John 13:12-20

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Vv. 12-20.

1. The explanation of the act performed by Jesus which is here given evidently points towards humility, and thus is easily connected with the dispute among the disciples, recorded by Luke, as to which of them was the greatest. But John 13:10 shows that this humility in the matter of service was to be manifested in the way of mutual help in purifying and perfecting the Christian life of all.

2. The example of Jesus, alluded to in John 13:15, must accordingly be taken in this fulness of meaning; the act was primarily one of humility, but secondarily one of cleansing, and the former had its purpose and end in the latter.

3. At John 13:18 there is again a turn to the case of Judas. The word ἐξελεξάμην refers apparently to the choice of Judas as one of the apostolic company. The ἵνα clause points to this choice as connected with the Divine plan, and thus indicates the explanation of it which was suggested in the notes on the sixth chapter. Jesus adds here, for the first time, what is repeated afterwards, that a part of His design in this last conversation with the disciples was to prepare them for the great surprises and trials which were about to come upon them in the immediate future, and to make these things become thereby a means, not of shaking or destroying their faith, but, on the other hand, of strengthening it.

4. The connection and meaning of this verse are most simply explained if it is made to follow directly upon the last clause which precedes it. They were to go forward in their mission, after His departure from them, in the power and with the message of faith in Him. This faith in Him was to unite every one who had it with God Himself. Their mission, therefore, was to be carried out, with the sustaining power of the assurance that the one who, in receiving them, received Him, would also receive God in and through Him. All this was to be involved in their belief (ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι) that Jesus was in reality what He had proclaimed Himself to be.