14:1 Let 1 not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God,
believe also in me.
(1) He believes in God who believes in Christ, and there is no
other way to strengthen and encourage our minds during the
greatest distresses.
14:2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if [it were] not
[so], a I would have told you. I go to b prepare a
place for you.
(a) That is, if it were not as I am telling you, that is,
unless there was room enough not only for me, but also
for you in my Father's house, I would not deceive you
in this way with a vain hope, but I would have plainly
told you so.
(b) This whole speech is an allegory, by which the Lord
comforts his own, declaring to them his departure into
heaven; and he departs not to reign there alone, but to
go before and prepare a place for them.
14:32 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will c
come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am,
[there] ye may be also.
(2) Christ did not go away from us with the intent of forsaking
us, but rather that he might eventually take us up with him
into heaven.
(c) These words are to be understood as being said to the
whole Church, and therefore the angels said to the
disciples when they were astonished, "Why do you stand
gazing up into heaven? This Jesus will so come as you
saw him go up", (Ac 1:11). And in all places of
the Scripture the full comfort of the Church is
considered to be that day when God will be all in all,
and is therefore called the day of redemption.
14:43 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
(3) Christ alone is the way to true and everlasting life, for
it is he in whom the Father has revealed himself.
14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am d the way, the truth, and the
life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
(d) This saying shows unto us the nature, the will, and
office of Christ.
14:7e If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father
also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
(e) It is plain by this verse that to know God and to see
God is the same thing. Now whereas he said before that
no man saw God at any time, it is to be understood in
this way: without Christ, or were it not through
Christ, no man could ever see God, nor ever saw God, at
any time: for as Chrysostom says, the Son is a very
concise and plain setting forth of the Father's nature
to us.
14:104 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.
14:125 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on
me, the works that I do shall he do also; and f greater
[works] than these shall he do; because I go unto my
Father.
(5) Christ's power is not only shown within his own person, but
it is spread through the body of his entire Church.
(f) That is, not only do them, but I can also give other
men power to do greater.
14:156 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
(6) He loves Christ rightly who obeys his commandment: and
because obedience to Christ is accompanied with an infinite
type and amount of miseries, although he is absent in body,
yet he comforts his own with the present power of the Holy
Spirit, whom the world despises, because it does not know
him.
14:17 [Even] the g Spirit of truth; whom the h 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.
(g) The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth by
reason of that which he does, because he inspires the
truth into us, because he has the truth in himself.
(h) Worldly men.
14:20 At that day ye shall know that I [am] i in my Father,
and ye in me, and I in you.
(i) The Son is in the Father in such a way that he is of
one selfsame substance with the Father, but he is in
his disciples in a different way, as an aider and
helper of them.
14:21 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 k manifest myself
to him.
(k) I will show myself to him, and be known by him, as if
he saw me with his eyes: but this showing of himself
is not bodily, but spiritual, yet so plain that no
other showing could be more evident.
14:227 Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it
that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the
world?
(7) We must not ask why the gospel is revealed to some rather
than to others, but we must rather take heed that we
embrace Christ who is offered unto us, and that we truly
love him, that is to say, that we give ourselves wholly to
obeying him.
14:258 These things have I spoken unto you, being [yet]
present with you.
(8) It is the duty and responsibility of the Holy Spirit to
imprint in the minds of the elect, in their times and
seasons, that which Christ once said.
14:279 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.
(9) All true comfort and peace comes to us by Christ alone.
14:2810 Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and
come [again] unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice,
because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is
l greater than I.
(10) We should in no way be sorry for the departing of Christ
from us according to the flesh, but rather we should
rejoice in it, seeing that all the blessing of the body
depends upon the glorifying of the head.
(l) This is spoken in that Christ is mediator, for in this
regard the Father is greater than he, in as much as
the person to whom request is made is greater than he
that makes the request.
14:3011 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the
prince of this world cometh, and hath m nothing in me.
(11) Christ goes to death not unwillingly, but willingly, not
that he is yielding to the devil, but rather that he is
obeying his Father's decree.
(m) As one would say, "Satan will eventually set upon me
with all the might he can, but he has no power over
me, neither will he find any such thing in me as he
thinks he will."
