John 14:20

14:18-24 Christ promises that he would continue his care of his disciples. I will not leave you orphans, or fatherless, for though I leave you, yet I leave you this comfort, I will come to you. I will come speedily to you at my resurrection. I will come daily to you in my Spirit; in the tokens of his love, and visits of his grace. I will come certainly at the end of time. Those only that see Christ with an eye of faith, shall see him for ever: the world sees him no more till his second coming; but his disciples have communion with him in his absence. These mysteries will be fully known in heaven. It is a further act of grace, that they should know it, and have the comfort of it. Having Christ's commands, we must keep them. And having them in our heads, we must keep them in our hearts and lives. The surest evidence of our love to Christ is, obedience to the laws of Christ. There are spiritual tokens of Christ and his love given to all believers. Where sincere love to Christ is in the heart, there will be obedience. Love will be a commanding, constraining principle; and where love is, duty follows from a principle of gratitude. God will not only love obedient believers, but he will take pleasure in loving them, will rest in love to them. He will be with them as his home. These privileges are confined to those whose faith worketh by love, and whose love to Jesus leads them to keep his commandments. Such are partakers of the Holy Spirit's new-creating grace.

John 14:20 . ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ , “in that day,” which does not mean Pentecost, but the new Christian era which was to be characterised by these experiences. Cf. Holtzmann. The sense of a new life produced by Christ would compel the conviction ὅτι ἐγὼ ἐν τῷ πατρί … “that I am in the Father” in vital union with the source of all life, “and that you are in me,” vitally connected with me so as to receive that life that I live, “and I in you,” filling you with all the fulness that is in myself, living out my own life in and through you, and finding in you room for the output of all I am.

Some understand our Saviour here speaking of the day of his resurrection; others interpret it of the days of Pentecost, when there should be such an effusion of the blessed Spirit: but the following words discover, that it is best interpreted of the day of judgment, and the general resurrection: for they speak of two great mysteries, which the disciples should understand in that day which is here spoken of; to wit, the personal union of Christ with his Father, and the mystical union of believers with Christ: as to both which, though the apostles and believers knew much more after Christ’s resurrection, and the pouring forth of the Spirit in the days of Pentecost, than they knew before those times; yet it is a very imperfect knowledge they ever had, or yet have, of those mysterious unions; but in the resurrection we shall understand these things clearly.

20 . At that day ] Comp. John 16:23 ; John 16:26 . Pentecost, and thenceforth, to the end of the world. They will come to know , for experience will teach them, that the presence of the Spirit is the presence of Christ, and through Him of the Father. ye in me, and I in you ] Comp. John 15:4-5 , John 17:21 ; John 17:23 ; 1 John 3:24 ; 1 John 4:13 ; 1 John 4:15-16 .

John 14:20 . Ἐκείνῃ , in that ) after that “little while” ( ἔτι μικρόν ).— ἡμέρᾳ day ) the day of the Resurrection.— γνώσεσθε , ye shall know ) better than we do now.— ὑμεῖς ) ye , concerning whom see the following verses.— ἐν τῷ ) in My Father , viz. the living Father , ch. John 6:57 . Understand, and the Father in Me ; and infer, the Father in you, and you in the Father .

(20) At that day ye shall know — i.e., the day of the gift of the Comforter, in whom Christ shall come to them. In the first reference the Day of Pentecost is meant, but the words hold good of every spiritual quickening, and will hold good of the final coming in the last day. The pronoun “ ye” is emphatic—“Ye shall know for yourselves.” That I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.—Comp. Note on John 10:38. The result of this spiritual illumination would be that they should of themselves know the immanence of the Son in the Father, and their own union with the Father through Him. They ask now (John 14:8) for a manifestation of the Father. The Spirit should so bring the life of Christ to their hearts that they would read in it the manifestation of the Father, and feel that in and through that life their own spirit has communion with God. The Spirit would witness with their spirit that they were the children of God. They would seek no longer for a Theophany from without, but in the depth of their inmost lives would cry, “Abba, Father.”

At that day - In the time when my life shall be fully manifested to you, and you shall receive the assurance that I live. This refers to the time after his resurrection, and to the manifestations which in various ways he would make that he was alive. That I am in my "Father ... - That we are most intimately and indissolubly united. See the notes at John 10:38. Ye in me - That there is a union between us which can never be severed. See the notes at John 15:1-7.

John 14:20-21 . At that day ;[153] in the historical fulfilment this was the day of Pentecost. Not: at that time (De Wette), or, as Hengstenberg twists it: in the period of time , beginning with the day of the resurrection (comp. Weiss); for a definite fact, marked off in point of time, is treated of, and this is the advent of Christ in the Paraclete. Comp. John 16:23 . γνώσεσθε , κ . τ . λ .] This dynamic immanence of Christ in the Father (see on John 10:38 ), which exists even in His state of exaltation ( Colossians 3:3 ), like the analogous reciprocal relation between Him and the disciples, according to which they live and move in Him and He in them ( Galatians 2:20 ), was to become for them a matter of experimental acquaintance through the Spirit. John 14:21 . General moral condition of this promised ΓΝΏΣΕΣΘΕ . Comp. John 14:15 . Ὁ ἜΧΩΝ, Κ.Τ.Λ. ] Augustine: “qui habet in memoria et servat in vita.” The ἜΧΕΙΝ , however, is rather the internal possession of the commandments, obtained by faith, the appropriated living presence of them in the believing consciousness, as the consequence of the ἀκούειν . Comp. John 5:38 . ἘΚΕῖΝΌς ἘΣΤΙΝ ] with great and exclusive emphasis. In ἈΓΑΠΗΘΉΣ. and ἈΓΑΠΉΣΩ lies the peculiar mutual love. ΚΑῚ ἘΓῺ ἈΓΑΠ. ] Ὡς ἈΜΦΟΤΈΡΩΝ ΤᾺ ΑὐΤᾺ ΘΕΛΌΝΤΩΝ Κ. ἈΠΟΔΕΧΟΜΈΝΩΝ , Euth. Zigabenus. ἘΜΦΑΝΊΣΩ ΑὐΤῷ ἘΜΑΥΤΌΝ ] corresponds to the ΓΝΏΣΕΣΘΕ , which was to commence through this very causing of Himself to appear in virtue of the communication of the Spirit.

On ἐμφαν ., comp. Exodus 33:13 ; Exodus 33:18 ; Sap. John 1:2 ; Matthew 27:53 . The expression is such, that it sets forth the relation of the self-demonstration of the Lord to His individual loving ones , not His manifestation at the Parousia , which certainly will be glorious and universal (in answer to Luthardt). Those who explain it of the resurrection of Christ understand the appearances of the Risen One to be referred to, 1 Corinthians 15 (Grotius, Hilgenfeld, and many others). [153] Luthardt, according to his view of the entire passage, must understand the day of the Parousia , whereby he assigns to γνώσεσθε the moment of the completed knowledge.

John THE GIFTS OF THE PRESENT CHRISTJohn 14:20 - John 14:21 . We have heard our Lord in the previous verse unveiling His deepest and strongest encouragements to His downcast followers. These were: His presence with them, their true sight of Him, and their participation in His life. The first part of our present text is closely connected with these, for it gives us their upshot and consequence. Because Christ’s true disciple is conscious of Christ’s presence, sees Him with the eyes of his spirit, and draws life from Him, therefore he will know by experience the deep truths of Christ’s indwelling at once in the Father and in His servant, and of His servant’s indwelling in Him. Our Lord had just previously been exhorting His disciples to believe that He was in the Father and the Father in Him; and had been gently wondering at the slowness of their faith. Now He tells them that, when He is gone, their spiritual stature will be so increased as that they shall know the thing which, with Him by their side, they found it so hard to believe. The second part of our present text is the close of this whole section of our Lord’s discourse, and in it He urges the requirement of practical obedience, as the sign and test of love, and as the condition of receiving these high and wonderful things of which He has been speaking.