John 7:14 - Meaning and Application

Here, Christ preaches openly in the temple (John 7:14). He went up into the temple and taught, as was his custom when he was in Jerusalem. His work was to preach the good news of the kingdom, and he did it wherever people gathered. His sermon is not recorded, probably because it was much like the sermons he had already preached in Galilee, which the other Gospel writers recorded. The gospel is the same for ordinary people and for the educated.

What stands out here is that it was about the middle of the feast, the fourth or fifth day of the eight. We do not know whether he came to Jerusalem only then, or whether he had come earlier and stayed private until now. Why did he not go sooner to preach in the temple? One reason was that the people would have more time to listen, and perhaps be more ready after several days living in their booths during the Feast of Tabernacles. Another reason was that he chose to appear when both his friends and enemies had stopped looking for him. In this way, he gave a picture of how he would later appear, coming suddenly, like at midnight (Matthew 25:6).

Why did he now appear so openly? It was surely to put his persecutors to shame, the chief priests and elders. First, he showed that even though they were very angry with him, he did not fear them or their power (Isaiah 50:7, 8). Second, he was taking their work from them. Their office was to teach the people in the temple, especially at the Feast of Tabernacles (Nehemiah 8:17, 18). But either they did not teach at all, or they taught human commands as if they were God’s truth. So he went up and taught the people himself. When the shepherds of Israel were abusing the flock, it was time for the chief Shepherd to appear, as God had promised (Ezekiel 34:22, 23; Malachi 3:1).

The Jews then talked with one another about his teaching, and their discussion falls into four parts. First, they marveled at his doctrine (John 7:15): “How does this man know letters, having never learned?” Jesus had not been educated in the schools of the prophets, or under the rabbis. He had not traveled to gain learning, as philosophers did, and he had not used the schools and academies of his own country. Moses had been taught the learning of the Egyptians, but Christ had not even been taught the learning of the Jews. He had received the Spirit without limit, so he did not need to get his knowledge from man or through man.

At the time when Christ appeared, learning was strong both in the Roman empire and among the Jews, more than in many other times before or since. In such an age of inquiry, Christ chose to establish his religion, not in a time when people were uneducated, so no one could say he was trying to fool the world. Yet he did not follow the learning that was then popular. Still, Christ had learning, though he had never been taught it. He knew the Scriptures well, though he had no rabbi as his teacher. Christ’s ministers should also be learned, as he was. Since they cannot expect to receive knowledge by direct inspiration, they must work to gain it in ordinary ways.

The Jews’ surprise showed that Christ’s wisdom was truly remarkable. Some likely said this to honor him. A man without human schooling, yet far greater than all the learned, must have divine knowledge. Others probably said it to insult him. They meant, “He cannot really know anything, since he never studied at the university and never took a degree.” Some may even have suggested that he gained his learning by magic or some unlawful means. Since they could not explain how he was a scholar, they were ready to think him a conjurer.

Second, Christ explained the source of his teaching (John 7:16). He said, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.” They were offended that he taught when he had never learned. He answered that his doctrine was not the kind of thing learned from human thought, reading, or conversation. It was a divine revelation. As God, equal with the Father, he could truly have said, “My doctrine is mine, and his who sent me.” But in his state of humiliation, and as Mediator, one who stands between God and people, it was fitting for him to say, “My doctrine is not mine,” meaning not mine only, or not mine as man and Mediator. It does not center in me, and it does not lead finally to me, but to the Father who sent me. This agrees with God’s promise about the great prophet, that he would put his words into his mouth (Deuteronomy 18:18).

This is both a comfort and a warning. It is a comfort to those who receive Christ’s teaching, because it is from God. It is a warning to those who reject it, because they reject a divine message and not merely a human opinion.

Third, Christ says who can best judge the truth of his teaching (John 7:17). “If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I speak on my own.” The question is whether Christ’s doctrine is truly from God, or whether the gospel is a divine revelation or an imposture. Christ was willing for his teaching to be tested, and so should his ministers be. We also need to examine the basis of our faith, because if we are deceived, the loss is great.

Those most likely to succeed in this search are the ones who do the will of God, or at least sincerely want to do it. Such people are fair in their search for God’s truth. They are not ruled by lust or self-interest. When they discover what God wants, they are ready, by his grace, to follow it. They truly care about God and want to honor and please him.

Why will such a person know the truth of Christ’s doctrine? First, Christ has promised to give knowledge to such a one. He said, “He will know,” and he is able to give understanding. Those who use the light they already have and carefully live by it will, by divine grace, be kept from deadly error. Second, they are already fitted to receive more light. The one who is ready to follow God’s law is ready to welcome God’s light. More will be given to the one who has, and those who do God’s commands have good understanding (Psalm 111:10). Those who are like God are most likely to understand him.

Christ showed that, as a teacher, he did not speak on his own. He did not seek himself, as John 7:18 says. A deceiver, by contrast, seeks his own glory. That is a sign that he speaks from himself, like the false Christs and false prophets did. They speak on their own, with no commission from God, no real instruction from him, only their own will, imagination, policy, and trickery.

An ambassador does not speak for himself. So ministers who glory in speaking from themselves show that they are not true messengers. Their own aim gives them away, because self-seekers are self-speakers. Those who speak from God will speak for God and for his glory. But those who aim at their own promotion and gain show that God did not send them.

Christ’s own character stands in sharp contrast. He seeks the glory of the one who sent him, and that proves he is true. He was sent by God, and only those teachers whom God sends are to be received. If a person brings a message from God, he must prove a divine mission, either by special revelation or by lawful appointment. Christ also sought the glory of God in all he taught and in all he did. The whole direction of his doctrine and life was to honor God.

This was proof that he was true, and that there was no wrong in him. False teachers are deeply unjust. They wrong God by using his name badly, and they wrong people by deceiving their souls. Christ made it plain that he was exactly who he said he was. There was no falsehood in his teaching, and no trickery in his dealings with people.

The discussion then turned back to the charge they had used against him, his healing of the crippled man and telling him to carry his bed on the Sabbath. That was the excuse they had used before to press their case against him, and they still clung to it. Jesus answered them by turning the charge back on them in return, and by exposing something much worse in their own conduct, as John 7:19 says.

He said, “Did not Moses give you the law?” It was their great privilege that they had God’s law. No other nation had such a law. But their great sin was that none of them kept it. They rebelled against it and lived against it. Many people receive the law, but do not obey it. Their failure was widespread. None of them kept it, neither the leaders, who should have known better, nor the common people, who should have obeyed more carefully.

They boasted about the law and acted as if they were zealous for it. They were furious with Christ for seeming to break it. Yet none of them kept it themselves. It was like people who claim to support the church, but never go to church. Their own lawlessness made their anger against Christ even worse. None of them kept the law, so why were they trying to kill him for not keeping it?

Those who are most critical of others are often the most at fault themselves. Hypocrites are quick to pull a speck out of another person’s eye, while ignoring a beam in their own. Some understand Christ’s words to mean this: if they had really kept the law, they would have understood better than to try to kill him for doing a good work. People who protect their own power and interests by persecution and violence are not keeping God’s law, whatever they may claim.

Some have understood this as another reason the law of Moses needed to give way to the gospel. The law had shown itself unable to restrain sin. Moses gave them the law, but they did not keep it, and it did not keep them from great evil. So there was need for clearer light and a better law. Why, then, should they try to kill Christ for bringing it in?

The crowd then interrupted him and contradicted what he said, as John 7:20 records: “You have a demon. Who is trying to kill you?” This shows the high opinion they had of their rulers. They thought their leaders would never try such a wicked thing. They trusted their elders and chief priests so much that they would defend them against any charge of murder. Their leaders may even have used people among the crowd to spread that denial, since many will deny a sin even while planning it.

It also shows the low opinion they had of Jesus. “You have a demon” could mean they thought he was under a lying spirit and speaking falsely. Or they may have meant that he was upset, troubled, and weak-minded, imagining fears with no cause. In those days, both open madness and quiet melancholy were often blamed on Satan. They were saying, in effect, “You are out of your mind.” We should not find it strange if the best people are treated with the worst names.

Jesus gave no direct answer to such a cruel slander. He seemed to ignore it. Those who want to be like Christ must be ready to bear insults and pass over the wrongs done to them. They should not dwell on them, much less take revenge. He acted like one who did not hear, and when he was insulted, he did not insult back.

He then defended himself by appealing to their own judgment and their own practice. “I did one work, and you all marvel,” he said in John 7:21. They could not help seeing it as a truly great and supernatural work. They all had to admit it was remarkable. Yet even though he had done only one deed that they could object to, they were offended as if he had done some huge evil.

He also pointed to their own practice in other matters. He had done one work on the Sabbath, and it was done very simply, by speaking a word. Yet they made a great issue of it. They acted as if it were shocking that a religious man would do such a thing. But they themselves often did something far more like work on the Sabbath when they circumcised a child. If it was lawful, and indeed required, for them to circumcise a child on the Sabbath when the eighth day fell then, and surely it was, then it was much more lawful and good for him to heal a sick man on that day.

He began by noting the origin and command of circumcision. Moses gave them circumcision, that is, he gave them the law about it.

Circumcision is said to be given, and in John 7:23 they are said to receive it. It was not laid on them as a burden, but given as a gift. God’s ordinances, especially the ones that seal his covenant, are gifts to people, and we should receive them that way.

Moses is also said to give it, because circumcision was part of the law given through Moses. Yet, as Christ said about the manna in John 6:32, Moses did not truly give it, God did. More than that, it did not begin with Moses at all, but with the fathers, as John 7:22 says. Even though it became part of the law of Moses, it was appointed long before, for it was a sign of the righteousness that comes by faith, and so it began with the promise given 430 years earlier (Galatians 3:17).

Believers and their children belonged to God’s covenant people not because of Moses or his law, and so that truth did not end when the law ended. It belonged to the fathers, to the family of the patriarchs, and it was part of the blessing promised to Abraham, which would come on the Gentiles too (Galatians 3:14).

The Jewish people also gave circumcision more honor than the Sabbath in their constant practice. Their teachers often said, “Circumcision and its healing set aside the Sabbath.” So if a child was born on the Sabbath, they always circumcised him the next day. If they allowed such work when Sabbath rest was held so strictly, then much more may such works be allowed now under the gospel, when Sabbath service carries even more weight.

From this, Christ draws his own defense in John 7:23. If a boy can receive circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law about circumcision is not broken, then how unreasonable are they to be angry with him for making a man completely well on the Sabbath? The word used for their anger means a bitter, hateful anger. It was anger full of gall. It is foolish and unjust to condemn others for something we approve in ourselves.

Christ’s comparison is strong. Circumcision was only a ceremonial act, a rite of the old covenant, and it did not go back to the beginning. But what Christ did was a good work according to the law of nature, a higher law than the one that required circumcision. Circumcision was also a bloody rite and caused pain, but Christ’s work brought healing and wholeness. The law could involve pain, and if that could be done on the Sabbath, then surely a gospel work that brings peace may be done too.

This is even clearer because, after circumcision, their concern was only to heal one small part of the body, and the child could still be sick in other ways. But Christ had made this man fully whole. His whole body was healed, because the disease had affected his whole body, and the cure was complete, with no trace of the illness left behind. More than that, Christ healed his soul too by saying, “Go, and sin no more,” and so he truly made the whole man sound, because the soul is the real man. Circumcision was meant for the soul’s good and for the good of the whole person, but they had turned it into a merely outward thing. Christ joined inward grace to outward healing, and so his work reached the whole man.

He ends this argument with the rule in John 7:24: “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” This applies first to the work they were criticizing as a breaking of the law. Do not be partial. Do not judge by outward show or by favoritism. It is against justice, and against love, to accuse people who differ from us of sin for doing what we excuse in our own group. It is just as wrong to praise in some people what we condemn in others as harshness or persecution.

This also applies more generally to Christ’s person and teaching, which they had already rejected with prejudice. False things that are meant to fool people often look best when judged only by outward appearance. They seem most convincing at first glance. That is how the Pharisees won respect, because they looked righteous to people (Matthew 23:27-28), and people judged them by what they saw, and so were badly mistaken. But Christ says, “Do not be too sure that everyone who looks holy is truly holy.”

The same is true of Christ himself. Outwardly, he looked far below his true greatness, for he took the form of a servant (Philippians 2:7), appeared in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3), and had no beauty or majesty in men’s eyes (Isaiah 53:2). So anyone trying to decide whether he was the Son of God just by looking at him would not judge rightly. The Jews expected the Messiah to look grand and rich, with all the signs of worldly greatness. By that standard, they misunderstood Christ from beginning to end, because his kingdom was not of this world, and it did not come with outward display.

If divine power was with him, if God gave witness to him, and if the Scriptures were fulfilled in him, then even if his appearance was humble, they ought to have received him. They should have judged by faith, not by sight (Isaiah 11:3; 1 Samuel 16:7). Christ and his works ask for nothing except righteous judgment. If truth and justice are allowed to speak, Christ and his cause will prevail.

We should judge no one by outward appearance, not by titles, not by the place they hold in the world, and not by showy display. We should judge by true worth, and by the gifts and grace of God’s Spirit in them.

Christ then speaks with them about himself, where he came from, and where he was going, in John 7:25-36. In this account, we should notice the objection raised by some people in Jerusalem, who seem to have been more against him than anyone else in John 7:25. You would think that those who lived where religious knowledge was most available would have been the first to welcome the Messiah. But the opposite turned out to be true.

People who have many means of knowledge and grace, if they are not improved by them, are often made worse. Our Lord Jesus has often received the least welcome from the very people one would expect to receive him best from. It was not without reason that people said, “The nearer the church, the further from God.” Those in Jerusalem showed their ill will toward Christ, first by criticizing the rulers because they left him alone.

The crowd from the countryside did not know there was a plot against him, so they asked, “Who is trying to kill you?” (John 7:20). But the people in Jerusalem knew about the plot and tried to stir up their rulers to carry it out. They were saying, in effect, “Is this the one they want to kill? Why do they not do it? Who is stopping them? They say they want to get him out of the way, yet he is speaking boldly, and they say nothing to him. Do the rulers now think this is really the Christ?” (John 7:26). By saying this, they were slyly and maliciously pushing two ideas to anger the rulers against Christ, though the rulers needed no extra pushing.

First, they implied that by letting him preach, the rulers were losing respect for their own authority. “Must a man condemned by the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council, as a deceiver be allowed to speak freely without any challenge? That makes their sentence sound like an empty threat. If our rulers let themselves be treated like this, they should not be surprised if no one fears them or their laws.” Note that the worst persecutions have often been carried out under the excuse of protecting authority and government.

Second, they implied that this made the rulers’ judgment look doubtful. “Do they know that this is the Christ?” They said it with irony, as if to ask, “How did they change their minds? What new proof have they found? They are giving people reason to think they believe he is the Christ, so they had better act strongly against him to clear themselves of that suspicion.” In this way, the rulers, who had already made the people enemies of Christ, made them even more determined in evil, as Jesus said in (Matthew 23:15).

When religion and the name of Christ fall out of fashion and lose respect, many people are tempted to oppose them just so they will not seem to favor them. For that reason, apostates and the children of good parents who turn away from faith have sometimes been worse than others, as if they were trying to erase the mark of their upbringing. It is remarkable that the rulers, though stirred up like this, did not seize Christ. But his hour had not yet come, and God can hold men back in amazement, even if he does not change their hearts.

Second, the people objected to his claim to be the Christ. Here there was more malice than real argument, (John 7:27). “If the rulers think he is the Christ, we neither can nor will believe it, because we have this against him: we know where this man is from. But when Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.” Their argument had a flaw, because the parts of it did not fit together.

If they were speaking of Christ’s divine nature, then it is true that when Christ comes, no one knows where he is from, because he is a priest after the order of Melchizedek, who had no recorded family line, and his goings out were from long ago, from everlasting, as in (Micah 5:2). But then it is not true that they knew where this man was from, because they did not know his divine nature or how the Word became flesh.

If they were speaking of his human nature, then it is true that they knew where he was from, who his mother was, and where he had been raised. But then it is false that the Scriptures ever said no one would know where the Messiah was from, since it was known beforehand where he would be born, (Matthew 2:4-5).

Notice two things. First, they despised him because they knew where he was from. Familiarity often leads to contempt. We are quick to look down on people when we know their humble beginnings. Christ came to his own people, and they did not receive him. Yet for that very reason, they should have loved him more and thanked God that their nation and their time were honored by his coming.

Second, they wrongly tried to use Scripture to support their prejudice, as if the Bible backed them when it did not. People go wrong about Christ because they do not know the Scriptures.

Christ answered this objection in (John 7:28-29). First, he spoke openly and boldly. He cried out in the temple as he taught, speaking this part louder than the rest. He did this to show his concern, because he was troubled by the hardness of their hearts. There can be strong force in defending truth without any harshness or sinful anger. We may teach those who argue against us with warmth, and still remain gentle.

The priests and others who were biased against him were not coming close enough to hear him well, so he had to speak louder than usual for them to hear. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear this.

Second, in his answer to their criticism, he partly agreed and partly denied. He granted that they might know his outward origin, according to the flesh: “You both know me, and you know where I am from.” That is, you know I am one of your own nation. There is nothing beneath the gospel because some of it is simple enough for the least educated person to understand, even truths that natural light can partly show. We can say of such truths, “We know where they are from.”

“You know me,” he said, “or at least you think you do. But you are mistaken. You take me to be the carpenter’s son and born in Nazareth, but that is not all there is to me.” He then denied that what they saw and knew about him was the whole truth. If they looked no further, they judged only by outward appearance.

They knew where he came from, perhaps, and where he was born, but he would tell them what they did not know, from whom he came. He did not come on his own. He did not run without being sent, and he did not come as a private man, but with public authority. He was sent by his Father, and this is said twice: “He sent me.” Again, “He sent me to say what I say and do what I do.” Christ himself was fully sure of this, and so he knew his Father would support him. It is a comfort to us also to be sure of this, so that we may go to God through him with holy confidence.

He also said that he was from the Father, “I am from him.” That means more than being sent from the Father as a servant from a master. It means he is from the Father by eternal generation, as a son from his father, or as rays come from the sun. And the Father who sent him is true. He promised to give the Messiah, and though the Jews had broken the promise by their unbelief, the one who made it is true and has fulfilled it.

He had promised that the Messiah would see his offspring and succeed in his work. And although most of the Jews rejected him and his gospel, he is still true and will fulfill that promise in the calling of the Gentiles, that is, in bringing the non-Jewish nations to faith.

These unbelieving Jews did not know the Father: “He that sent me, whom you do not know.” There is much ignorance of God, even among many who seem knowledgeable. The real reason people reject Christ is that they do not know God. In the work of redemption, God’s own qualities fit together beautifully, and there is a strong harmony between what can be known from nature and what is revealed in Scripture. If a person truly understood the first, it would not shut out the second, but lead to it.

Our Lord Jesus was deeply familiar with the Father who sent him: “I know him.” He knew the Father so well that he had no doubt about his mission. He was also fully clear about the work he had been given to do (Matthew 11:27).

This stirred up his enemies, who hated him because he told them the truth (John 7:30). They tried to seize him, to lay hands on him violently, and in some way put him to death. But an invisible restraint stopped them. No one touched him, because his hour had not yet come. That was not their reason for failing, but God’s reason for holding them back.

We should learn, first, that faithful preachers of God’s truth must expect hatred and persecution, even when they speak with wisdom and gentleness. People who feel troubled by their message will often turn against them (Revelation 11:10). Second, God keeps wicked people in chains. Whatever harm they want to do, they can do no more than God allows. The rage of persecutors is powerless, even at its hottest. When Satan fills their hearts, God still ties their hands.

Third, God sometimes protects his servants in ways no one can explain. Their enemies do not carry out the harm they planned, and no one can say exactly why. Fourth, Christ had an appointed hour, the time set to end his earthly life and work. So do all his people and ministers. Until that hour comes, the attacks of their enemies will fail. Their days will last as long as their Master has work for them to do. Neither the powers of hell nor the powers of earth can prevail until they finish their witness.

Even so, Christ’s words had a good effect on some of the people: many believed on him (John 7:31). As he was set for the fall of some, he was also set for the rising of others. Even when the gospel faces strong opposition, it can still do much good (1 Thessalonians 2:2).

Notice, first, who believed. It was not just a few, but many, more than one might have expected when the crowd was going the other way. Yet these many were “of the people,” from the crowd, the ordinary and lowly people, what some would have called the common rabble. We should not measure the success of the gospel by how many important people accept it. Ministers should not think their work is useless if only the poor and the lowly receive it (1 Corinthians 1:26).

Second, what led them to believe was the miracles he did. These miracles fulfilled Old Testament prophecy (Isaiah 35:5-6), and they also showed divine power. The one who could do what only God can do, by controlling and ruling nature, surely had authority to give what only God can give, a law that binds the conscience and a covenant that gives life.

Third, their faith was still weak. They did not say openly, as the Samaritans did, “This is truly the Christ.” Instead, they only reasoned, “When the Christ comes, will he do more miracles than these?” They assumed that Christ would come and that, when he came, he would work many miracles. It was as if they were saying, “Is this not the one? In him we see, if not all the outward splendor we imagined, then at least all the divine power in which we believed the Messiah would appear.”