the Father, G3962 and G2532 he shall give G1325 you G5213 another G243 Comforter, G3875 that G2443 he may abide G3306 with G3326 you G5216 for G1519 ever; G165

17 Even the Spirit G4151 of truth; G225 whom G3739 the world G2889 cannot G3756 G1410 receive, G2983 because G3754 it seeth G2334 him G846 not, G3756 neither G3761 knoweth G1097 him: G846 but G1161 ye G5210 know G1097 him; G846 for G3754 he dwelleth G3306 with G3844 you, G5213 and G2532 shall be G2071 in G1722 you. G5213

18 I will G863 not G3756 leave G863 you G5209 comfortless: G3737 I will come G2064 to G4314 you. G5209

19 Yet G2089 a little while, G3397 and G2532 the world G2889 seeth G2334 me G3165 no more; G3765 but G1161 ye G5210 see G2334 me: G3165 because G3754 I G1473 live, G2198 ye G5210 shall live G2198 also. G2532

20 At G1722 that G1565 day G2250 ye G5210 shall know G1097 that G3754 I G1473 am in G1722 my G3450 Father, G3962 and G2532 ye G5210 in G1722 me, G1698 and I G2504 in G1722 you. G5213

21 He that hath G2192 my G3450 commandments, G1785 and G2532 keepeth G5083 them, G846 he G1565 it is G2076 that loveth G25 me: G3165 and G1161 he that loveth G25 me G3165 shall be loved G25 of G5259 my G3450 Father, G3962 and G2532 I G1473 will love G25 him, G846 and G2532 will manifest G1718 myself G1683 to him. G846

22 Judas G2455 saith G3004 unto him, G846 not G3756 Iscariot, G2469 Lord, G2962 how G5101 is it G1096 that G3754 thou wilt G3195 manifest G1718 thyself G4572 unto us, G2254 and G2532 not G3780 unto the world? G2889

23 Jesus G2424 answered G611 and G2532 said G2036 unto him, G846 If G1437 a man G5100 love G25 me, G3165 he will keep G5083 my G3450 words: G3056 and G2532 my G3450 Father G3962 will love G25 him, G846 and G2532 we will come G2064 unto G4314 him, G846 and G2532 make G4160 our abode G3438 with G3844 him. G846

24 He that loveth G25 me G3165 not G3361 keepeth G5083 not G3756 my G3450 sayings: G3056 and G2532 the word G3056 which G3739 ye hear G191 is G2076 not G3756 mine, G1699 but G235 the Father's G3962 which G3588 sent G3992 me. G3165

25 These things G5023 have I spoken G2980 unto you, G5213 being yet present G3306 with G3844 you. G5213

26 But G1161 the Comforter, G3875 which is the Holy G40 Ghost, G4151 whom G3739 the Father G3962 will send G3992 in G1722 my G3450 name, G3686 he G1565 shall teach G1321 you G5209 all things, G3956 and G2532 bring G5279 all things G3956 to G5279 your G5209 remembrance, G5279 whatsoever G3739 I have said G2036 unto you. G5213

27 Peace G1515 I leave G863 with you, G5213 my G1699 peace G1515 I give G1325 unto you: G5213 not G3756 as G2531 the world G2889 giveth, G1325 give G1325 I G1473 unto you. G5213 Let G5015 not G3361 your G5216 heart G2588 be troubled, G5015 neither G3366 let it be afraid. G1168

28 Ye have heard G191 how G3754 I G1473 said G2036 unto you, G5213 I go away, G5217 and G2532 come G2064 again unto G4314 you. G5209 If G1487 ye loved G25 me, G3165 G302 ye would rejoice, G5463 because G3754 I said, G2036 I go G4198 unto G4314 the Father: G3962 for G3754 my G3450 Father G3962 is G2076 greater than G3187 I. G3450

29 And G2532 now G3568 I have told G2046 you G5213 before G4250 it come to pass, G1096 that, G2443 when G3752 it is come to pass, G1096 ye might believe. G4100

30 Hereafter G3765 I will G2980 not G3765 talk G2980 much G4183 with G3326 you: G5216 for G1063 the prince G758 of this G5127 world G2889 cometh, G2064 and G2532 hath G2192 G3756 nothing G3762 in G1722 me. G1698

31 But G235 that G2443 the world G2889 may know G1097 that G3754 I love G25 the Father; G3962 and G2532 as G2531 the Father G3962 gave G1781 me G3427 commandment, G1781 even so G3779 I do. G4160 Arise, G1453 let us go G71 hence. G1782

Commentary on John 14 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible


CHAPTER 14

Joh 14:1-31. Discourse at the Table, after Supper.

We now come to that portion of the evangelical history which we may with propriety call its Holy of Holies. Our Evangelist, like a consecrated priest, alone opens up to us the view into this sanctuary. It is the record of the last moments spent by the Lord in the midst of His disciples before His passion, when words full of heavenly thought flowed from His sacred lips. All that His heart, glowing with love, had still to say to His friends, was compressed into this short season. At first (from Joh 13:31) the intercourse took the form of conversation; sitting at table, they talked familiarly together. But when (Joh 14:31) the repast was finished, the language of Christ assumed a loftier strain; the disciples, assembled around their Master, listened to the words of life, and seldom spoke a word (only Joh 16:17, 29). "At length, in the Redeemer's sublime intercessory prayer, His full soul was poured forth in express petitions to His heavenly Father on behalf of those who were His own. It is a peculiarity of these last chapters, that they treat almost exclusively of the most profound relations—as that of the Son to the Father, and of both to the Spirit, that of Christ to the Church, of the Church to the world, and so forth. Moreover, a considerable portion of these sublime communications surpassed the point of view to which the disciples had at that time attained; hence the Redeemer frequently repeats the same sentiments in order to impress them more deeply upon their minds, and, because of what they still did not understand, points them to the Holy Spirit, who would remind them of all His sayings, and lead them into all truth (Joh 14:26)" [Olshausen].

1. Let not your heart be troubled, &c.—What myriads of souls have not these opening words cheered, in deepest gloom, since first they were uttered!

ye believe in God—absolutely.

believe also in me—that is, Have the same trust in Me. What less, and what else, can these words mean? And if so, what a demand to make by one sitting familiarly with them at the supper table! Compare the saying in Joh 5:17, for which the Jews took up stones to stone Him, as "making himself equal with God" (Joh 14:18). But it is no transfer of our trust from its proper Object; it is but the concentration of our trust in the Unseen and Impalpable One upon His Own Incarnate Son, by which that trust, instead of the distant, unsteady, and too often cold and scarce real thing it otherwise is, acquires a conscious reality, warmth, and power, which makes all things new. This is Christianity in brief.

2. In my Father's house are many mansions—and so room for all, and a place for each.

if not, I would have told you—that is, I would tell you so at once; I would not deceive you.

I go to prepare a place for you—to obtain for you a right to be there, and to possess your "place."

3. I will come again and receive you unto myself—strictly, at His Personal appearing; but in a secondary and comforting sense, to each individually. Mark again the claim made:—to come again to receive His people to Himself, that where He is there they may be also. He thinks it ought to be enough to be assured that they shall be where He is and in His keeping.

4-7. whither I go ye know … Thomas saith, Lord, we know not whither thou guest … Jesus saith, I am the way, &c.—By saying this, He meant rather to draw out their inquiries and reply to them. Christ is "THE Way" to the Father—"no man cometh unto the Father but by Me"; He is "THE Truth" of all we find in the Father when we get to Him, "For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col 2:9), and He is all "THE Life" that shall ever flow to us and bless us from the Godhead thus approached and thus manifested in Him—"this is the true God and eternal life" (1Jo 5:20).

7. from henceforth—now, or from this time, understand.

8-12. The substance of this passage is that the Son is the ordained and perfect manifestation of the Father, that His own word for this ought to His disciples to be enough; that if any doubts remained His works ought to remove them (see on Joh 10:37); but yet that these works of His were designed merely to aid weak faith, and would be repeated, nay exceeded, by His disciples, in virtue of the power He would confer on them after His departure. His miracles the apostles wrought, though wholly in His name and by His power, and the "greater" works—not in degree but in kind—were the conversion of thousands in a day, by His Spirit accompanying them.

13, 14. whatsoever ye … ask in my name—as Mediator.

that will I do—as Head and Lord of the kingdom of God. This comprehensive promise is emphatically repeated in Joh 14:14.

15-17. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, &c.—This connection seems designed to teach that the proper temple for the indwelling Spirit of Jesus is a heart filled with that love to Him which lives actively for Him, and so this was the fitting preparation for the promised gift.

he shall give you another Comforter—a word used only by John; in his Gospel with reference to the Holy Spirit, in his First Epistle (1Jo 2:1), with reference to Christ Himself. Its proper sense is an "advocate," "patron," "helper." In this sense it is plainly meant of Christ (1Jo 2:1), and in this sense it comprehends all the comfort as well as aid of the Spirit's work. The Spirit is here promised as One who would supply Christ's own place in His absence.

that he may abide with you for ever—never go away, as Jesus was going to do in the body.

17. whom the world cannot receive, &c.—(See 1Co 2:14).

he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you—Though the proper fulness of both these was yet future, our Lord, by using both the present and the future, seems plainly to say that they already had the germ of this great blessing.

18-20. I will not leave you comfortless—in a bereaved and desolate condition; or (as in Margin) "orphans."

I will come to you—"I come" or "am coming" to you; that is, plainly by the Spirit, since it was to make His departure to be no bereavement.

19. world seeth—beholdeth.

me no more, but ye see—behold.

me—His bodily presence, being all the sight of Him which "the world" ever had, or was capable of, it "beheld Him no more" after His departure to the Father; but by the coming of the Spirit, the presence of Christ was not only continued to His spiritually enlightened disciples, but rendered far more efficacious and blissful than His bodily presence had been before the Spirit's coming.

because I live—not "shall live," only when raised from the dead; for it is His unextinguishable, divine life of which He speaks, in view of which His death and resurrection were but as shadows passing over the sun's glorious disk. (Compare Lu 24:5; Re 1:18, "the Living One"). And this grand saying Jesus uttered with death immediately in view. What a brightness does this throw over the next clause, "ye shall live also!" "Knowest thou not," said Luther to the King of Terrors, "that thou didst devour the Lord Christ, but wert obliged to give Him back, and wert devoured of Him? So thou must leave me undevoured because I abide in Him, and live and suffer for His name's sake. Men may hunt me out of the world—that I care not for—but I shall not on that account abide in death. I shall live with my Lord Christ, since I know and believe that He liveth!" (quoted in Stier).

20. At that day—of the Spirit's coming.

ye shall know that I am in my Father, ye in me, I in you—(See on Joh 17:22,23).

21. 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.

22. Judas saith … not Iscariot—Beautiful parenthesis this! The traitor being no longer present, we needed not to be told that this question came not from him. But it is as if the Evangelist had said, "A very different Judas from the traitor, and a very different question from any that he would have put. Indeed [as one in Stier says], we never read of Iscariot that he entered in any way into his Master's words, or ever put a question even of rash curiosity (though it may be he did, but that nothing from him was deemed fit for immortality in the Gospels but his name and treason)."

how … manifest thyself to us, and not to the world—a most natural and proper question, founded on Joh 14:19, though interpreters speak against it as Jewish.

23. we will come and make our abode with him—Astonishing statement! In the Father's "coming" He "refers to the revelation of Him as a Father to the soul, which does not take place till the Spirit comes into the heart, teaching it to cry, Abba, Father" [Olshausen]. The "abode" means a permanent, eternal stay! (Compare Le 26:11, 12; Eze 37:26, 27; 2Co 6:16; and contrast Jer 14:8).

25, 26. he shall teach you all things, and bring all to … remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you—(See on Joh 14:15; Joh 14:17). As the Son came in the Father's name, so the Father shall send the Spirit in My name, says Jesus, that is, with like divine power and authority to reproduce in their souls what Christ taught them, "bringing to living consciousness what lay like slumbering germs in their minds" [Olshausen]. On this rests the credibility and ultimate divine authority of THE Gospel history. The whole of what is here said of THE Spirit is decisive of His divine personality. "He who can regard all the personal expressions, applied to the Spirit in these three chapters ('teaching,' 'reminding,' 'testifying,' 'coming,' 'convincing,' 'guiding,' 'speaking,' 'hearing,' 'prophesying,' 'taking') as being no other than a long drawn-out figure, deserves not to be recognized even as an interpreter of intelligible words, much less an expositor of Holy Scripture" [Stier].

27. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you—If Joh 14:25, 26 sounded like a note of preparation for drawing the discourse to a close, this would sound like a farewell. But oh, how different from ordinary adieus! It is a parting word, but of richest import, the customary "peace" of a parting friend sublimed and transfigured. As "the Prince of Peace" (Isa 9:6) He brought it into flesh, carried it about in His Own Person ("My peace") died to make it ours, left it as the heritage of His disciples upon earth, implants and maintains it by His Spirit in their hearts. Many a legacy is "left" that is never "given" to the legatee, many a gift destined that never reaches its proper object. But Christ is the Executor of His own Testament; the peace He "leaves" He "gives"; Thus all is secure.

not as the world giveth—in contrast with the world, He gives sincerely, substantially, eternally.

28. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father, for my Father is greater than I—These words, which Arians and Socinians perpetually quote as triumphant evidence against the proper Divinity of Christ, really yield no intelligible sense on their principles. Were a holy man on his deathbed, beholding his friends in tears at the prospect of losing him, to say, "Ye ought rather to joy than weep for me, and would if ye really loved me, "the speech would be quite natural. But if they should ask him, why joy at his departure was more suitable than sorrow, would they not start back with astonishment, if not horror, were he to reply, "Because my Father is greater than I?" Does not this strange speech from Christ's lips, then, presuppose such teaching on His part as would make it extremely difficult for them to think He could gain anything by departing to the Father, and make it necessary for Him to say expressly that there was a sense in which He could do so? Thus, this startling explanation seems plainly intended to correct such misapprehensions as might arise from the emphatic and reiterated teaching of His proper equality with the Father—as if so Exalted a Person were incapable of any accession by transition from this dismal scene to a cloudless heaven and the very bosom of the Father—and by assuring them that this was not the case, to make them forget their own sorrow in His approaching joy.

30, 31. Hereafter I will not talk much with you—"I have a little more to say, but My work hastens apace, and the approach of the adversary will cut it short."

for the prince of this world—(See on Joh 12:31).

cometh—with hostile intent, for a last grand attack, having failed in His first formidable assault (Lu 4:1-13) from which he "departed [only] for a season" (Joh 14:13).

and hath nothing in me—nothing of His own—nothing to fasten on. Glorious saying! The truth of it is, that which makes the Person and Work of Christ the life of the world (Heb 9:14; 1Jo 3:5; 2Co 5:21).

31. But that the world may know that I love the Father, &c.—The sense must be completed thus: "But to the Prince of the world, though he has nothing in Me, I shall yield Myself up even unto death, that the world may know that I love and obey the Father, whose commandment it is that I give My life a ransom for many."

Arise, let us go hence—Did they then, at this stage of the discourse, leave the supper room, as some able interpreters conclude? If so, we think our Evangelist would have mentioned it: see Joh 18:1, which seems clearly to intimate that they then only left the upper room. But what do the words mean if not this? We think it was the dictate of that saying of earlier date, "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!"—a spontaneous and irrepressible expression of the deep eagerness of His spirit to get into the conflict, and that if, as is likely, it was responded to somewhat too literally by the guests who hung on His lips, in the way of a movement to depart, a wave of His hand, would be enough to show that He had yet more to say ere they broke up; and that disciple, whose pen was dipped in a love to his Master which made their movements of small consequence save when essential to the illustration of His words, would record this little outburst of the Lamb hastening to the slaughter, in the very midst of His lofty discourse; while the effect of it, if any, upon His hearers, as of no consequence, would naturally enough be passed over.