Yohanes 13:17

13:17 If you understand ¹  these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Yohanes 14:21-24

14:21 The person who has my commandments and obeys ²  them is the one who loves me. ³  The one ⁴  who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal ⁵  myself to him.”

14:22 “Lord,” Judas (not Judas Iscariot) ⁶  said, ⁷  “what has happened that you are going to reveal ⁸  yourself to us and not to the world?” 14:23 Jesus replied, ⁹  “If anyone loves me, he will obey ¹⁰  my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him. ¹¹  14:24 The person who does not love me does not obey ¹²  my words. And the word ¹³  you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.

Yohanes 15:10-14

15:10 If you obey ¹⁴  my commandments, you will remain ¹⁵  in my love, just as I have obeyed ¹⁶  my Father’s commandments and remain ¹⁷  in his love. 15:11 I have told you these things ¹⁸  so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete. 15:12 My commandment is this – to love one another just as I have loved you. ¹⁹  15:13 No one has greater love than this – that one lays down his life ²⁰  for his friends. 15:14 You are my friends ²¹  if you do what I command you.

[13:17]  ¹ tn Grk “If you know.”

[14:21]  ² tn Or “keeps.”

[14:21]  ³ tn Grk “obeys them, that one is the one who loves me.”

[14:21]  ⁴ tn Grk “And the one.” Here the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated to improve the English style.

[14:21]  ⁵ tn Or “will disclose.”

[14:22]  ⁶ tn Grk “(not Iscariot).” The proper noun (Judas) has been repeated for clarity and smoothness in English style.

[14:22]  sn This is a parenthetical comment by the author.

[14:22]  ⁷ tn Grk “said to him.”

[14:22]  ⁸ tn Or “disclose.”

[14:22]  sn The disciples still expected at this point that Jesus, as Messiah, was going to reveal his identity as such to the world (cf. 7:4).

[14:23]  ⁹ tn Grk “answered and said to him.”

[14:23]  ¹⁰ tn Or “will keep.”

[14:23]  ¹¹ tn Grk “we will come to him and will make our dwelling place with him.” The context here is individual rather than corporate indwelling, so the masculine singular pronoun has been retained throughout v. 23. It is important to note, however, that the pronoun is used generically here and refers equally to men, women, and children.

[14:24]  ¹² tn Or “does not keep.”

[14:24]  ¹³ tn Or “the message.”

[15:10]  ¹⁴ tn Or “keep.”

[15:10]  ¹⁵ tn Or “reside.”

[15:10]  ¹⁶ tn Or “kept.”

[15:10]  ¹⁷ tn Or “reside.”

[15:11]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “These things I have spoken to you.”

[15:12]  ¹⁹ sn Now the reference to the commandments (plural) in 15:10 have been reduced to a singular commandment: The disciples are to love one another, just as Jesus has loved them. This is the ‘new commandment’ of John 13:34, and it is repeated in 15:17. The disciples’ love for one another is compared to Jesus’ love for them. How has Jesus shown his love for the disciples? This was illustrated in 13:1-20 in the washing of the disciples’ feet, introduced by the statement in 13:1 that Jesus loved them “to the end.” In context this constitutes a reference to Jesus’ self-sacrificial death on the cross on their behalf; the love they are to have for one another is so great that it must include a self-sacrificial willingness to die for one another if necessary. This is exactly what Jesus is discussing here, because he introduces the theme of his sacrificial death in the following verse. In John 10:18 and 14:31 Jesus spoke of his death on the cross as a commandment he had received from his Father, which also links the idea of commandment and love as they are linked here. One final note: It is not just the degree or intensity of the disciples’ love for one another that Jesus is referring to when he introduces by comparison his own death on the cross (that they must love one another enough to die for one another) but the very means of expressing that love: It is to express itself in self-sacrifice for one another, sacrifice up to the point of death, which is what Jesus himself did on the cross (cf. 1 John 3:16).

[15:13]  ²⁰ tn Or “one dies willingly.”

[15:14]  ²¹ sn This verse really explains John 15:10 in another way. Those who keep Jesus’ commandments are called his friends, those friends for whom he lays down his life (v. 13). It is possible to understand this verse as referring to a smaller group within Christianity as a whole, perhaps only the apostles who were present when Jesus spoke these words. Some have supported this by comparing it to the small group of associates and advisers to the Roman Emperor who were called “Friends of the Emperor.” Others would see these words as addressed only to those Christians who as disciples were obedient to Jesus. In either case the result would be to create a sort of “inner circle” of Christians who are more privileged than mere “believers” or average Christians. In context, it seems clear that Jesus’ words must be addressed to all true Christians, not just some narrower category of believers, because Jesus’ sacrificial death, which is his act of love toward his friends (v. 13) applies to all Christians equally (cf. John 13:1).