John chapter 14

vs 21

What Jesus has just said is a bit of a parallelism - he started in vs 15 talking about loving him and obeying his commands, and now he finishes this little speech with whoever obeys his commands loves him. He then expounds on it to show that the love will be reciprocal, and not just between himself and those who obey him, but with the Father too.

There is another important idea hidden away in this verse. It is to those who love and obey Jesus that he will "show" himself to (NASB says disclose, KJV says manifest). The idea being, then, that if you love Jesus, by obeying his commands, then he will reveal more of himself to you - your relationship and understanding of Jesus will grow.

vs 22

Bit of a smarter cookie, that Judas Notiscariot. This is quite a searching question, and one which is asked of us every time someone says "But what about all the people who haven't heard?"

vs 23

Jesus doesn't say it out and out, but instead is at pains to point out that what he has just said is not only for the Twelve. It is for anyone who does it. Anyone who loves Jesus and obeys his commands can have this relationship with God, and God and Jesus will make their home with him. This seems to me to be a reference to the Holy Spirit, who will be mentioned in a couple of verses' time.

Jesus won't make himself known to all people. He'll be dead soon. With that in mind, the message is clearer - go out and tell people about Jesus, so they can love him, because anyone who loves him will have a home with God.

vs 24

And the flip side is also true, that those who don't obey Jesus don't love him, and the suggestion most probably is that they will not have a home with God. Jesus thinks this is so important that he puts the stamp of God on his words. Of course, all Jesus' words have that stamp, but these ones he specifically mentions it.

vs 25

The teachings of Jesus, though, are only the beginning of the picture. He was only around for three and a bit years. Thankfully, though, there is more to the picture than that.

vs 26

There is another Skywalker, but it's not a person. This time, it's the Holy Spirit, and when it comes, it will teach all things, and also remind us of the things that Jesus said. Useful even more today, when we hadn't heard all of what Jesus had to say first hand.

vs 27

Certainly not peace as in "world peace". Rather, it is 'Jesus Peace' - the kind of peace which allows him to go and get nailed to a cross without complaint. And the apostles are going to need a lot of that peace too.

But it is more than that. It is not a worldly peace - that is, a fleeting peace, a thing that is here and then is gone. It is an eternal peace. Jesus Peace is not just for this world. It is an eternal peace. It starts now, and ends never.

And that peace should protect them from fear. They should not be troubled, but instead know that they have God's love and Jesus' love if they follow his commands.

vs 28

Jesus wants to go back to the Father. Going to bw with the Father is an awesome thing, and so if the disciples really love him, they wouldn't begrudge him that. I guess they just don't want him to have to get there via a cross.

vs 29

If it had happened suddenly, without warning, I think Christianity would have died on the spot. Even though the disciples didn't get it, and were troubled and afraid, they at least had been told what was going to happen, so that when it did happen, they could put it together.

vs 30-31

The time has come for Jesus to go and do this thing. He wants the disciples to make sure that they know that this is not the victory of Satan. It might look like it. It looks a lot like it. But Jesus is going out there willingly, not at the behest of evil, not to give evil victory. His example will be one of his own love for the Father, and his obedience to God's commands. What he has just spent all this time talking about, he is about to exemplify.