Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world — to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
Pilate, the Roman governor, asks Jesus if He claims to be a king. Jesus answers by naming the reason He was born. His reply raises three questions: what kind of King is He, what did He come to do, and who can hear Him?
A King, but not from this world
Pilate hears a claim to royalty. The Lord does not drop that claim — but He points to where His kingdom comes from.
J. Wilson SmithIts source and character were of a new, heavenly kind, one to which the idea of armed warfare was completely foreign. He does not give up His claim as King of Israel — that always stands — but He rises into a higher region, and declares that He came for something more than to reign on earth.
So His kingship is real. But reigning was not what He came into the world to do.
L. M. GrantThe Lord's positive answer leaves Pilate with an uneasy conscience. In real fact He is a king, being born and coming into the world, not to reign, but to bear witness to the truth. Here is true moral kingly character shown in lowly grace and rejection before the time of His reigning as King of kings.
Born — and come into the world
Jesus says two things about His coming, not one. He was born, and He came into the world. Writers weigh that second phrase.
J. Wilson SmithTo come into the world He must have existed before that coming. And so we have His Godhead stated just as simply. We have the "I" who was born, and the "I" who came — the "I" of Bethlehem, and the "I" who was before Abraham. Yet He was the One who stood in human form and in lowly grace before Pontius Pilate.
Another writer pictures the scene from the judge's side of the room:
C. E. StuartWho ever heard a prisoner speak like this before his judge? The One who spoke was a man, for He was born. But He came into the world for a purpose. He does not now say that He was sent.
The mission: to bear witness to the truth
If He is a King who is not reigning yet, what is He doing here? His answer names a present ministry that Israel's refusal did not interrupt.
J. G. BellettFor a time the unbelief of His nation held back His possession of the kingdom. But He shows that God's purpose had not failed in this. He had come into the world for other present work than to take His throne in Zion.
This truth is not a theory. It has a content, and hearing it calls for obedience.
J. T. MawsonHe came to bear witness to the truth: to tell out what God is, in a world blinded and blighted by the devil's lie. He was the truth Himself... His kingdom is truth, there is no lie in it, and to hear His voice means to obey the truth, and to be in His kingdom means to be subject to Him.
"Everyone who is of the truth"
The last sentence goes straight to the man doing the questioning.
Hamilton SmithThe Lord appeals to the conscience of Pilate. Was he one who had come under the convicting power of the truth? All such hear the voice of the Lord. Sad to say, Pilate shows that the voice of Jesus had never reached his conscience or touched his heart. His flippant reply is: "What is truth?"
So who does hear His voice? Those who have already received life from God.
An Outline of Sound WordsThose who heard the voice of the Son of God had divine life in them. He who is the truth gave them that life, and that made them "of the truth." These wonderful words were lost on Pilate. He had not the divine capacity to receive them.
Why this moment is singled out
Of everything in the Lord's life, Paul chose this scene to hold up before Timothy.
J. Wilson SmithHe makes no reference to His glorious resurrection or ascension, nor to any of the miracles He did, though each of them bore such rich testimony to His power and grace. He takes special notice instead of His conduct before the judge.
And nothing anyone could see backed up what He said:
The Bible TreasuryJesus witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that He was a king, without any mark of royalty about Him. His confession seemed contradicted by His appearance.
Summary
- Born — He was born, so He is fully man. He came, so He existed before Bethlehem.
- King — He never drops the title. But His kingdom is of a heavenly kind, so no one fought for Him.
- Came — His work now was not to take a throne. It was to bear witness to the truth, and tell out what God is in a world living under a lie.
- Heard — those who are "of the truth" have already received life from God. They know His voice, and hearing it means obeying it.
- Followed — Paul points Timothy to this confession, not to the miracles. Jesus made it with nothing royal in sight to back it up.