John 14

John 14:1–14 (ESV)

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

And you know the way to where I am going.”

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.

Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.

Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

John 14:1–14 (ESV)

John 14:1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

New Testament 13:36–14:1—Following to the Cross?

14:1. “Your” is plural, and thus Jesus addresses all the disciples; in the Old Testament God often told his servants not to fear. But to pair faith in Jesus with faith in God would sound blasphemous to most ancient Jewish readers (although they could have found a less offensive way to interpret the phrase; see 2 Chron 20:20).

John 14:2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

New Testament (14:2–7—Where Jesus Is Going, Enigmatic Version)

14:2. The “Father’s house” would be the temple (2:16), where God would forever dwell with his people (Ezek 43:7, 9; 48:35; cf. Jn 8:35). The “dwelling places” (NASB, NRSV) could allude to the booths constructed for the Feast of Tabernacles but probably refer to “rooms” (cf. NIV, TEV) in the new temple, where only undefiled ministers would have a place (Ezek 44:9–16; cf. 48:11). John presumably means this language figuratively for being in Christ, where God’s presence dwells (2:21); the only other place in the New Testament where this term for “dwelling places” or “rooms” occurs is in 14:23, where it refers to the believer as God’s dwelling place (cf. also the verb “dwell”—15:4–7).

Faithlife Study Bible Chapter 14

14:2 Father’s house Jesus is referring to the heavenly abode, where God the Father sits enthroned (Isa 6:1–6). Jesus had already declared God’s symbolic earthly dwelling, the temple, to be insignificant in comparison to God’s work through His new temple, Jesus (see John 2:19; compare note on 1:14). This and Jesus’ condemnation of the conduct of the earthly keepers of His “Father’s house” establish Jesus as a better, heavenly alternative (2:16).

The Jerusalem temple was an earthly representation of God’s heavenly dwelling. When talking with David about the possible construction of the temple, God even calls it a “house for my name” (1 Chr 28:3). David later calls it a “house for the sanctuary” (2 Chr 28:10; compare Psa 24). Jesus’ imagery here would have been familiar to His disciples.

Heaven is depicted as God’s throne and the earth as God’s footstool (Isa 66:1). This is symbolically represented in the temple as the cherubim wings being God’s throne (heaven) and the ark of the covenant being His footstool (earth; 1 Chr 28:2; Psa 99:5; Lam 2:1).

John for Everyone, Part 2: Chapters 11–21 The Way, the Truth, the Life (John 14:1–11)

So he speaks of ‘his father’s house’. The only other time he’s used the expression it referred to the Temple (2:16). The point about the Temple, within the life of the people of Israel, was that it was the place where heaven and earth met. Now Jesus hints at a new city, a new world, a new ‘house’. Heaven and earth will meet again when God renews the whole world. At that time there will be room for everyone.

John 14:3-4 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.”

14:3–4. In this context, John probably means not the Second Coming but Christ’s return after the resurrection to bestow the Spirit (14:16–18). In Jewish teaching, both the resurrection of the dead (which Jesus inaugurated) and bestowal of the Spirit indicate the arrival of the new age of the kingdom. Jesus explains where he is going and how they will come to be there in 14:6–7.

John 14:5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

14:5. Disciples asked their rabbis questions to clarify the teaching. That four questions were also asked in the extant household Passover celebration may be mere coincidence (13:36–37; 14:5, 8, 22).

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

New Testament (14:2–7—Where Jesus Is Going, Enigmatic Version)

14:6–7. The “way” in many Jewish texts refers to the righteous way to behave but here possibly echoes Isaiah’s way back to the new Jerusalem through the wilderness (cf. Jn 1:23). In this case the background is less critical than the force of the image, however. Jesus answers Thomas’s question thus: The Father is where I am going, and I am how you will get there.“Truth” later came to be a Jewish title for God; it is uncertain if it was in use this early. The primary significance of the statement, however, is that Jesus is the embodiment of the truth, God’s covenant faithfulness (1:17), which was embodied in God’s “word” in the Old Testament (17:17; Ps 119:142, 151). Just as Judaism affirmed that there was only one God and thus one right way (his law, either in the short version supposedly given to the Gentiles or the full version given to Israel), Jesus here affirms that he is the only way to the only God.

Within the Western world of the last two centuries or so, this saying of Jesus has become one of the most controversial. ‘I am the way and the truth and the life!’ How dare he, people have asked. How dare John, or the church, or anyone else, put such words into anyone’s mouth? Isn’t this the height of arrogance, to imagine that Jesus or anyone else was the only way? Don’t we now know that this attitude has done untold damage around the world, as Jesus’ followers have insisted that everyone else should give up their own ways of life and follow his instead? I know people, professing Christians, for whom it seems that their central article of faith is their rejection of this idea of Jesus’ uniqueness.

The trouble with this is that it doesn’t work. If you dethrone Jesus, you enthrone something, or someone, else instead. The belief that ‘all religions are really the same’ sounds nice and democratic—though the study of religions quickly shows that it isn’t true. What you are really saying if you claim that they’re all the same is that none of them are more than distant echoes, distorted images, of reality. You’re saying that ‘reality’, God, ‘the divine’, is remote and unknowable, and that neither Jesus nor Buddha nor Moses nor Krishna gives us direct access to it. They all provide a way towards the foothills of the mountain, not the way to the summit.

It isn’t just John’s gospel that you lose if you embrace this idea. The whole New Testament—the whole of early Christianity—insists that the one true and living God, the creator, is the God of Israel; and that the God of Israel has acted decisively, within history, to bring Israel’s story to its proper goal, and through that to address, and rescue, the world. The idea of a vague general truth, to which all ‘religions’ bear some kind of oblique witness, is foreign to Christianity. It is, in fact, in its present form, part of the eighteenth-century protest against Christianity—even though some people produce it like a rabbit out of a hat, as though it was quite a new idea.

Wright, Tom. John for Everyone, Part 2: Chapters 11-21. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004. Print.

The ESV Study Bible Chapter 14

14:6 Jesus as the one way to the Father fulfills the OT symbols and teachings that show the exclusiveness of God’s claim (see note on 3:18), such as the curtain (Ex. 26:33) barring access to God’s presence from all except the Levitical high priest (Leviticus 16), the rejection of human inventions as means to approach God (Lev. 10:2), and the choice of Aaron alone to represent Israel before God in his sanctuary (Num. 17:5). Jesus is the only “way” to God (Acts 4:12), and he alone can provide access to God. Jesus as the truth fulfills the teaching of the OT (John 1:17) and reveals the true God (cf. 1:14, 17; 5:33; 18:37; also 8:40, 45–46; 14:9). Jesus alone is the life who fulfills the OT promises of “life” given by God (11:25–26), having life in himself (1:4; 5:26), and he is thus able to confer eternal life to all those who believe in him (e.g., 3:16). This is another “I am” saying that makes a claim to deity (see note on 6:35).

John 14:7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

John 14:8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”

New Testament (14:8–17—Revealing the Father Clearly)

14:8. John may wish his readers, most of whom were more immersed in the Bible than most modern readers, to think of Exodus 33:18, where Moses asked to see God’s glory; cf. comment on John 1:18 and 14:21–22.

John 14:9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

John 14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.

John 14:11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

The ESV Study Bible Chapter 14

14:8–11 Philip apparently asks for some sort of appearance by God. In the OT, Moses asked for and was given a limited vision of God’s glory (Ex. 33:18; cf. Ex. 24:10). Isaiah, too, received a vision of God (Isa. 6:1; see note on John 12:41). Jesus is the greater fulfillment of these limited OT events (see also Ezek. 1:26–28). In keeping with OT teaching, Jesus denied the possibility of a direct vision of God (John 5:37; 6:46; cf. 1:18), yet he makes the stunning assertion that those who have seen him have seen the Father—a clear claim to deity. Philip’s request shows that he has not yet understood the point of Jesus’ coming, namely, to reveal the Father (1:14, 18).

John 14:12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.

New Testament 14:8–17—Revealing the Father Clearly

14:12–14. Here “works” (KJV, NASB, NRSV) could refer to righteous deeds, as often in Judaism (e.g., 8:39), or to miraculous works such as Jesus wrought (5:17; 10:32), or to both. (The works are quantitatively greater because Christ’s work is multiplied through all his followers.) In this context Jesus’ words are an invitation to radical faith: Jewish tradition allowed that some very pious teachers could receive from God almost anything they asked because of their intimate relationship with him, but never applied this possibility to the majority even of the pious. This promise also goes beyond claims made for most charms in pagan magic. Magic had no emphasis on relationship with the power addressed and sought only to manipulate forces for the manipulator’s ends (contrast 14:15).

John 14:13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

John 14:14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

New Testament (14:8–17—Revealing the Father Clearly)

In this context “name” means something like: those who seek his glory and speak accurately for him, who are genuinely his authorized representatives. Nothing could be further from the pagan magical use of names that sought to manipulate spiritual forces for one’s own ends.

John 14:15–24 ESV

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

John 14:15–24 (ESV)

John 14:15“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

14:15. Here Jesus cites another Old Testament idea (e.g., Ex 20:6; Deut 5:10, 29; 6:5; 11:1, 13, 22; 13:3–4; 19:9; 30:6, 14). In Ezekiel 36:27, the gift of the Spirit enables one to keep the commandments (Jn 14:16).

John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,

New Testament (14:8–17—Revealing the Father Clearly)

14:16. The background for calling the Spirit “Counselor” (NIV) or “Helper” (NASB) is debated, but it is probably a courtroom image: one sense of the term is “advocate,” “defending attorney,” “intercessor”; see comment on 16:8–11. In Jewish depictions of God’s heavenly court, angels and divine attributes could serve as accusers or advocates, but Satan is the primary prosecutor, and God (or his favored attribute of mercy, or Michael) defends Israel. Here the Spirit is “another” advocate like Jesus (cf. 9:35–41, where Jesus defends the man put out of the synagogue and accuses his accusers); Judaism was also familiar with the idea of a “successor” who carries on a predecessor’s work.

The ESV Study Bible Chapter 14

14:16–17 The Holy Spirit (cf. v. 26), the Spirit of truth who will guide the disciples into all truth (16:13), will serve as another Helper (or “helping Presence”; see also ESV footnote). He will indwell Jesus’ followers forever, functioning as Jesus’ emissary in his physical absence. The promise of the divine presence with Jesus’ followers in 14:15–24 includes the Spirit (vv. 15–17), Jesus (vv. 18–21), and the Father (vv. 22–24). he dwells with you and will be in you. This does not mean that there was no work of the Spirit of God within believers prior to this time (see note on 7:39) but rather that the Holy Spirit “will be in you” in a new and more powerful sense after Pentecost.

John 14:17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

14:17. The Spirit of truth guides God’s people in the way of truth—into fuller revelation of Jesus, who is the truth (14:6; 16:13). The Dead Sea Scrolls contrast the spirit of truth with the spirit of error (cf. 1 Jn 4:6).

Faithlife Study Bible (Chapter 14)

14:17 with The term here refers to the Spirit leading Jesus’ disciples; the Spirit is presently their guide and source of power, similar to the prophets’ relationships with God.

in you This refers to the Spirit dwelling in the believer—making them, when they choose to follow God’s will, a testimony by which others can see and understand God (compare note on v. 2).

John 14:18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

14:18–20. In the Old Testament, “orphans” (NASB, NIV) were powerless and needed a legal defender. The context here refers to Jesus’ coming to them and leaving his presence in them by the Spirit (20:19–23).

The ESV Study Bible Chapter 14

14:18 I will come to you most likely means that Jesus will appear to the disciples after his resurrection (chs. 20–21). Some interpreters have taken this as a reference to the Holy Spirit’s coming, which Jesus does promise (14:16–17), but both Jesus and John always use precise wording in maintaining a distinction between Jesus and the Spirit.

John 14:19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.

14:19 because I live Jesus is prophesying His appearances after His resurrection (see note on 13:33).

John 14:20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

John 14:21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

The ESV Study Bible Chapter 14

14:21 keeps (i.e., follows and obeys) them. Obedience to Christ is an indication of genuine love for him.

14:21–22. Israel believed (rightly) that God had given them a special revelation in the law that the nations did not have. The language of “manifesting” (KJV) or “revealing” (NRSV, TEV) himself to them recalls God’s revealing himself to Moses on Mount Sinai (see comment on 1:14).

John 14:22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?”

John 14:23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

The ESV Study Bible Chapter 14

14:23 Home (Gk. monē, “room, dwelling place”) is the same word used in a different context in v. 2. Just as the Father and the Son now make their home with Christians in this age, Jesus is preparing for them a place in heaven where they will one day live with God (vv. 2–3). On the theme of God’s dwelling among his people, see note on 1:14.

14:23–24. Jewish teachers spoke of God’s presence residing in a special way among those who studied his law; Jesus speaks of God’s presence residing in each believer continually as an individual temple for his presence. That God dwelt in his temple and among his people was standard Old Testament teaching; that his laws were written in the hearts of his faithful and that his Spirit moved among his prophets were also taught in the Old Testament. But Jesus broadens and personalizes this perspective in a manner unparalleled in extant ancient literature. The Dead Sea Scrolls speak of the Spirit being active among God’s people, but this activity is not nearly as extensive as the prophetic and charismatic activity found in the New Testament.

John 14:24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

John 14:25–31 ESV

“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.

John 14:25–31 (ESV)

John 14:25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.

John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

New Testament (14:18–31—Jesus’ Coming and Revealing)

14:25–26. Some of the functions Jesus lists here for the Spirit were attributed in Judaism to divine Wisdom, which was associated with God’s Spirit as well as his law in some popular, pre-Christian Jewish writings (cf. also Neh 9:20; Ps 143:10). In a Jewish context, “teaching” could include elaborating and expounding; rote memorization was also an important part of ancient learning.

The ESV Study Bible (Chapter 14)

14:26 He will teach you uses the masculine Greek pronoun ekeinos (“he”) instead of the neuter pronoun ekeino (“it”), which would have been expected for grammatical agreement with the grammatically neuter antecedent Pneuma (Spirit). Many interpreters have seen this as a deliberate choice on John’s part, indicating an awareness of the distinct personhood of the Holy Spirit (though others disagree, suggesting that the pronoun is masculine in order to agree with the masculine noun Helper earlier in the sentence). John follows the same usage in 15:26 and 16:13–14. That he will teach the disciples all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you is an important promise regarding the disciples’ future role in writing the words of Scripture; see also 16:13–15. Jesus’ promise here is specifically to these disciples (who would become the apostles after Pentecost), though there is of course a broader teaching and guiding ministry of the Holy Spirit generally in the lives of believers, as is taught elsewhere in Scripture (Rom. 8:14; Gal. 5:16, 18). On the work of the Trinity, see chart.

Faithlife Study Bible (Chapter 14)

14:26 Advocate The Greek term used here, paraklētos, refers to a legal assistant in a court who pleads someone’s case before the judge (compare 1 John 2:1). The judge is God, and people are judged based on whether they follow Jesus’ command to believe that eternal life comes through His death and resurrection (John 12:48–50). When on earth, Jesus was the means for believers to interact with God the Father since their sin prevented them from doing so directly. The Spirit is sent to do the same work.

Will teach The Spirit, as God’s means of communication on earth, instructs believers and leads them to follow God’s will. The Spirit gives them access to God, His plans, and His wisdom. He can do so because of Jesus’ sacrifice for sins

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

14:27. Jewish teachers highly extolled peace (especially in terms of relationships with others)

14:27 The expression peace (Hb. shalom) had a much richer connotation than the English word does since it conveyed not merely the absence of conflict and turmoil but also the notion of positive blessing, especially in terms of a right relationship with God (e.g., Num. 6:24–26; cf. Ps. 29:11; Hag. 2:9, and also, as a result, the idea that “all is well” in one’s life). This may be manifested most clearly amid persecution and tribulation; see also John 15:18–19; 16:33.

Peace—Refers to wholeness in their relationship with God. They now have a way (the Spirit) to reach God—unencumbered by rituals, sacrifices, or laws—and atonement for their sins (Jesus’ death and resurrection), so that they are free to communicate with God and be in His presence.

John 14:28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.

The ESV Study Bible Chapter 14

14:28 In saying that the Father is greater than I, Jesus means that the Father as the one who sends and commands is “greater” (in authority or leadership) than the Son. However, this does not mean that Jesus is inferior in his being and essence to the Father, as 1:1, 10:30, and 20:28 clearly show.

New Testament (14:18–31—Jesus’ Coming and Revealing)

14:28–31. For verse 29, see comment on 13:19; for verse 30, see comment on 12:31; for “love” and “commandments” in verse 31, see comment on 14:15. Jesus’ obedience to the Father includes his mission to the cross in 14:31, where he also summons his followers to participate in that call (“let us go”). Thus the world could know Jesus’ true identity (12:32–33; 17:21).

John 14:29 And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.

John 14:30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me,

The ESV Study Bible Chapter 14

14:30 On the ruler of this world, see note on 12:31. Those who do not follow Christ are not autonomous. They are serving Satan, whether they are aware of this or not. Satan is coming in the person of Judas and those with him (see ch. 18), and this is why in a short time Jesus will no longer talk much with them. But Jesus is not subject to Satan, for Satan has no claim on Jesus. Satan cannot force Jesus to do anything, but Jesus willingly submits to the suffering that is to come, out of obedience to his Father (see 14:31).

John 14:31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.

The ESV Study Bible Chapter 14

14:31 Jesus’ obedience to the Father signifies his love for the Father. The transition from 14:31 to 15:1 is at times viewed as a “literary seam” (i.e., an indication that John’s Gospel is pieced together from different sources). More likely, John is implying that Jesus and his followers are leaving the upper room, making their way to the Kidron Valley, and arriving in the Garden of Gethsemane (18:1).