John 14:11

Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) Believe me that I am in the Father.—He passes now from Philip, and addresses Himself to the whole body of the apostles. He claims from them a personal trust in Himself, which should accept His statement that He and the Father were immanent in each other.

Or else believe me for the very works’ sake.—If they cannot receive the truth on the testimony of His word, He will take lower ground with them. He will place before them the evidence He had placed before the Jews. Let them, if they will not hear Him, believe on account of the very works which He had done. (Comp. Note on John 5:19-20; John 10:37-38.)

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

Believe me ... - Believe my declarations that I am in the Father, etc. There were two grounds on which they might believe; one was his own testimony, the other was his works.

Or else - If credit is not given to my words, let there be to my miracles.

For the very works' sake - On account of the works; or, be convinced by the miracles themselves. Either his own testimony was sufficient to convince them, or the many miracles which he had performed in healing the sick, raising the dead, etc.

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

Believe my words (for that is your duty); but yet if you will not believe my words, declaring to you my union with my Father, yet when you see me doing such works as none but God can do, believe me for their sake. It is true, that both the prophets and the apostles spake God’s words, not their own, to the people, and also did many great and mighty works; but still their doctrine led unto another, that was Christ; and their miracles were not wrought in their own names, but in the name of Christ. Elijah raised the Shunammite’s dead child to life by prayer to God that he would do it; and the apostles bid the lame man arise and walk, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ’s doctrine terminated in himself; he called men to believe in him, and he wrought miracles by his own power, and by a virtue proceeding out of and from himself, though by the power of his Father also, because he and his Father were one in essence.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me,.... Take my word for the truth of this; you may assure yourselves that nothing is more certain; but if you will not believe upon my saying so, either believe for the sake of the doctrines I have preached unto you, which are such as never any mere man spoke, and which have been delivered in such a manner, and with such authority, as never were by man. Some copies read, by way of interrogation, and so the Ethiopic version; and the Vulgate Latin version reads, "believe ye not?"

or else believe me for the very work's sake: meaning his miraculous works, such as raising the dead, cleansing the lepers, causing the deaf to hear, and giving sight to the blind; and which were such as none but a divine person could ever perform.

Geneva Study Bible

Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 14:11. πιστεύετέ μοι … πιστεύετε. “Believe me,” i.e., my assertion, not my manifestation, “or if you find that difficult, believe on account of the works themselves”. The mention of His works and the evidence they afford that He is in the Father suggests to Him a ground of comfort for His disciples in view of His departure. And from this point onwards in this chapter it is to the comforting of the disciples our Lord addresses Himself. First, in John 14:12-14; second, in John 14:15-17; third, in John 14:18-21. The mention of the Paraclete in connection with this third item of encouragement gives rise to a fourth interruption, this time by Judas, John 14:22-24; and at John 14:25. Jesus resumes His explanation of the Paraclete’s function, and closes with several considerations calculated to remove their fears.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. Believe me] The English obliterates the fact that Christ now turns from S. Philip and addresses all the eleven: ‘believe’ is plural not singular. ‘You have been with Me long enough to believe what I say; but if not, at any rate believe what I do. My words need no credentials: but if credentials are demanded, there are My works.’ He had said the same, somewhat more severely, to the Jews (John 10:37-38); and he repeats it much more severely in reference to the Jews (John 15:22; John 15:24). Note the progress from ‘believe Me’ here to ‘believe on Me’ in the next verse; the one grows out of the other.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 14:11. Πιστεύετέ μοι) Non creditis is the reading of the Lat. Vulg. arising from alliteration [the transcriber’s eye catching the similar letters and word] at the preceding verse, which also had, Non credis quia. Thence the Latin transcriber also has omitted mihi[347] also at the end of the verse. Believe, Believe: an instance of Epanalepsis [See Append., “When the same word is in the beginning of the preceding member, and in the end of the following member of the sentence”].—ὅτι) because [but Engl. Vers. that]: with which comp. the διά, for the sake of presently after. Believe Me for the sake of, My very affirmation, which is sufficient ground for believers to rest on. This is the first motive to faith; one which Christ alone could have proposed: a second is afforded by the miracles, on account of which the apostles also could have been believed [could claim their hearers’ faith] concerning Christ.—ἔργα, the works) which ye have heretofore seen, and which ye are about to see: John 14:12, etc., “Greater works than these shall he do.” [For these could not have been of any other, save Divine origination. Psalm 72:18, “The Lord God—who only doeth wondrous things;” Psalm 136:4, “To Him, who alone doeth great wonders.” The footing on which false miracles rest is altogether distinct: 2 Thessalonians 2:9, “The working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders.”—V. g.]—πιστεύετέ μοι, believe Me) εἰς ἐμέ, on Me, in the foll. verse. He who believes Christ, when speaking concerning Himself, believes on Christ: whereas, he who believes Peter, when speaking concerning Christ, believes not on Peter, but on Christ.

[347] This word, both in the beginning and in the end of this verse, though it is not reckoned among the inferior readings by the margin of Ed. 2, yet is exiled from the second place [the end of the verse] by the Germ. Vers.—E. B. ABQab Rec. Text have μοι at the end of the ver. But Dc Vulg. Syr. and L omit it.—E. and T.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - Believe me when I say that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, on the ground of my simple affirmation. My words are spirit and life, and carry their own evidence with them. Christ is not here antithetically contrasting (as Lange suggests) words and works, as though the words were his, and the works the Father's; but he is appealing to their spiritual intuition of truth which is legible by its own light as eternal and Divine, and then reminding them that they may fail in transcendental vision and fall back on reason and its processes, which will come nearer to their understanding - Or else (εἰ δὲ μή), if it be after all that you cannot take my words as the Father's words, as the utterance of the Divine thought, believe me - believe that I am in the Father, etc. - by reason of the very works which are the witness of the Father's power, holiness, and love. In this last appeal he turns from Philip to the whole group of the apostles. Miracles are, if not primary evidence, secondary and convincing evidence, where the eye has been blinded by the mists of doubt, and the vision of the Father confused and withheld by lack of inward purity. Moreover, by Christ's ἔργα are meant, not merely the supernatural portents, but all the work of his life, all the healing of souls, all the conversion of souls, all the indubitable issues of his approach to the heart of man. The great ἔργον is salvation from sin, the gift of righteousness, and the life where before there was moral death (see notes, Vers. 19,20; John 10:37, 38). John 14:11

Vincent's Word Studies

Believe me (πιστεύετέ μοι)

The plural of the imperative: "believe ye me." Compare believest thou, John 14:10. These words are addressed to the disciples collectively, whose thought Philip had voiced.

Or else (εἰ δὲ μὴ)

Literally, but if not. If you do not believe on the authority of my personal statement.

For the very works' sake (διὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτὰ)

Literally, on account of the works themselves, irrespective of my oral testimony.