Judas, not the Iscariote, says to him, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us and not to the world?
Jesus had just promised to show Himself to the one who loves and obeys Him. One of His twelve disciples stumbled over it at once. Judas expected the Messiah to take His kingdom in public. How could He appear to a few followers while the world saw nothing?
John names the questioner and keeps him clear of the betrayer. Commentators say this disciple appears elsewhere in the Gospels under another name, and that Scripture records little else about him.
Another disciple breaks in here — Judas, called Thaddaeus in Matthew 10:3 and in Mark 3:18. This Gospel carefully sets him apart from the traitor Iscariot. This is his only recorded remark.
Judas was not slow-witted; he simply expected something else. He hoped for a visible kingdom, and a private showing did not fit that hope. Writers say the same mistake repeats today.
Judas has Jewish thoughts and Jewish hopes in his mind, and these words baffle him. He does not realise the change that was coming. He still holds to the idea of a visible kingdom about to be set up. So he cannot understand how this can be if the Lord does not show Himself to the world. His own brothers had a similar thought when they said, "Show yourself to the world" (John 7:4). The same ignorance is still with us. Many true Christians do not grasp the calling of the church, or the character of the day we live in. In various ways they still say to the Lord, "Show yourself to the world."
Judas was trying to hold two of Jesus' sayings together, and they would not fit. One writer says his question is the one we all want answered.
He voices the question we all long to have answered. ... Here the Lord had brought together two ideas that seem to clash: "the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me," and again, "I will manifest Myself to him." How can He be hidden from the world and yet show Himself to the individual? ... Love in the heart for the Son of God produces obedience to His commandments. Where obedience to the Lord's revealed will grows out of love for Him, He discloses Himself — His glories, His offices, His graces.
The mistake lay in what Judas pictured. He assumed any showing of Christ must be one the eye could catch. To him, seeing Christ and seeing Him in public were the same thing.
Judas (not Iscariot) did not understand this. He saw no further than a bodily showing of Christ, the kind the world could also see. So Jesus adds that the Father would love the truly obedient disciples, and that the Father and He Himself would come and make their home with him. Here He speaks in a wider and more spiritual way of His word, not just of His commandments. So where there is obedience, He and the Father live in us. We wait for the day when we shall go and live with Jesus in the Father's presence.
Christ will still show Himself to the world one day. One writer weighs the obedience of that day against obedience now.
One day the Messiah will show Himself to the world. That will be when the world-kingdom of our Lord and of His Anointed has come. Then many will offer a pretended obedience, held in check by the display of His power and glory. Obedience now, while He is absent, faces a harder test, and is precious to Him because it is real.
In His reply Jesus moves from keeping His commandments to keeping His word. Commentators say the change asks for a different depth of obedience.
Where obedience is only skin-deep, and self-will or worldliness goes unjudged, a commandment is always needed to enforce it. So people ask, "Must I do this? Is there any harm in that?" To such people the Lord's will is only a matter of command. There are commandments, and they express His authority; they are not burdensome. But there is more. Where the heart loves Him deeply, His word is enough to show His will to the one who loves Christ. Even in natural life a parent's look will do it.
- Asked — The questioner is Judas, also called Thaddaeus, not the betrayer. This is his only recorded word.
- Assumed — He expected a bodily, public showing of Christ — the visible kingdom he had hoped for.
- Answered — Jesus points instead to an inward showing. The Father and the Son make their home with the one who obeys.
- Advanced — The reply moves from commandments to word: from "must I?" to a love that reads His will without a command.
- Awaited — The public display will come. Obedience given while He is absent is real, and precious to Him.
Jesus answered and said to him, If any one love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him.
Judas — not Iscariot — had just asked why the Lord would show Himself to His followers and not to the world. This verse is His answer, and it ties three things together: love for Christ, keeping His word, and the Father and the Son coming to live with the one who loves.
The disciples had only known Christ in bodily presence. His answer points to another kind of presence.
He could not understand how the Lord would show Himself to them, and not to the world. They had of course never known a spiritual presence of Christ apart from a bodily one. The Lord answers him... He joins the Father with Himself. So it was plain, and Judas no doubt understood it, that He was speaking of showing Himself in spirit, and not in bodily presence.
Here the Lord asks for keeping His word, not only His commandments. One writer marks the difference:
The word differs from the commandments of Christ in one way only: it is the full revelation of His mind, while the commandments have to do with details — for instance, the often-repeated one, that we love one another. There is not a commandment for everything. But His word covers the whole range of life, and it leaves no room for the subtle plea of self-will that His will is not revealed.
One writer tells a story:
A loving mother goes out from her house one morning. Before she goes, she calls her daughter and names several jobs to do while she is out, and several more that she herself will do when she gets back. When she comes back, she finds her child has been obedient and has done what she was told. But when she turns to do the things she meant to do herself, she finds them all done. She says to her daughter, "I did not tell you to do these things." "No," replies the child, "but I thought you would be pleased if I did them." She has kept her mother's words... Keep My commandments, says the Lord, and I will pay you a visit; keep My word, and My Father and I will make our abode with you.
This verse names a love that is not where salvation starts:
It is not sovereign grace which first loves the poor sinner: here the Father loves the soul which shows its affection for the Saviour in keeping His words. It is fatherly government, the satisfaction of the Father's heart because the Son is honoured and obeyed.
The promise carries a condition:
See how large a blessing depends on our keeping His Word. Never overlook this: the love of the Father in this passage, and the Father and the Son coming to make their abode with us, are entirely conditional.
The Lord does not say "I". He speaks in the plural, and one writer counts that plural wider still.
One loving and obedient heart becomes the abode of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The shrine of the Trinity is in the heart of one who loves the Lord.
The word translated "home" here is the same word used in verse 2, which older translations render "mansions."
"We will take a mansion in his heart." It is a wonderful thing to say, "He has a mansion for me up there." But it is far more wonderful to think that He will come down and take a mansion for Jesus and the Father in our hearts!... The Father and the Son doing what? Visiting? No, but dwelling.
One writer sets the two homes in order:
Note the position of believers: until we make our home in the Father's house, He makes His home in us.
The promise names no rank, no setting and no advantage — only love and a treasured word.
Christ has gone to prepare an abode for you in the Father's house. So you prepare an abode in your house for the Father and the Son, as you love the Lord and treasure His word. It may be an attic up the stairs, with only a few sticks for furniture and not many comforts in this world. But there your Father and your Saviour will abide with you.
- Love starts it. It begins with affection for Christ, not with duty. Obedience is the evidence, not the cause.
- Word widens it. Commandments cover details. His word is the full revelation of His mind, and it leaves self-will no excuse.
- The Father joins it. His love here is His satisfaction in seeing His Son honoured. It is His dealing with a child, not grace first reaching a sinner.
- "We" enlarges it. Father and Son together — and by the Spirit — so that one obedient heart becomes their dwelling.
- Home crowns it. The word is the same as "mansions" in verse 2: until we go home to Him, He makes His home in us — dwelling, not visiting.