John 14:21 Study Bible: The one who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him."

◄ John 14:21 ►

Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him."

Study Bible

Whoever has My commandments
The phrase "has My commandments" implies possession and understanding of Jesus' teachings. The Greek word for "has" is "ἔχει" (echei), which denotes not just physical possession but an internalization and acceptance. In the historical context, Jesus' commandments are not merely rules but a way of life that reflects His teachings and character. This phrase emphasizes the importance of knowing and embracing the teachings of Christ as foundational to the Christian faith.

and keeps them
The word "keeps" comes from the Greek "τηρεῖ" (tērei), meaning to guard or observe. This suggests a vigilant and active effort to live according to Jesus' teachings. In a conservative Christian perspective, this is seen as a call to obedience and faithfulness, reflecting a life transformed by the Gospel. The historical context of the early church, which faced persecution, highlights the importance of steadfastness in keeping Christ's commandments.

is the one who loves Me
Here, love is demonstrated through action. The Greek word for love, "ἀγαπᾷ" (agapaō), is a selfless, sacrificial love that mirrors Christ's love for humanity. This phrase underscores the belief that true love for Jesus is evidenced by obedience to His commandments. In the scriptural context, love is not merely an emotion but a commitment to live in accordance with God's will.

The one who loves Me
Reiterating the previous point, this phrase emphasizes the personal relationship between the believer and Christ. It suggests that love for Jesus is the defining characteristic of a true disciple. Historically, this personal relationship was revolutionary, as it shifted the focus from ritualistic adherence to the law to a relational faith centered on Christ.

will be loved by My Father
This phrase highlights the reciprocal nature of divine love. The Greek word for "loved" is "ἀγαπηθήσεται" (agapēthēsetai), indicating a future promise of God's love. In a conservative Christian view, this reflects the Trinitarian relationship where the Father's love is extended to those who love the Son. It assures believers of their place in God's family, rooted in the historical covenantal promises of the Old Testament.

and I will love him
Jesus promises His personal love to those who love Him. The use of "ἀγαπήσω" (agapēsō) for "love" again emphasizes a deep, abiding love. This assurance of Christ's love is central to the believer's faith journey, providing comfort and strength. In the scriptural context, it reflects the intimate relationship between Christ and His followers, akin to the shepherd and his sheep.

and reveal Myself to him
The word "reveal" comes from the Greek "ἐμφανίσω" (emphanisō), meaning to manifest or make known. This promise of revelation indicates a deeper understanding and experience of Christ's presence. Historically, this revelation is seen as both a present reality through the Holy Spirit and a future hope in the fullness of God's kingdom. For conservative Christians, this underscores the transformative power of a relationship with Jesus, where He continually reveals His will and character to those who love Him.

Persons / Places / Events

1. Jesus Christ
The speaker of this verse, Jesus is addressing His disciples, providing them with guidance and assurance of His love and presence.

2. The Disciples
The immediate audience of Jesus' teaching, representing all believers who follow Christ's teachings.

3. God the Father
Mentioned as the one who loves those who love Jesus, highlighting the divine relationship between the Father and the Son.

4. The Upper Room
The setting of this discourse, where Jesus shares His final teachings with His disciples before His crucifixion.

5. The Holy Spirit
Although not directly mentioned in this verse, the context of John 14 includes Jesus' promise of the Holy Spirit, who aids believers in keeping His commandments.

Teaching Points

Love and Obedience
True love for Jesus is demonstrated through obedience to His commandments. This is not a legalistic requirement but a relational response to His love.

Divine Relationship
Loving Jesus results in a deeper relationship with God the Father, as both the Father and the Son express their love to the obedient believer.

Revelation of Christ
Jesus promises to reveal Himself to those who love and obey Him, indicating a personal and intimate relationship with Him.

Empowerment by the Holy Spirit
The ability to keep Jesus' commandments is empowered by the Holy Spirit, who dwells within believers.

Practical Love
Keeping Jesus' commandments involves practical expressions of love towards God and others, reflecting the greatest commandments.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does the connection between love and obedience in John 14:21 challenge your current understanding of your relationship with Jesus?

2. In what ways can you practically demonstrate your love for Jesus by keeping His commandments in your daily life?

3. How does the promise of Jesus revealing Himself to those who love Him encourage you in your spiritual journey?

4. Reflect on a time when you experienced God's love in a tangible way as a result of your obedience to His Word. How did it impact your faith?

5. How can the empowerment of the Holy Spirit help you overcome challenges in keeping Jesus' commandments, and what steps can you take to rely more on the Spirit's guidance?

Connections to Other Scriptures

John 15:10
This verse further emphasizes the connection between love and obedience, as Jesus speaks about abiding in His love through keeping His commandments.

1 John 5:3
This passage reiterates that love for God is demonstrated by keeping His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome.

Matthew 22:37-40
Jesus summarizes the commandments as loving God and loving others, which aligns with the call to keep His commandments as an expression of love.

Romans 5:5
The love of God is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, enabling us to love and obey Jesus.

James 1:22-25
This passage encourages believers to be doers of the Word, not just hearers, which aligns with the call to keep Jesus' commandments.

Sermons

Apprehending God	A. W. Tozer	John 14:21
Character and Privilege of True Christians	J. Brown, D. D.	John 14:21
Christ Known Only to the Loving	Homiletic Monthly	John 14:21
Love to Christ	T. Kidd.	John 14:21
Love to Christ	A. Maclaren, D. D.	John 14:21
Obedience the Proof of Love	A. Warrack, M. A.	John 14:21
Obedience the Sign of Love	Mrs. Geldart.	John 14:21
Practical Religion	T. H. Leary, D. C. L.	John 14:21
The Secret of Self-Consecration	J. Culross, D. D.	John 14:21
The Comforts of Christ	B. Thomas	John 14:18-21

People

Jesus, Judas, Philip, Thomas

Places

Jerusalem

Topics

Clearly, Commandments, Commands, Disclose, Keepeth, Keeping, Keeps, Laws, Love, Loved, Loves, Loveth, Loving, Manifest, Myself, Obeys, Reveal

Dictionary of Bible Themes

John 14:21

     2212   Christ, head of church
     2425   gospel, requirements
     5030   knowledge, of Christ
     5895   intimacy
     7922   fellowship, with God
     8115   discipleship, nature of
     8117   discipleship, benefits
     8136   knowing God, effects
     8209   commitment, to Christ
     8296   love, nature of
     8316   orthodoxy, in NT
     8405   commands, in NT
     8454   obedience, to God

John 14:10-24

5627 word

John 14:15-21

5805 comfort

John 14:20-21

2057 Christ, obedience

Library

Paul a Pattern of Prayer
TEXT: "If ye shall ask anything in my name I will do it."--John 14:14. Jesus testified in no uncertain way concerning prayer, for not alone in this chapter does he speak but in all his messages to his disciples he is seeking to lead them into the place where they may know how to pray. In this fourteenth chapter of John, where he is coming into the shadow of the cross and is speaking to his disciples concerning those things which ought to have the greatest weight with them, the heart of his message …
J. Wilbur Chapman—And Judas Iscariot

May 22 Evening
The Spirit helpeth our infirmities.--ROM. 8:26. The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.--What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God?--It is God which worketh in you. We know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which can not be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

August 7 Morning
The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name.--JOHN 14:26. If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.--If ye . . . being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?--Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

May 22 Morning
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.--JOHN 14:27. The world passeth away, and the lust thereof.--Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches. and knoweth not who shall gather them.--What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. Martha, Martha, thou are careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary hath …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

January 14 Morning
My Father is greater than I.--JOHN 14:28. When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven.--My Father, and your Father; . . . my God and your God. As the Father gave me commandment, even so I do.--The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.--Thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. Lord, shew us …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

August 13 Morning
He hath prepared for them a city.--HEB. 11:16. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.--An inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.--Here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.--Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

December 26 Evening
He is able . . . to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him.--HEB. 7:25. I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.--Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.--He which hath begun a good work …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

June 23 Morning
I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, even the Spirit of truth.--JOHN 14:16,17. It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if l depart, I will send him unto you. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.--Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.--The Spirit . . . helpeth our infirmities; …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

September 21 Evening
The communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all.--II COR. 13:14. I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.--He shall not speak of himself. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

June 29. "He Dwelleth with You and Shall be in You" (John xiv. 17).
"He dwelleth with you and shall be in you" (John xiv. 17). Do not fail to mark these two stages in Christian life. The one is the Spirit's work in us, the other is the Spirit's personal coming to abide within us. All true Christians know the first, but few, it is to be feared, understand and receive the second. There is a great difference between my building a house and my going to reside in that house and make it my home. And there is a great difference between the Holy Spirit's work in regenerating …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

November 9. "Because I Live Ye Shall Live Also" (John xiv. 19).
"Because I live ye shall live also" (John xiv. 19). After having become adjusted to our Living Head and the source of our life, now our business is to abide, absorb and grow, leaning on His strength, drinking in His life, feeding on Him as the Living Bread, and drawing all of our resources from Him in continual dependence and communion. The Holy Spirit will be the great Teacher and Minister in this blessed process. He will take of the things of Christ and show them unto us, and He will impart them …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

May 21. "We Will Come unto Him and Make Our Abode with Him" (John xiv. 23).
"We will come unto Him and make our abode with Him" (John xiv. 23). The Bible has always held out two great promises respecting Christ. First, I will come to you; and, second, I will come into you. For four thousand years the world looked forward to the fulfilment of the first. The other is the secret which Paul says has been hid from ages and generations, but is now made manifest to His saints, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. This is just as great a revelation of God as the incarnation …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

November 1. "We Will Come unto Him and Make Our Abode with Him" (John xiv. 23).
"We will come unto him and make our abode with him" (John xiv. 23). This idea of trying to get a holiness of your own, and then have Christ reward you for it, is not His teaching. Oh, no; Christ is the holiness; He will bring the holiness, and come and dwell in the heart forever. When one of our millionaires purchases a lot, with an old shanty on it, he does not fix up the old shanty, but he gets a second-hand man, if he will have it, to tear it down, and he puts a mansion in its place. It is not …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

May 3. "My Peace I Give unto You" (John xiv. 27).
"My peace I give unto you" (John xiv. 27). Here lies the secret of abiding peace--God's peace. We give ourselves to God and the Holy Spirit takes possession of our breast. It is indeed "Peace, Peace." But it is just then that the devil begins to turn us away, and he does it through our thoughts, diverting or distracting them as occasion requires. This is the time to prove the sincerity of our consecration and the singleness of our heart. If we truly desire His Presence more than all else, we will …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Faith in God and Christ
'Let not your heart be troubled ... believe in God, believe also in Me.'--JOHN xiv. 1. The twelve were sitting in the upper chamber, stupefied with the dreary, half-understood prospect of Christ's departure. He, forgetting His own burden, turns to comfort and encourage them. These sweet and great words most singularly blend gentleness and dignity. Who can reproduce the cadence of soothing tenderness, soft as a mother's hand, in that 'Let not your heart be troubled'? And who can fail to feel the tone …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Many Mansions'
'In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.'--JOHN xiv. 2. Sorrow needs simple words for its consolation; and simple words are the best clothing for the largest truths. These eleven poor men were crushed and desolate at the thought of Christ's going; they fancied that if He left them they lost Him. And so, in simple, childlike words, which the weakest could grasp, and in which the most troubled could find peace, He said to them, after having encouraged their …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Christ's Peace
'Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.'--JOHN xiv. 27. 'Peace be unto you!' was, and is, the common Eastern salutation, both in meeting and in parting. It carries us back to a state of society in which every stranger might be an enemy. It is a confession of the deep unrest of the human heart. Christ was about closing His discourse, and the common word of leave-taking came naturally to His …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Love and Obedience
'If ye love Me, keep My commandments.'--JOHN xiv, 15. As we have seen in former sermons, the keyword of the preceding context is 'Believe!' and that word passes now into 'Love.' The order here is the order of experience. There is first the believing gaze upon the Christ as He is revealed--the image of the invisible God. That kindles love, and prompts to obedience. There is another very beautiful and subtle link of connection between these words and the preceding. Our Lord has just been saying, 'Whatsoever …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Christ's Works and Ours
'Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father. 13. And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14. If ye shall ask any thing in My name, I will do it.'--JOHN xiv. 12-14. I have already pointed out in a previous sermon that the key-word of this context is 'Believe!' In three successive verses we find it, each time widening …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Comforter Given
And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.'--JOHN xiv. 16,17. The 'and' at the beginning of these words shows us that they are continuous with and the consequence of what precedes. 'If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments, and I will pray ... and He will …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Absent Present Christ
'I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more; but ye see Me: because I live, ye shall live also.'--JOHN xiv. 18,19. The sweet and gracious comfortings with which Christ had been soothing the disciples' fears went very deep, but hitherto they had not gone deep enough. It was much that they should know the purpose of His going, whither He went, and that they had an interest in His departure. It was much that they should have before them the …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Forerunner
'... I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.'--JOHN xiv. 2, 3. What divine simplicity and depth are in these words! They carry us up into the unseen world, and beyond time; and yet a little child can lay hold on them, and mourning hearts and dying men find peace and sweetness in them. A very familiar image underlies them. It was customary for travellers in those old days to send …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Gifts of the Present Christ
'At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you. 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.'--JOHN xiv. 20, 21. We have heard our Lord in the previous verse unveiling His deepest and strongest encouragements to His downcast followers. These were: His presence with them, their true sight of Him, and their participation in His life. The …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Who Bring Christ
'Judas saith unto Him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him. He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My sayings: and the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me.'--JOHN xiv. 22-24. This Judas held but a low place amongst the Apostles. In all the lists he is one of the …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

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