John 14
I Am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life
1 "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
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?
3 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.
4 And you know the way to where I am going."
5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?"
6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
The word "the" in "the way" means "the only way". And in case we quibble with this assertion, Jesus states the same thing in the negative so we have no wriggle room. "No one" gets to the Father except through him. What does "No one" mean? It means "no one". To get to God, you must be a born-again Christian. That's a non-negotiable condition. Perhaps, one can't tell that from this verse alone, but combined with the rest of Scripture, this teaching of Jesus is clear. One just have to read John 3 - you must be born again, or you can neither see (John 3:3) nor enter (John 3:5) the kingdom of God.
The Father Revealed
7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."
8 Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us."
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'?
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.
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 Answered Prayer
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.
13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Many people claim to love Jesus, but when they are pressed as to what they mean, many of their explanations don't go beyond the fact that they have deep feelings for Jesus. That's a shallow concept of what it means to love Christ. If your love for Christ doesn't change your attitude towards: your personal sin, the world around you, Scripture, Christ and God; such that your behaviour changes. If your love for Christ doesn't change your life in any meaningful way. If your love for Christ means non-Christians can't tell you apart from unbelievers, then Jesus says you don't really love him at all, because, he says, to love him is to keep his commandments. Many people who claim to love Christ don't even bother to find out what his commandments are. How then can they even hope to know if they obey or break them?
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
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.
18 "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
Indwelling of the Father and the Son
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.
20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
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."
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?"
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.
"Keep" is τηρήσει, tērēsei; G5083 téreó: to watch over, to guard Original Word: τηρέω Part of Speech: Verb Transliteration: téreó Phonetic Spelling: (tay-reh'-o) Definition: to watch over, to guard Usage: I keep, guard, observe, watch over.
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.
Jesus explicitly links our love for him to the keeping of his words. The word "keep" is from the Greek word téreó G5083, which means: to observe, to watch over, to guard. Jesus says to love him is to guard his words. He makes this assertion both positively and negatively so we can be in no doubt as to his meaning. "His words" are both his commands i.e. all of God's teaching in the Bible, and more widely everything stated in the entire Bible including history. If you disbelieve any parts of the Bible and teach others to do the same, you should ask yourself if you are failing to keep the Lord's words. Compare this to what Jesus says in Luke 6:46.
The Gift of His Peace
25 "These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.
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.
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.
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.
29 And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.
30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me,
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.