Chapter 14 – One God Translation

John

   14 “Your hearts must not be in turmoil. Keep on believing in God, and keep on believing also in me.[670] 2 In my Father’s household there are many dwelling places and positions. If not, I would have told you. So I am now going away to prepare a place for you. [671] 3 If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come back[672] and receive you to myself, so that where I will be[673] you may be with me. [674] 4 And you know the way where I am going.” 5 Thomas said, “lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. 7 If you have come to know me you will also know my Father. From now on you do know Him and have seen[675] Him.”
    8 Philip said, “lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time without your knowing me, Philip? The person who has seen me has seen the Father.[676] How then can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own initiative. The Father who lives in me is doing His works through me. 11 Believe me, that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.[677] Otherwise believe because of the works themselves. 12 I tell you on the highest authority: the person who believes in me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these,[678] because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever it is you ask in my name I will do it, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. [679]
    15 “If you love me you will keep my commands. [680] 16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. 17 This is the spirit of the truth. The world is incapable of receiving it, because it does not see it or know it, but you do know it, because it remains with you and will be in you.
    18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. [681] 19 In a little while the world will not see me any longer, but you will see[682] me. Because I am going to be alive, you will be alive. [683] 20 That day you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, just as I am in you. 21 The person who has my commands and carries them out is the one who loves me and the one who loves me[684] will be loved by my Father. I will also love him and reveal myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said to him, “lord, how is it that you are going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” 23 Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will preserve and obey my Gospel-word.[685] My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our residence with him. 24 The one who does not love me will not keep my words. The Gospel-word which you hear is not mine but it is the Father’s who commissioned me.
    25 “I have spoken these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Counselor, the holy spirit, which the Father will send as representing and reproducing my presence, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you. 27 Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give it to you as the world gives. Stop letting your minds be troubled or cowardly. 28 You have heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’[686] If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am. 29 I tell you now before this happens, so that when it does happen you may believe. 30 I will not be talking with you much longer, because the ruler of the world[687] is coming. He has no power over me. 31 On the contrary, so that the world may know that I love the Father, I am doing just as the Father commanded me. Let us get up and leave this place.”

John

[670]

The obvious contrast is between God and someone who is not God! It would be quite unwarranted to imagine that Jesus thinks that he is God.

[671]

In the future Kingdom of God on earth, just as James and John asked about places prepared for believers in the coming Kingdom (Mk. 10:40).

[672]

At his future Second Coming, the Parousia, to rule on earth with the saints (Rev. 5:10). He was in the meanwhile going to prepare their positions in that future Kingdom which is the heart of the Christian Gospel (Mk. 1:14-15; Lk. 4:43).

[673]

The Greek has “where I am,” and the sense of the idiom is “where I will be.” The same usage of a present for a future is found in John 7:34, 36: “Where I am you cannot come” = “where I will be…”

[674]

Jesus will be back on earth and so anyone wanting to be with him will not be in heaven, because Jesus will not be there! He is coming back to the earth.

[675]

Not literally “see” because no one has literally seen the Father. The Father is “seen” in a different sense, in Jesus. A Christian who continually sins, is not genuinely converted, has not “seen Him or known Him” (1 John 3:6). This is a spiritual “seeing” with the mind.

[676]

Thus in John 20:28, Thomas who was present at the conversation here in ch. 14, finally sees God in Jesus and realizes this when he addresses Jesus as “my lord” and “my God,” seeing the One God in Jesus. This is the sequel to and resolution of the problem which Philip and Thomas had in not realizing how God the Father is seen in the Son.

[677]

It is in this sense that “I and the Father are one” (10:30). The same unity is the ideal for all believers who are to be of one mind and purpose with the Father and Son (17:11, 22).

[678]

It is a false assumption to think that by “greater works” Jesus means more spectacular miracles. The teaching of Jesus’ Gospel on a more extensive scale, after he went to the Father, is probably the point.

[679]

This text is proof that prayer requests to Jesus are appropriate. Prayer is of course addressed to the Father through Jesus, but it is not a fixed rule without exception. Paul thanked Jesus for putting him in ministry (1 Tim. 1:12). Doxologies are offered to the risen Messiah, who is worshiped alongside the One God (Rev. 5:13). And the Corinthians are described by Paul as “those who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 1:2). Many appealed to Jesus to grant them requests, notably the Canaaanite woman and the two blind men who appealed to Jesus with the words “lord, son of David, have mercy on us” (Mt. 15:22; 20:30).

[680]

His commands include everything Jesus taught. His first and fundamental command is that we are to “repent and believe the Gospel of the Kingdom” message (Mk. 1:14-15). Jesus also commanded belief in the One Lord God of his Hebrew heritage, and makes this “the most important” of all commands (Mk. 12:29). It should be a matter of urgent public concern that later “church fathers” replaced Jesus’ definition of God with an alien concept of a triune God, not known to Jesus or the Apostles.

[681]

i.e. Jesus will “return” in spirit presence. “The lord is the spirit” (2 Cor. 3:17).

[682]

There will be no literal seeing of Jesus until his Second Coming, but he is understood and known through the spirit which he promised would remain with believers.

[683]

The life of the risen Jesus would be present with them as the Counselor, not a third “Person” but the exalted Jesus coming to be with them in spirit (cp. 2 Cor. 3:17-18; 1Jn. 2:1).

[684]

This is exactly the “obedience of faith” taught by the whole NT (Rom. 1:5: 16:26; Jn. 3:36; Heb. 5:9). An example of required obedience is water baptism, commanded by Jesus till the end of the age. This is an integral and essential element of the Great Commission (Mt. 28:19-20). Obedience is required in those “difficult” areas of behavior such as loving enemies, which cannot include killing them!

[685]

“word” is the shorthand NT expression for the Gospel of the Kingdom, the “word of the Kingdom” in Matt. 13:19. This is the essential seed of immortality (Lk. 8:11), and the agent of Christian rebirth.

[686]

The reference is to the “return” of Jesus as the paraclete, Counselor, as constant support forbelievers. The Messiah is identified with the “Counselor” in 1 John 2:1. And in 2 Cor. 3:17-18 “the lord is the spirit.”

[687]

The Devil, the external supernatural being who opposes God’s plan in Messiah.