John 14:10

Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?—Comp. Note on John 10:38. He had there taught this truth to the Jews; but Philip’s words seem to show that even the disciples did not fully receive it. The order of the clauses is reversed here, in accordance with the thought of the context, which is of knowledge of the Son, and of the Father through the Son.

The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself.—This refers not to His present teaching only or chiefly, but to the whole of His manifestation of the character and attributes of God. All His words had been a revelation of the Father whom Philip now asks to see. (Comp. John 8:38.)

But the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.—The better reading is, but the Father that dwelleth in Me doeth His own works. This is the proof that He does not speak of Himself; and both clauses are together the proof of the indwelling of the Son in the Father and the Father in the Son. The works manifested in time in the power of the Incarnate Word are not His works, but those of the Father, who abides in the Son, and is revealed through Him. (Comp. John 8:28, and Note there.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

14:1-11 Here are three words, upon any of which stress may be laid. Upon the word troubled. Be not cast down and disquieted. The word heart. Let your heart be kept with full trust in God. The word your. However others are overwhelmed with the sorrows of this present time, be not you so. Christ's disciples, more than others, should keep their minds quiet, when everything else is unquiet. Here is the remedy against this trouble of mind, Believe. By believing in Christ as the Mediator between God and man, we gain comfort. The happiness of heaven is spoken of as in a father's house. There are many mansions, for there are many sons to be brought to glory. Mansions are lasting dwellings. Christ will be the Finisher of that of which he is the Author or Beginner; if he have prepared the place for us, he will prepare us for it. Christ is the sinner's Way to the Father and to heaven, in his person as God manifest in the flesh, in his atoning sacrifice, and as our Advocate. He is the Truth, as fulfilling all the prophecies of a Saviour; believing which, sinners come by him the Way. He is the Life, by whose life-giving Spirit the dead in sin are quickened. Nor can any man draw nigh God as a Father, who is not quickened by Him as the Life, and taught by Him as the Truth, to come by Him as the Way. By Christ, as the Way, our prayers go to God, and his blessings come to us; this is the Way that leads to rest, the good old Way. He is the Resurrection and the Life. All that saw Christ by faith, saw the Father in Him. In the light of Christ's doctrine, they saw God as the Father of lights; and in Christ's miracles, they saw God as the God of power. The holiness of God shone in the spotless purity of Christ's life. We are to believe the revelation of God to man in Christ; for the works of the Redeemer show forth his own glory, and God in him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I am in the Father - See the notes at John 10:38.

The words that I speak ... - See the notes at John 7:16-17.

The Father that dwelleth in me - Literally, "The Father remaining in me." This denotes most intimate union, so that the works which Jesus did might be said to be done by the Father. It implies a more intimate union than can subsist between a mere man and God. Had Jesus been a mere man, like the prophets, he would have said, "The Father who sent or commissioned me doeth the works;" but here there is reference, doubtless, to that mysterious and special union which subsists between the Father and the Son.

He doeth the works - The miracles which had been performed by Jesus. The Father could be said to do them on account of the intimate union between him and the Son. See John 5:17, John 5:19, John 5:36; John 10:30.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8-12. The substance of this passage is that the Son is the ordained and perfect manifestation of the Father, that His own word for this ought to His disciples to be enough; that if any doubts remained His works ought to remove them (see on [1851]Joh 10:37); but yet that these works of His were designed merely to aid weak faith, and would be repeated, nay exceeded, by His disciples, in virtue of the power He would confer on them after His departure. His miracles the apostles wrought, though wholly in His name and by His power, and the "greater" works—not in degree but in kind—were the conversion of thousands in a day, by His Spirit accompanying them.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I am in the Father, and the Father in me. It is the opinion of Mr. Calvin, that these words are not here spoken so much to express his Divine nature and being, (for so Christ is no more known to us than his Father), as to express his manner of revealing it. Yet is the Divine nature of Christ fully proved from hence. Others judge, that these words do clearly signify both the distinction of persons, for nothing is in itself, and also the union of the persons in the Divine Being. He proveth his union with the Father, because he spake not those words which he spake of himself; that is, not of himself solely; he revealed but his Father’s will, and declared his Father’s mind; and because the works which he did, he did not by his own sole power, without the concurrence of his Father’s power in those operations.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Believest thou not that I am in the Father?.... This surely is, as it must needs be, and ought to be, an article of your faith, "that I am in the Father",

and the Father in me; phrases which are expressive of the sameness of nature in the Father and the Son; of the Son's perfect equality with the Father, since the Son is as much in the Father, as the Father is in the Son; and also of the personal distinction there is between them; for nothing with propriety can be said to be in itself. The Father must be distinct from the Son who is in him, and the Son must be distinct from the Father, in whom he is; the Father and Son, though of one and the same nature, cannot be one, and the same person:

the words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself. The doctrines which I preach among you are a proof of what I assert, and to them I appeal; for these are not of myself, as man,

but the Father that dwelleth in me; and so prove that I am truly God, of the same nature with my Father; that he is in me, and I in him; since they are such as none but the only begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, could ever have declared and made known unto you; Likewise, the works which I do, as man, I do not of myself; but

he doth the works: for so this passage must be understood and supplied, in which Christ proceeds to another argument, taken from his works, proving the Father to be in him, and that he is in the Father, which, is enlarged on in John 14:11.

Geneva Study Bible

{4} Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

(4) The majesty of God shows itself most evidently both in Christ's doctrine and in his deeds.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

John 14:10-11. This language of thine amounts indeed to this: as though thou didst not believe that, etc.

ὅτι ἐγὼ ἐν τ. πατρὶ, κ.τ.λ.] On this mutual fellowship, which “virtutis potius quam essentiae elogium est” (Calvin), see on John 10:38. Comp. John 17:21. Here the ἐγὼ ἐν τ. πατ. stands first, because the matter in question is the way which the knowledge has to take from the Son to the Father.

τὰ ῥήματα … τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ] (see critical notes): the proof of this union of mine with the Father is, that I do not speak of myself; but the proof for that (for this ἀπʼ ἐμαυτοῦ οὐ λαλῶ) is, that the Father does His works through me. The δέ is therefore continuative (autem), not antithetical. Further, we must neither say that the ῥήματα are to be reckoned along with the ἔργα, nor that τὰ ἔργα signifies the business of teaching (Nösselt); but, from the fact that the Messianic works (see on John 5:36) are the works of the Father, it is inferred, with necessary dialectic certainty, from whom also the discourses of Jesus proceed; if the former are divine, the latter must be adequately related thereto. The first proposition is often arbitrarily supplemented from the second, and vice versâ.[145] This, however, does not agree with the Greek mode of allowing, in antithetic propositions, one clause to be completed from the other (Kühner, II. p. 603 f.; Bernhardy, p. 455), and would here run counter to the context, since Jesus, John 14:11, desires to have deduced from the ἔργα that which He had brought into light by τὰ ῥήματα … λαλῶ. Hence we are not to get out of the difficulty either by the assumption of an “incongruity in the antithetic propositions” (Tholuck), or, with Lange, pronounce that the words belong pre-eminently to the Son, the works pre-eminently to the Father, which is not contained in the expressions, and would be an un-Johannean halving of the thought (John 5:19, John 8:28, John 12:49); nor are we to assume, with Ewald, that a lesser significance is to be ascribed to the works in opposition to the words.

ὁ ἐν ἐμοὶ μένων] expressing the ὁ ἐν ἐμ. ὤν as enduring (he who does not depart from me). According to the reading ποιεῖ τ. ἔργα αὐτοῦ (see critical notes), the works of Jesus are set forth as the works of God, which the Father performs, that is, in virtue of His immanence in the Son, making them to operate in an outward direction.

John 14:11. From Philip, Jesus now turns to the disciples collectively, and that with an exhortation to the faith, in reference to which He had been obliged to question Philip in a manner implying doubt.

πιστεύετέ μοι] namely, without anything further, in addition to my personal assurance.

ὅτι] not because (Bengel), but that, as in John 14:10.

διὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτά] On account of the works themselves (in and of themselves), irrespective of my oral testimony, believe me in this. The works are the actual proofs of that fellowship, John 5:19-20, John 10:37-38.

[145] The words which I speak to you, I speak not of myself; and the works which I do, I do not of myself, but the Father who is in me. He teaches me the words, and does the works—De Wette, comp. Bengel.

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 14:10. οὐ πιστεύεις … ἐστι; This unbelief was involved in Philip’s question, but when the question of the mutual indwelling of the Father and Jesus was thus directly put to him, he would have no doubt as to the answer. Cf. John 10:38. The fact of the union is indisputable; the mode is inexplicable; some of the results are indicated in the words: τὰ ῥήματα … τὰ ἔργα. See John 7:16-18 and John 5:19. The mutual indwelling is such that everything Jesus says or does is the Father’s saying or doing. This was so obvious that Jesus could appeal to the works He did in case His assertion was disbelieved.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. Believest thou not] S. Philip’s question seemed to imply that he did not believe this truth, although Christ had taught it publicly (John 10:38). What follows is stated in an argumentative form. ‘That the Father is in Me is proved by the fact that My words do not originate with Myself; and this is proved by the fact that My works do not originate with Myself, but are really His.’ No proof is given of this last statement: Christ’s works speak for themselves; they are manifestly Divine. If matters little whether we regard the argument as à fortiori, the works being stronger evidence than the words; or as inclusive, the works covering and containing the words. The latter seems to agree best with John 8:28. On the whole statement that Christ’s words and works are not His own but the Father’s, comp. John 5:19; John 5:30, John 8:26-29, John 12:44.

the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works] The better reading gives us, the Father abiding in Me doeth His works (in Me). And thus the saying ‘Ye have seen the Father’ (John 14:7) is justified: the Father is seen in the Son.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 14:10. Ὅτι) that.—ἐν τῷ Πατρὶ—ἐν ἐμοί, in the Father—in Me) This intimates the highest degree of unity: ch. John 17:21, “Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee.”—ἔστι, is) This word contains the emphasis: for the consequent of this His Being [Esse] is His speaking and doing [loqui, facere: λαλῶ—ποιεῖ], and this His Being [Esse, ἔστι] is known by His words and deeds. Presently after comes the synonymous expression, that dwelleth in Me [μένων]. Hence from Their unity in operation, Their prior unity of essence shines forth the more apparent.—ῥήματα, the words) and, the works.—αὐτός) Himself.—ποιεῖ τὰ ἔργα, doeth the works) and speaketh the words. [What, in respect of those who were not on rather intimate terms with the Lord Jesus, are called signs and miracles, these, in conversation with His disciples, He simply calls works. No doubt to Christ Himself works of that sort were, as it were, ordinary and common.—V. g.]

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? Philip had heard in an inverted order these very words (see John 10:38). He might have grasped their meaning; two aspects of the same Divine truth or reality - the reciprocal fellowship between the Father and the Son, between the Father and the Effulgence of the Father's glory who is now the God-Man. I am in the Father, I the God-Man am in the Father, as the Logos has ever been in him and proceeding from him. I, who was forever in the bosom of the Father in heaven though on earth, am in the Father now, as the sun dwells in its own effluent light; and the Father is in me, seeing I am the Image of his substance, the Agent of his purpose, the Speaker of his words, the Doer of his works. The words (ῤήματα) which I speak (λέγω, R.T.) unto you - those words which are "spirit and life" (John 6:63), those "words of eternal life," according to Peter's grand confession (John 6:68, 69) - I do not utter (λαλῶ) from myself; i.e. they are the words of the Father, and also the proof that I am in the Father, but the Father worketh always and ever more in and through the Son, these works which may seem to be mine as the Son of man, but are the operation of the Father himself, he who abides in the Son. And the Father abiding in me, doeth his works. These works of mine (ἔργα) are all signs (σημεῖα) of my relation to the Father. They are indications to Philip of the nature, and quality, and character, and feeling towards him of the Father himself. John 14:10

Vincent's Word Studies

Of myself (ἀπ' ἐμαυτοῦ)

Rev., better, from myself. See on John 7:17.

The Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works (ὁ δὲ πατὴρ ὁ ἐν ἐμοὶ μένων, αὐτὸς ποιεῖ τὰ ἔργα)

The best texts read, ὁ δὲ πατὴρ ἐν ἐμοὶ μένων ποιεῖ τὰ ἔργα αὔτου; the Father abiding in me doeth His works. Philip doubts whether Christ is in the Father, and the Father in Him. The answer is twofold, corresponding to the two phases of the doubt. His words, spoken not from Himself, are from the Father, and therefore He utters them from within the Father, and is Himself in the Father. His works are the works of the Father abiding in Him; therefore the Father is in Him.