John 14:21

He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(21) He that hath my commandments.—Comp. John 14:15 and John 5:36. This verse points out the successive degrees which led up to the full manifestation of Christ. The first step is the moral apprehension and practical observance of our Lord’s commandments, which necessarily result from love to Christ.

He it is that loveth me.—The next step is the special receptivity of the Father’s love which he who loves Christ possesses, and therefore there is a special sense in which the Father loves him. The words express with fulness of emphasis, “He it is, and he only.”

And I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.—The special love of the Son follows from the special love of the Father, and is accompanied by the full manifestation of the Son. This is further explained in John 14:23.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He that hath ... - This intimate union is further manifested by these facts:

1. That true love to Jesus will produce obedience. See John 14:15.

2. That those who love him will be loved of the Father, showing that there is a union between the Father and the Son.

3. That Jesus also will love them, evincing still the same union. Religion is love. The love of one holy being or object is the love of all. The kingdom of God is one. His people, though called by different names, are one. They are united to each other and to God, and the bond which unites the whole kingdom in one is love.

Will manifest myself to him - To manifest is to show, to make appear, to place before the eyes so that an object may be seen. This means that Jesus would so show himself to his followers that they should see and know that he was their Saviour. In what way this is done, see John 14:23.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, &c.—(See on [1853]Joh 14:15).

my Father and I will love him—Mark the sharp line of distinction here, not only between the Divine Persons but the actings of love in Each respectively, towards true disciples.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: our Lord here doth repeat what he had before said, John 14:15, declaring that there is no infallible indication of our love to Christ, but obedience, which is here expressed under two notions.

1. Having Christ’s commandments and keeping them: they must both concur to make a true indication of our love to Christ. It is possible that men may have Christ’s commandments in their ears, in their notion, in their mouths, and yet not keep them; they may hear them, they may know and remember them, they may talk of them, yet they may not keep them; for keeping them denotes universal, diligent and industrious, steady and constant obedience to them; and this alone will speak our love to Christ.

2. And if any man thus declareth his love to Christ, Christ declareth, that both he and his Father will take a pleasure and delight in him to do him good; and he shall not live only under the real benefits of his love to him, but under the sensible manifestations of it. Here is no mention of the Spirit’s coming with the Father and the Son, because the Son dwelleth in us by the Spirit.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them,.... He that has not merely the external revelation of them in the Bible; but has them written on his heart, by the finger of the Spirit of God, and keeps them under the influence of grace and strength received from him:

he it is that loveth me: others may talk of loving Christ, but this is the man that truly does love him; for his observance of Christ's commands is a proof and evidence that he loves him not in word only, but in deed and in truth: and to encourage souls to love and obedience, Christ adds,

he that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father; not that love to is the cause, condition, or motive of the Father's love to his people; nor does his love to them begin when they begin to love Christ; but this expression denotes some further and greater manifestation of the Father's love to such persons, and shows how grateful to the Father are love and obedience to the Son:

and I will love him; which must be understood in the same manner; Christ does not begin to love his people when they begin to love, and obey him; their love and obedience to him, spring from his love to them; which love of his towards them was from everlasting: but this phrase signs a clearer discovery of his love to them, which passeth knowledge; and some fresh mark and token of his affection for them; and which is explained in the next clause:

and will manifest myself to him; not in a visible way, or in a corporeal form, as he did to his disciples after his resurrection; but in a spiritual manner, as when he makes himself known to his people in ordinances, and favours them with communion with him, and they see his beauty, his fulness, his grace and righteousness, his power, and his glory.

Geneva Study Bible

He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will {k} manifest myself to him.

(k) I will show myself to him, and be known by him, as if he saw me with his eyes: but this showing of himself is not bodily, but spiritual, yet so plain that no other showing could be more evident.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 14:21. The conditions on which depended the manifestation of the departed Christ are then exhibited, ὁ ἔχων … ἐμαυτόν. The love to which Christ promises a manifestation of Himself is not an idle sentiment or shallow fancy, but a principle prompting obedience, ὁ ἔχων τὰς ἐντολάς μου, cf. 1 John 2:7; 1 John 4:21, 2 John 1:5; it means more than “hearing,” and is yet not equivalent to τηρῶν; it seems to point to the permanent possession of the commandments in consciousness. This finds its appropriate expression in τηρῶν αὐτάς—“keeping them,” observing them in the life. This is the expression and proof of love, and this love finds its response and reward in the love of the Father and of the Son, and in the manifestation of the Son to the individual. The appropriateness of introducing the Father and His love appears in John 14:24. The love of Christ is that which prompts the manifestation. ἐμφανίσω, the word is used by Moses in Exodus 33:13. Reynolds says: “This remarkable word implies that the scene or place of the higher manifestation will be in (ἐν) the consciousness of the soul”. The word however is currently used for outward manifestation; although here the manifestation alluded to is inward. Cf. Judas’ words. The nature of the manifestation has already been explained, John 14:19.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

21. hath my commandments, and keepeth them] Bears them in his mind and observes them in his life.

he it is] With great emphasis; he and no one else.

will manifest myself to him] Once more willing obedience is set forth as the road to spiritual enlightenment (see on John 7:17). The word for ‘manifest’ is not S. John’s favourite word (phaneroun) but one which he uses only in these two verses (emphanizein).

Bengel's Gnomen

John 14:21. Ἐγὼ, I) likewise as My Father.—ἀγαπήσω αὐτὸν, καὶ ἐμφανίσω αὐτῷ ἐμαυτὸν) Exodus 33:13, εἰ οὖν εὕρηκα χάριν ἐναντίου σου, ἐμφάνισόν μοι σεαυτὸν, If therefore I have found grace in Thy sight, manifest Thyself to me.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 21. - Then for a moment he turns from the eleven, and stretches out his searching gaze and far-sweeping love to every one who hath my commandments as a sure possession and lofty privilege and sufficient standard, and keepeth them, thus proving that he it is that loveth me; returning thus back to Ver. 15, where he said that love would induce and ought to compel to obedience; and he adds another and wonderful benediction: He will be loved by my Father, in a sense more intense than that in which God is said to love the world (John 3:16). God the Father loves those who love the Son, i.e. love the object of his own superlative affection. But who can this wondrous Being be who adds, as a climax of privilege and honor, as though it were more even than the love of the Father, I will love him, and will manifest myself in him (not ἀποκαλύψω or φανερώσω), not merely "disclose an undiscovered presence" or make evident a hidden glory, but I will take special means to disclose my Person and nature and goodness to him? Christ will do this to those who have and keep his commandments of self-forgetting love and perfect consecration. This remarkable word, ἐμφανίσω, implies that the scene and place of the higher manifestation will be "in" (ἐν) the consciousness of the soul. "The kingdom of God is within men. John 14:21

Vincent's Word Studies

Hath

"Who has in memory and keeps in life" (Augustine).

Will manifest (ἐμφανίσω)

Properly, of manifestation to the sight, as distinguished from δηλόω, to make evident to the mind (1 Corinthians 3:13; Colossians 1:8, etc.). A clear, conspicuous manifestation is indicated. Compare ye see me (John 14:19). "It conveys more than the disclosing of an undiscovered presence (ἀποκαλύπτω), or the manifesting of a hidden one (φανερόω)" (Westcott).