john 4:16 19 commentary

We discuss being disciples not admirers of Christ. First, a new nature is insisted on the Holy Ghost's quickening of each soul who is vitally related to God's kingdom; next, the Spirit of God takes an active part not as source or character only, but acting sovereignly, which opens the way not only for a Jew, but for "every one." It was not intended for other beings it was God's free gift to man, to the believer, of course. Whosoever denieth the Son hath not the Father; he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. 18 There is no fear in love. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. 17 And as we live So bright was His glory, so concerned was the Father in maintaining it, so immense the blessing if received, so tremendous the stake involved in its loss, that God vouchsafed the amplest and clearest witnesses. He distinguishes between seducing spirits, and faithful ministers of the word; the former are of the world, speak of worldly things, and worldly men hear them; but the latter are of God, and they that have any spiritual knowledge of God hear them; but such as are not of God do not heal them, by which may he known the spirit of truth from the spirit of error, 1Jo 4:5,6. Heavenly things are set in evident contradistinction, and link themselves immediately here, as everywhere, with the cross as their correlative. Man was judged: another Man was there, the Lord from heaven, soon to stand in resurrection. God is love. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. This gives occasion to Jesus to teach us the lesson that conscience must be reached, and sense of sin produced, before grace is understood and brings forth fruit. Meanwhile, for Christian worship, the hour was coming and in principle come, because He was there; and He who vindicated salvation as of the Jews, proves that it is now for Samaritans, or any who believed on account of His word. "He was in the world, and the world was made by him." This statement (verse John 1:15) is a parenthesis, though confirmatory of verse John 1:14, and connects John's testimony with this new section of Christ's manifestation in flesh; as we saw John introduced in the earlier verses, which treated abstractly of Christ's nature as the Word. So it must be now; for God is revealed; and the Father in grace seeks true worshippers (be they Samaritans or Jews) to worship Him. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? In these two points of view, more particularly, John gives testimony to Christ; He is the lamb as the taker away of the world's sin; the same is He who baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. 1. Johns answer goes down to the depths, for his notion of love is the response of the believing soul to the love of God which was manifested on the Cross of Calvary. The healing of the courtier's son, sick and ready to die, is witness of what the Lord was actually doing among the despised of Israel. What is there in God more truly divine than grace and truth? d. He said to His mother, Woman, behold your son : Jesus consciously cared for His Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry commended World Economic Forum attendees on Tuesday, saying their efforts to combat climate change were "almost extraterrestrial." They had eyes, but they saw not; ears had they, but they heard not, nor did they understand His glory. But He, being God, was manifesting and, on the contrary, maintaining the divine glory here below. Flesh and world are judged morally. It is not merely a Messiah, who comes and offers Himself, as we find in other gospels, with most painstaking diligence, and presented to their responsibility; but here from the outset the question is viewed as closed. Herein is our loveb made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. But there was this difference from the former occasion, that, at the marriage in Cana (John 2:1-25), the change of the water into wine was clearly millennial in its typical aspect. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 8 He himself was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. 17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. So in the baptism with the Holy Ghost, who would pretend to such a power? For if the Son (cast out, we may say, in principle from Judaism) visited Samaria, and deigned to talk with one of the most worthless of that worthless race, it could not be a mere rehearsal of what others did. Nor would the rejected Christ, the Son of man; for if lifted up on the cross, instead of having the throne of David, the result would be not merely earthly blessing for His people according to prophecy, but eternal life for the believer, whoever. The disciples come; the woman goes into the city, leaving her waterpot, but carrying with her the unspeakable gift of God. John was not yet cast into prison. This is the more striking, because, as we have seen, the world and Israel, rejecting Him, are also themselves, as such, rejected from the first. Thus a despised Christ is not merely a crucified Son of man, and given Son of God, as in John 3:1-36, but Himself a divine giver in communion with the Father, and in the power of the Holy Ghost who is given to the believer, the source of worship, as their God and Father is its object for the worshippers in spirit and truth (though surely not to the exclusion of the Son, Hebrews 1:1-14). (Verses John 3:1-6), But the Lord goes farther, and bids Nicodemus not wonder at His insisting on this need. Of course, the experience will still be intense. 1 John 4:19. Without it there is no divine understanding of Christ, or of His word, or of Scripture. As to Himself, He does not go at that time to the feast of tabernacles; but later on He goes up "not openly, but as it were in secret" (verseJohn 7:10; John 7:10), and taught. How, indeed, could it be stayed within narrow limits? a male mule, or more At the end of fiscal 2032, it predicts, the total federal debt will be $44.797 trillion. This is the truth; but the Jews had the law, and hated the truth. His corporeal presence was not necessary; His word was enough. Alas! Here He is not portrayed as the Son of man who must be lifted up, but as the Son of God who was given. The Lord Jesus did, without question, take humanity in His person into that glory which He so well knew as the Son of the Father. It was but preliminary, of course; still it was a deep reality, the then present grace in the person of the Son, the Saviour of the world, who filled their once dark hearts with light and joy. He could be declared only by One who was a divine person in the intimacy of the Godhead, yea, was the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father. Truth and grace were not sought nor found in man, but began to subsist here below by Jesus Christ. It was meet that so it should be; for, as a question of right, none could claim; and grace surpasses all expectation or thought of man, most of all of men accustomed to a round of religious ceremonial. (Verses John 7:19-23) What judgment could be less righteous? Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death unto life. Do they receive Him not? John 1:29-34) How rich it is, and how marvellously in keeping with our gospel! For the astonishing thought is, not merely that Jesus receives the Holy Ghost without measure, but that God gives the Spirit also, and not by measure, through Him to others. It is evident, that were He not God, it would be an interference with His glory, a place taken inconsistent with His sole authority, no less than it must be also, and for that reason, altogether ruinous to man. (16-19) Jesus speaks of her sinful life. For this, therefore, the Jews sought the more to kill Him; because He added the greater offence of making Himself equal with God, by saying that God was His own Father. As a weapon of conviction, most justly had it in the mind of the Lord Jesus the weightiest place, little as man thinks now-a-days of it. John 7:24) They reason and are in utter uncertainty. Just as in John 4:1-54, so here it is a question of power in the Holy Ghost, and not simply of Christ's person. WebJesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: 18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. (Psalms 132:1-18) Then they wanted to make Him a king. Very simple words! (sometimes initial capital letter) a fellow; guy. Why should He not show Himself to the world? But how precious the grace, in presence of their hatred and proud self-complacency! This we have had fully before. (Ver. Nothing in the slightest degree detracted from His own personal glory, and from the infinitely near relationship which He had had with the Father from all eternity. The account of Jesus calling the first disciples matches almost word for word the parallel account in Mark 1.1620. And the chapter is closed with observing the contradiction there is between a profession of love to God, and hatred of the brethren, seeing God, who is invisible, cannot be loved, if brethren that are seen are hated; and also the commandment, that he that loves God should love his brother also, 1Jo 4:20,21. that we may give an answer to them that sent us. As the new birth for the kingdom of God, so the cross is absolutely necessary for eternal life. New Living Translation. At that time Jesus remained in the judgment hall. 3. Jesus declared of God the Father, God is Spirit, (John 4:24) meaning that God the Father has no tangible body which may be seen. God does not here condescend to call it His, though, of course, it was His and holy, just, and good, both in itself and in its use, if used lawfully. But when the Lord speaks of His cross, and not God's judicial requirements only, but the gift of Himself in His true personal glory as the occasion for the grace of God to display itself to the utmost, then, and not till then, do we hear of eternal life, and this connected with both these points of view. Here we see Him accepting, not as fellow-servant, but as Lord, those souls who had been under the training of the predicted messenger of Jehovah that was to prepare His way before, His face. His joy was that of a friend of the Bridegroom (to whom, not to him, the bride belonged), and now fulfilled as he heard the Bridegroom's voice. This, of course, supposes the setting aside of Jerusalem, its people and house, as they now are, and is justified by the great fact of Christ's death and resurrection, which is the key to all, though not yet intelligible even to the disciples. (Ver. Till then the Holy Ghost could not be so given only when Jesus was glorified, after redemption was a fact. And herein is that true saying, One soweth, and another reapeth. John 1:20-25) John does not even speak of Him as one who, on His rejection as Messiah, would step into a larger glory. No doubt there are intervening applications; but such is the ultimate result of His work as the Lamb of God. John 3:14-15; John 3:14-15) It is not a question simply of the Son of God, nor is He spoken of here as the Word made flesh. The refusal of His precious blood will, on the contrary, make their case incomparably worse than that of the heathen who never heard the good news. It is not now the revelation of God meeting man either in essential nature, or as manifested in flesh; nor is it the course of dispensational dealing presented in a parenthetic as well as mysterious form, beginning with John the Baptist's testimony, and going down to the millennium in the Son, full of grace and truth. The Light, on coming into the world, lightens every man with the fulness of evidence which was in Him, and at once discovers the true state as truly as it will be revealed in the last day when He judges all, as we find it intimated in the gospel afterwards. It is no question here of every man, but of such as believe. They entered not into His words more than His grace, but thought and spoke, like the Samaritan woman, about things of this life. "No man hath seen God at any time: the only-begotten Son," etc. Then said they unto him, Who art thou? But what we learn is, that our Lord (viewed as having entered into heaven as man on the ground of redemption, i.e., ascended, after having passed through death, into glory) from that glory confers meanwhile the Holy Ghost on him that believes, instead of bringing in at once the final feast of gladness for the Jews and the world, as He will do by-and-by when the anti-typical harvest and vintage has been fulfilled. Scripture is, or may be, before man always. The looking for signs and wonders is rebuked; but mortality is arrested. John 1:35-40) Our Lord acts as One fully conscious of His glory, as indeed He ever was. Nevertheless the Son had taken the place of being the sent One, the place of subordination in the earth, in which He would say, "My Father is greater than I." As this chapter sets forth the Lord Jesus with singular fulness of glory, on the side both of His Godhead and of His manhood, so it closes with the most varied and remarkable testimonies God has given to us, that there may be no excuse. Here there is no John proclaiming Jesus as the One who was about to introduce the kingdom of heaven. The Lord, it is true, could and did go farther than the prophets: even if He taught on the same theme, He could speak with conscious divine dignity and knowledge (not merely what was assigned to an instrument or messenger). Nay, therefore it was they, reasoning, denied Him to be God. But here it was not God's purpose to record it. What Makes Covenant Theology So Important? Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. God is love. "Jesus answered and said unto her, 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." Bible> Commentaries> John 4:16 John 4:16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. WebMatthew Henry's Commentary on 1 John 4:16-19 Commentary on 1 John 4:14-21 (Read 1 John 4:14-21) The Father sent the Son, he willed his coming into this world. There is the need of another nature, and the only way in which this nature is communicated is by being born of water and the Spirit the employment of the word of God in the quickening energy of the Holy Ghost. Except one were born of water and of the Spirit, he could not enter the kingdom of God. There was purpose in it. Now, it is the Holy Ghost in the power that gives rivers of living water flowing out, and this bound up with, and consequent on, His being man in glory. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. (Verses John 5:17-18). The one, like the other, contributes to this great end, whether the Son of man necessarily lifted up, or the only begotten Son of God given in His love. The chapters we have had before us (John 1:1-51; John 2:1-25; John 3:1-36) are thus evidently an introduction: God revealed not in the Word alone, but in the Word made flesh, in the Son who declared the Father; His work, as God's Lamb, for the world, and His power by the Holy Ghost in man; then viewed as the centre of gathering, as the path to follow, and as the object even for the attendance of God's angels, the heaven being opened, and Jesus not the Son of God and King of Israel only, but the Son of man object of God's counsels. Here, accordingly, it is not so much the means by which life is communicated, as the revelation of the full blessing of grace and communion with the Father and His Son by the Holy Ghost, in whom we are blessed. But even this sufficed not: the Son of man must be lifted up. No doubt Jesus Himself had the Holy Ghost given to Him, as it was meet that He in all things should have the pre-eminence; but it shows yet more both the personal glory of Christ and the efficacy of His work, that He now gives the same Spirit to those who receive His testimony, and set to their seal that God is true. Alistair Macrae, minister at Wesley Uniting Church, joins Robyn & Fran to discuss discipleship, call, and repentance in Matthew 4. What you have just said is quite true.. No charge could be remoter from the truth. Indeed, it is the total eclipse, not merely of law and remedial mercies, but even of promised Messianic glory, by everlasting life and resurrection at the last day. It was not the time now to demonstrate in public power these coming, yea, then present truths. All this clearly goes down to millennial days. The close of the chapter shows us the Lord in Galilee. Further, it is connected intimately with the evidence of man's ruin by sin. In this podcast we refer to Being Disciples by Rowan Williams, a terrific sermon by Rev Dr Here, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." "He must, increase, but I decrease." He that believes on the Son has everlasting life; and he that disobeys the Son, in the sense of not being subject to His person, "shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" Such is the issue of the Son of God present in this world an everlasting one for every man, flowing from the glory of His person, the character of His testimony, and the Father's counsels respecting Him. Nor could any question be more momentous. Coming after John as to date, He is necessarily preferred before him in dignity; for He was ( ) [not come into being ( )] before Him. Such was the grace that God was displaying in Him, the true and full expresser of His mind. In the five porches, then, of this pool lay a great multitude of sick, blind, lame, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. Yet before a miracle, as well as in the working of those which set forth His glory, it is evident that so far from its being a gradual growth, as it were, in His mind, He had, all simple and lowly though He were, the deep, calm, constant consciousness that He was God. NET John 4:16 He said to her, "Go call your husband and come back here." NLT John 4:16 "Go and get your husband," Jesus told her. ESV John 4:16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." It would not suit God, if it would suit man, that He, seeing all, should just pronounce on man's corruption, and then forthwith let him off with a bare pardon. Then He rebukes the carnality of His brethren. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. His glorious person would have none now in relation to God but members of the family. For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. The Word, in order to accomplish these infinite things, "was made. He exhorts the saints not to believe every man that came with a doctrine to them, but to try them, since there were many false teachers in the world; and gives a rule by which they may be tried and judged, as that whatever teacher owns Christ to be come in the flesh is of God, but he that does not is not of God, but is the spirit of antichrist that should come, and was in the world, 1Jo 4:1,2, but, for the comfort of those to whom he writes, he observes, that they were of God, and had overcome these false teachers, through the mighty power of the divine Spirit in them, who is greater than Satan, and all his emissaries, 1Jo 4:4. Here the Lord was really owned by the multitudes as the great Prophet that should come; and this in consequence of His works, especially that one which Scripture itself had connected with the Son of David. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." 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