John 1:37

1:37-42 The strongest and most prevailing argument with an awakened soul to follow Christ, is, that it is he only who takes away sin. Whatever communion there is between our souls and Christ, it is he who begins the discourse. He asked, What seek ye? The question Jesus put to them, we should all put to ourselves when we begin to follow Him, What do we design and desire? In following Christ, do we seek the favour of God and eternal life? He invites them to come without delay. Now is the accepted time, 2Co 6:2. It is good for us to be where Christ is, wherever it be. We ought to labour for the spiritual welfare of those related to us, and seek to bring them to Him. Those who come to Christ, must come with a fixed resolution to be firm and constant to him, like a stone, solid and stedfast; and it is by his grace that they are so.

{17} And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. (17) In this first gathering of the disciples we have shown to us that the beginning of salvation is from God, who calls us unto his Son by the ministry of his servants: whom, as he guides us, we must also hear, and follow him home, so that being instructed by him we may also instruct others.

God blessed the verbal testimony that John had given so far, that they stood in no need of any miracle to confirm it, but upon their hearing John speak, they followed Jesus: as yet, not as his apostles; for their call to that office was afterward (as we shall hear); nor yet, so as no more to depart from him: but there was created in them a further desire of knowledge of him and acquaintance with him.

John 1:37 . Ἠκολούθησαν , followed ) of their own accord from behind. [Here were] the first commencements of the Christian Church. At the beginning Jesus invited disciples with a kind of milk-like [‘lacteâ,’ alluring] sweetness. [ You will not find that He appointed certain hours for instructing disciples; but all His conversation presented [the aspect of one] continued instruction and lasting training, at one time the handle [for instruction] being given by a marriage; at another time, in overwhelming straits on the water; at another time in a case of household need; at another time when some one was sick; at another time, on the occasion of some lapse on the part of the disciples. Immediately, as it were, on the highway (before the public, and on the spot “in trivio”) He taught, reproved, bent, bore with, admonished, tried, strengthened, established them, and opened out to them one part of the truth after another, and freed them from one false conception after another, commencing from these first [ earliest ] times all along to His ascension .— Harm ., p. 157.]

They followed Jesus - They had been the disciples of John. his office was to point out the Messiah. When that was done, they left at once their master and teacher, John. and followed the long-expected Messiah. This shows that John was sincere; that he was not desirous of forming a party or of building up a sect; that he was willing that all those whom he had attracted to himself by his ministry should become followers of Christ. The object of ministers should not be to build up their own interests or to extend their own fame. It is to point men to the Saviour. Ministers, however popular or successful, should be willing that their disciples should look to Christ rather than to them; nay, should forget them and look away from them, to tread in the footsteps of the Son of God; and the conduct of these disciples shows us that we should forsake all and follow Jesus when he is pointed out to us as the Messiah. We should not delay nor debate the matter, but leave at once all our old teachers, guides and companions, and follow the Lamb of God. And we should do that, too, though "to the world" the Lord Jesus may appear, as he did to the multitude of the Jews, as poor, unknown, and despised. Reader, have you left all and followed him? Have you forsaken the guides of false philosophy and deceit, of sin and infidelity, and committed yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ.

John 1:37-40 . And the two disciples heard ( observed ) him speak . For he had not addressed the words ἴδε ὁ ἀμνὸς τ . θεοῦ directly to them , but in general (comp. John 1:29 ) to those round about him. ἠκολούθησαν ] not the following of discipleship, nor in a “sens profondément symbolique” (Godet), but simply: “ they went after Him ” ( ὀπίστεροι ἦλθον ὁδῖται Χριστοῦ νεισσομένοιο , Nonnus), in order to know Him more intimately ( πεῖραν λαβεῖν αὐτοῦ , Euthymius Zigabenus). Nevertheless Bengel rightly says: primae origines ecclesiae Christianae . στραφείς ] for He heard the footsteps of those following Him. τί ζητεῖτε ] what do you desire? He anticipates them by engaging in conversation with them, not exactly because they were shy and timid (Euthymius Zigabenus). But no doubt the significant θεασάμενος , κ . τ . λ . ( intuitus ), was accompanied by a glance into their hearts, John 2:25 . ποῦ μένεις ] correlative to the περιπατοῦντι , John 1:36 ; therefore: “ where dost thou sojourn? ” Polyb. xxx. 4. 10; Strabo, iii. p. 147. They regarded Him as a travelling Rabbi, who was lodging in the neighbourhood at the house of some friend. ἔρχεσθε κ . ὄψεσθε (see the critical notes); a friendly invitation to accompany Him at once.[121] They had sought only to know where the place was, so that they might afterwards seek Him out, and converse with Him undisturbed. We have not here the Rabbinical form of calling attention, בא וראה (Buxt. Lex.

Talm . p. 248; Lightfoot, p. 968), nor an imitation of Revelation 6:1 (Weisse), nor yet an allusion to Psalm 66:5 ; Psalm 66:9 , and a gentle reference on the part of Jesus to His Godhead (Hengstenberg), for which there was no occasion, and which He could not expect to be understood. ἦλθον , κ . τ . λ .] shows the simplicity of the narrative. μένει ] instance of insertion of the direct address, common in dependent clauses. Kühner, II. 594; Winer, p. 251 [E. T. p. 335]. τὴν ἡμέρ . ἐκ .] i.e . the remaining part of that day, not at once from that day onwards (Credner, against whom is Ebrard). ΔΕΚΆΤΗ ] that is, at the beginning of their stay with Him. We have no reason to suppose in John, as Rettig does in the Stud. u. Krit. 1830, p. 106, as also Tholuck, Ebrard, Ewald, the Roman mode of counting the hours (from midnight to midnight, therefore ten o’clock in the morning) instead of the Jewish , which is followed elsewhere in the N. T. and by Josephus (even Vit . 54), i.e . four o’clock in the afternoon; because there is time enough from 4 P.M. till late in the evening to justify the popular expression τὴν ἡμέρ . ἐκ .; because, moreover, in John 11:9 it is plainly the Jewish method which is followed; and because even in John 4:6 the same method best suits the context, and is not excluded in John 4:52 , while in John 19:14 it is with a harmonistic view that the Roman method of reckoning is resorted to.