“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 14:21–24, ESV)
In verse 11 Jesus said, “Believe me that I am in the Father
and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”
(John 14:11, ESV) Jesus was speaking to His disciples and telling them to believe
that He and the Father are one, but if they could not grasp it, wrap their
minds around it, or settle it in their own minds then at least look to the
works and believe on account of the works. He had said before that the works
were to proof of Him being sent by the Father. The works testified to His words
affirming that He truly was who He said He was. And now He tells them that just
as He did what the Father wanted because of His love for the Father, so were
they to keep His words because of their love for Him.
John records for us several statements of the Father’s love
for Jesus. In John 3:35 it is John the Baptist testifying to the Father’s love with
these words, “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.”
(John 3:35, ESV) In chapter 5 Jesus spoke of the Father’s love for Him
personally and in this said, “For the Father loves the Son and shows him all
that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so
that you may marvel.” (John 5:20, ESV) Because of the love which the Father has
for the Son the Father showed Him all that He was doing and was even going to
demonstrate greater things through Him. And then in chapter 10 Jesus spoke of
the ultimate or greatest act that the Son was sent to do, which was to lay down
His life and then take it back up again so that man might be given his. “For
this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it
up again.” (John 10:17, ESV)
Clearly Jesus established that people who love do for those
they love. And just as the Father loved the Son, so would He love anyone who
loves the Son. And beyond that the Son would also love them and even manifest
Himself to them. Those who do not believe will not see the Son after His death
and burial, but those who love Him He would show Himself to them. One of the remaining
disciples who also was named Judas, but not the Judas who had already left,
spoke up and asked Jesus how could it be that He would be able to show Himself
to some and keep others from seeing Him.
In His response Jesus paralleled what He had already about
the relationship He had with the Father. Jesus had said that He demonstrated
His love for the Father by doing what the Father willed and that the Father
loved Him and was with Him. In a unique way Jesus is one with God. The Father
in Him and He in the Father. When it came to His followers Jesus said that
those who loved Him as demonstrated by their obedience the Father would also
love and “We”—Father, Son, and Spirit would come to them and make Their home with
them. In the next verses we will read again about the coming of the Spirit, and
particularly Jesus saying that through the coming of the Spirit that God—Father,
Son, and Spirt—“WE” would indeed come and dwell in believers. In contrast to
this Jesus also said that those who do not love Him will also prove it by their
actions—their lack of obedience.
And just as Jesus had said all along these words
were not His own, they were the words of the Father and they were totally
trustworthy. “and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been
poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
(Romans 5:5, ESV)
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