John 14:1-11

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Vv. 1-11.

1. The discourse which occupies the fourteenth chapter is apparently suggested by the thought expressed in John 13:36: “Thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards.” The announcement of His approaching death, which Jesus had given to His disciples, and all things that had come before their minds in the recent days, had filled them with surprise and grief. They were bewildered, as well as sorrowful. The thought of His death and separation came upon them with terrible suddenness, for they had not comprehended His meaning when He had spoken to them previously of the fate which He was to meet. The words addressed to Peter were really addressed to them all, and they needed strength and support in view of the coming separation. To this end Jesus now speaks, and He presents to their minds, in this chapter, three grounds of consolation and encouragement: first, the promise of a future reunion with Him in Heaven (John 14:1-11); secondly, the assurance of great success in their work for Him after His departure (John 14:12-14); thirdly, the promise of the Holy Spirit as a Helper (John 14:15-24). The last two points relate to what would be experienced by them in their future earthly life; the first, to what would come after its ending. But this which refers to the remoter future is placed at the beginning, because it was the first thing which they needed for their comfort as they heard the words, You cannot follow me now; you must wait until a future time. That their hearts might not be troubled, they must have the certainty of that future.

2. The two verbs πιστεύετε are probably imperatives: “Believe in God and believe in me.” This confidence in God and in Jesus Himself was that which would raise their hearts above trouble. The positive demand thus stands in contrast with the negative. For the understanding of this chapter and those which immediately follow, the standpoint which Jesus takes should be carefully noticed. He seems clearly to assume the position of one who has come from His own home to a foreign land for a temporary sojourn and work there. While there, in the midst of this work, He has formed intimate and tender friendships with certain friends. The time has now come for Him to return to His home. They have still to remain where they are, continuing the work which He has begun, but His part of it, as Himself personally present among them, is ended. After a time their work also will be finished, and then they may follow Him. Now, as such a friend, at such a moment, He says to them: I am going back to my Father's house and to leave you alone; but do not let your hearts be distressed by this; on the other hand, have confidence in my Father and in me, that in the end all will be well.

3. The assurance given with regard to the future reunion contains three elements: the declaration that there is room enough for all in the Father's house, the statement that He is going thither to prepare a place for the disciples, and the promise that He will come again and take them to Himself. Two points of special interest may be noticed in John 14:2-3, which present this assurance: (a) The evidence which is incidentally involved in the words, “If it were not so, I would have told you,” that the book is written from the remembered personal experience of the author as one of the apostolic company. On this point see Vol. I., pp. 508, 509. (b) The word ἔρχομαι of John 14:3. To what does this refer? Four answers have been given to this question.

In the first place, the verb has been supposed to refer to the Parousia. In this sense it is possibly or probably used in John 21:23. The objection to this view is that which Godet suggests namely, that the event was too remote to offer the consolation which they needed. It would have been like the thought of the final resurrection to the mind of Martha, when she desired to have her brother presently restored to her. The disciples did not live to see the Parousia; and that event is even yet in the future.

In the second place, it has been referred to the return of Jesus to the disciples at His resurrection. But He did not take them to heaven then, nor receive them to any permanent reunion with Him. Thirdly, it has been understood in the sense of ἔρχομαι of John 14:18, and as referring to the coming of Christ to His followers in and through the Holy Spirit. But evidently, according to the statement of John 14:23, the coming there referred to is a spiritual coming of Christ to be with the believer where the latter is that is, on earth, and not a coming to take the believer to be with Christ where He is that is, in heaven.

A fourth reference has been given by some writers namely, a return of Christ at the death of each believer, to receive him to Himself. The objection to this view is founded upon the fact that this sense of ἔρχομαι is not found elsewhere, either in this Gospel or in the rest of the New Testament writings. The writer of this note would suggest, however, the possibility of explaining the matter in connection with the position taken by Jesus in these discourses (see 2 above). May not the return, the coming again, be used here, not in its ordinary or technical sense, but in connection with the figurative representation, as it may be called, of the whole discourse? As the departing friend goes back to the house of his father and prepares a place for those whom he leaves behind, in order that they may have a home there when the time appointed shall arrive, and as he then returns to take them with him to his home, so Jesus here says that, at the end of the work of each one of His disciples, He will come, as the friend comes, and receive them to Himself. The coming thus belongs to the figure, and may be properly used in this sense because of the figure. In this way the reference may be to the death of each believer, without assuming a new technical sense of the words to come again.

4. The word ὁδόν of John 14:4, if interpreted by the preceding context, will naturally mean the way of death by which Jesus went to His Father's house. If interpreted by the following context, it will mean Jesus Himself or faith in Him. The more probable interpretation would seem to the writer of this note to be the former. The following words of Jesus turn the mind of Thomas to the way for him to reach the Father thus directing the inquirer away from the point on which he was curious to inquire to a spiritual suggestion or teaching for himself which lay near to his question. We see many examples of this kind in John's Gospel.

5. In John 14:6 Jesus says, “I am the way” that is, He is the one through whom (δἰ ἐμοῦ, at the end of the verse) the soul comes to the Father. He then adds, “and the truth and the life.” These words set forth, what has been declared in substance in carlier Chapter s of the Gospel, that in Jesus is the full revelation of the Divine truth and of the eternal life. In the sense in which the words are here used, and according to the thought now before the mind, Jesus is the way because in Him is the truth and the life.

6. Philip asks for some special manifestation of God beyond what had been given them perhaps he did not himself have a definite idea as to what it should be. In answer to his request, Jesus points to the two great proofs of His being Himself the manifestation of God, which have been presented throughout the Gospel the words and the works and places them again in their right order, the words first, and, if these fail to convince, then the works. That the expression “believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me” refers to the words as evidence, can hardly be questioned.

7. John 14:7-11 have somewhat of a transition character, as leading the way from John 14:4-6 to John 14:12 ff. But the connection of their general thought with that of John 14:6 gives them a more special relation to the preceding context, and, in dividing the chapter into its sections, they may properly be assigned to the first section, which thus extends from John 14:1 to John 14:11.