John 14:7

John 14:7. If ye had learned to know me, ye would know my Father also. The change in this verse from ‘the Father' of John 14:6 to ‘my Father,' as well as the use in the original of two different verbs for ‘know,' is peculiarly instructive. The meaning seems to be, that when we have gained a knowledge of the Son, we find ourselves possessed of a knowledge of His Father; then, in that knowledge, the veil which hides from us in our natural condition the true knowledge of God is withdrawn, and we possess the highest knowledge of all, the knowledge of God in the deepest verity of His being, the knowledge of ‘the Father.' It is true that we immediately read, Prom henceforth ye learn to know Him, and have seen Him. But we must bear in mind that possession of a perfect knowledge of God is never reached by us. Each stage of ‘knowing' is but the beginning of a new stage of ‘learning to know' more; ‘forgetting the things that are behind,' we start ever afresh towards a knowledge of ‘the Father,' always increasing but never consummated. The same remark applies to ‘have seen,' by which we are to understand ‘have begun to see.' This knowledge, this sight, the disciples have ‘from henceforth.' The point of time is not Pentecost anticipated. It dates from the great ‘Now' of chap. John 13:31, and the explanation is to be found in the peculiar circumstances in which the disciples have been placed since then. They have been separated from all worldly thoughts of Jesus; His true ‘glory' and the true glory of the Father in Him have been revealed in all their brightness; and in an intimacy of communion with their Lord never enjoyed before they ‘learn to know' with an inward spiritual discernment, they ‘have seen' with a sharpness of spiritual intuition, not previously possessed by them. Another difficulty arises in the breast of Philip.