Section 1 of Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of St. John, Volume 2 Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of St. John, Volume 2 by J. C. Ryle Chapter 7, Verses 1 to 13 Hardness and unbelief of man Reason why many hate Christ Various opinions about Christ John, Chapter 7, Verses 1 to 13 After these things Jesus walked in Galilee, for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him. Now the Jews' feast of Tabernacles was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest. For there is no man that doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, show thyself to the world." For neither did his brethren believe in him. Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come, but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you, but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. Go ye up unto the feast. I go not up yet unto the feast, for my time is not yet full come. When he had said these words unto them, he abode still in Galilee. But when his brethren were gone up, then he went up also unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. Then the Jews sought him at the feast, and said, Where is he? And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him, for some said, He is a good man. Others said, Nay, but he deceiveth the people. Howbeit no man spake openly of him for fear of the Jews. The chapter we now begin is divided from the preceding one by a wide interval of time. The many miracles which our Lord wrought while he walked in Galilee are passed over by St. John in comparative silence. The events which he was specially inspired to record are those which took place in or near Jerusalem. We should observe in this passage the desperate hardness and unbelief of human nature. We are told that even our Lord's brethren did not believe in Him. Holy and harmless and blameless as He was in life, some of His nearest relatives, according to the flesh, did not receive Him as the Messiah. It was bad enough that His own people, the Jews, sought to kill Him, but it was even worse that His brethren did not believe. That great scriptural doctrine, man's need of preventing and converting grace, stands out here, as if written with a sunbeam. It becomes all who question that doctrine to look at this passage and consider. Let them observe that seeing Christ's miracles, hearing Christ's teaching, living in Christ's own company, were not enough to make men believers. The mere possession of spiritual privileges never yet made anyone a Christian. All is useless without the effectual and applying work of God the Holy Ghost. No wonder that our Lord said in another place, No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him. John chapter 6 verse 44. The true servants of Christ in every age will do well to remember this. They are often surprised and troubled to find that in religion they stand alone. They are apt to fancy that it must be their own fault that all around them are not converted like themselves. They are ready to blame themselves because their families remain worldly and unbelieving. But let them look at the verse before us. In our Lord Jesus Christ there was no fault either in temper, word, or deed. yet even Christ's own brethren did not believe in Him. Our blessed Master has truly learned by experience how to sympathize with all His people who stand alone. This is a thought full of sweet, pleasant and unspeakable comfort. He knows the heart of every isolated believer and can be touched with the feeling of His trials. He has drunk this bitter cup. He has passed through this fire. Let all who are fainting and cast down, because brothers and sisters despise their religion, turn to Christ for comfort and pour out their hearts before him. He has suffered himself being tempted in this way, and he can help as well as feel. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 18. We should observe for another thing in this passage, one principal reason why many hate Christ. We are told that our Lord said to his unbelieving brethren, These words reveal one of those secret principles which influence men in their treatment of religion. They help to explain that deadly enmity with which many during our Lord's earthly ministry regarded him in his gospel. It was not so much the high doctrines which he preached, as the high standard of practice which he proclaimed, which gave offense. It was not even his claim to be received the Messiah, which men disliked so much, as his witness against the wickedness of their lives. In short, they could have tolerated his opinions if he would only have spared their sins. The principle, we may be sure, is one of universal application. It is at work now just as much as it was eighteen hundred years ago. The real cause of many people's dislike to the gospel is the holiness of living which it demands. Teach abstract doctrines only, and few will find any fault. Denounce the fashionable sins of the day, and call on men to repent and walk consistently with God, and thousands at once will be offended. The true reason why many profess to be infidels and abuse Christianity is the witness that Christianity bears against their own bad lives. Like Ahab, they hate it, because it does not prophesy good concerning them, but evil. 1 Kings 32, verse 8. We should observe, lastly, in this passage, the strange variety of opinions about Christ which were current from the beginning. We are told that there was much murmuring among the people concerning him, for some said, He is a good man, others said, Nay, but he deceiveth the people. The words which old Simeon had spoken thirty years before were here accomplished in a striking manner. He had said to our Lord's mother, This child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. Luke chapter 2 verses 34 to 35. In the diversities of opinion about our Lord which arose among the Jews, we see the good old man's saying fulfilled. In the face of such a passage as this, the endless differences and divisions about religion, which we see on all sides, in the present day, ought never to surprise us. The open hatred of some toward Christ, the carping, fault-finding, prejudiced spirit of others, the bold confession of the few faithful ones, the timid, man-fearing temper of the many faithless ones, The unceasing war of words and strife of tongues with which the churches of Christ are so sadly familiar, are only modern symptoms of an old disease. Such is the corruption of human nature, that Christ is the cause of division among men, wherever he is preached. So long as the world stands, some, when they hear of him, will love, and some will hate, some will believe, and some will believe not. That deep prophetical saying of his will be continually verified. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword. Matthew chapter 10 verse 34. But what think we of Christ ourselves? This is the one question with which we have to do. Let us never be ashamed to be of that little number who believe on him hear his voice, follow him, and confess him before men. While others waste their time in vain jangling an unprofitable controversy, let us take up the cross and give all diligence to make our calling and election sure. The children of this world may hate us, as it hated our Master, because our religion is a standing witness against them. But the last day will show that we chose wisely, lost nothing, and gained a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Notes John chapter 7 verses 1 to 13. Verse 1. After these things Jesus walked in Galilee These words cover a space of about six months. The events of the last chapter took place about the time of Passover, in the spring. The events of the chapter we now begin took place in autumn, at the Feast of Tabernacles. What our Lord did in Galilee during these six months, St. John passes over in silence. His gospel, with the exception of the first, second, fourth, and sixth chapters, is almost entirely taken up with our Lord's doings in or near Jerusalem. He was, at this period of his ministry, entirely absent from Jerusalem, it would seem, for about 18 months. The expression walked must be taken figuratively. It simply means that our Lord lived, dwelt, sojourned, was going to and fro and passing his time. The Greek word is in the imperfect tense and denotes a continuous action or habit. He would not walk in Jewry. This would be more literally rendered, he did not will or desire or choose to walk. The use of the word Jewry by our translators is to be regretted and seems uncalled for. The Greek word so rendered is the same that is rendered Judea in the third verse. Because the Jews sought to kill him. By the Jews we must understand the leaders and rulers of the Jewish nation. There is no proof that the lower orders felt the same enmity that the upper classes did against our Lord. The common people heard him gladly. Mark chapter 12 verse 37. The depth and bitterness of this hatred against Christ may be seen in their wish to kill him. It seems to have been a settled plan with the Jews from the time when the miracle was wrought at the pool of Bethesda. John chapter 5 verses 16 and 18. They could neither answer him nor silence him nor prevent the common people listening to him. They resolved therefore to kill him. Our Lord's example recorded in this verse shows clearly that Christians are not meant to court martyrdom or willfully expose themselves to certain death under the idea that it is their duty. Many primitive martyrs seem not to have understood this. Verse 2. Jews' feast of tabernacles. This expression, like many others in St. John's Gospel, shows that he wrote for the Gentiles who knew little of Jewish customs and feasts, hence the Jews' feast. The Feast of Tabernacles was one of the three great feasts in the Jewish year, when, by God's command, all pious Jews went up to Jerusalem. It was held in autumn, after the completion of the harvest, in the seventh month. The time of the Jewish Passover, answered to our Easter, Pentecost to our Witzentide, and Tabernacles to our Mechemus, The seventh month was remarkable for the number of ordinances which the Law of Moses required the Jews to observe. On the first day was the Feast of Trumpets, on the tenth was the Day of Atonement, and on the fifteenth began the Feast of Tabernacles. There are several things peculiar to the Feast of Tabernacles which ought to be remembered in reading this chapter because some of them throw light on it. 1. It was an occasion of special mirth and rejoicing with the Jews. They were ordered to dwell in booze, or tabernacles made of branches, for seven days, in remembrance of their dwelling in temporary booze, when they came out of Egypt, and to rejoice before the Lord. Leviticus chapter 23 verses 39 to 43. 2. It was a feast at which more sacrifices were offered up than at any of the Jewish feasts. Numbers chapter 29 verses 12 to 34. 3. It was a feast at which, once every seven years, the law was publicly read to the whole people. 4. It was a feast at which water was drawn from the pool of Siloam every day with great solemnity, and poured upon the altar while the people sung the twelfth chapter of Isaiah. 5. It was a feast which followed close on the great day of atonement, when the peculiarly typical ordinances of the scapegoat and the high priest, going once in the year into the Holy of Holies, were fresh in the minds of the people. These things should be carefully noted and remembered as we read through the chapter. Josephus calls the Feast of Tabernacles the holiest and greatest feast of the Jews. It was a rabbinical saying, the man who has not seen these festivities does not know what a jubilee is. Whether this very year, when our Lord went to the Feast of Tabernacles, was the precise seventh year in which the public reading of the law took place, we cannot now know for certainty. Whether the custom of dwelling in booze was literally kept up when our Lord was on earth may also be a matter of question. It certainly had not been observed for many years in the days of Nehemiah. Nehemiah 8, verse 17. But that this feast was kept up with extraordinary festivity and rejoicing in the latter days of the Jewish dispensation is testified by all Jewish writers. It was in the middle of this public rejoicing, and the concourse of Jews from every part of the world, that the things recorded in this chapter took place. It stands to reason that all that our Lord said and did this week must have been more than usually public, and would necessarily attract great attention. Wordsworth, Burgon, and others consider the Feast of Tabernacles to have been a very significant type of our Lord's incarnation. I confess that I am unable to see it. If the feast was typical at all, which is not certain, I venture the conjecture that it was meant to be a type of our Lord's second advent. My reasons are these. a. It was the last in order of the Jewish feasts every year, and formed the completion of the annual routine of Mosaic ordinances. It wound up all. B. It was kept at the end of harvest, when the year's work was done, and the fruits were all gathered in. C. It was an occasion of special rejoicing and festivity more than any of the feasts. The dwelling in booze seems to have been a circumstance of the feast less essential than the rejoicing. D. It followed immediately after the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement, On that day the high priest went into the Holy of Holies and then came out to bless the people. See Isaiah chapter 27 verse 13, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 16. E. It followed immediately after the Jubilee every 50th year. That Jubilee and proclamation of liberty to all was in the seventh month. F. It is that special feast which, after the Jews were restored and Jerusalem rebuilt, the nation are yet to keep in the future kingdom of Christ. Zechariah 14, verse 16. I venture this conjecture with much diffidence, but I think it deserves consideration. In the six points I have mentioned, I see much more of the second advent than of the first. To my eyes, the feast of Passover was a type of Christ crucified, the feast of Pentecost, of Christ sending forth the Holy Ghost in this dispensation, the feast of Tabernacles, of Christ coming again to gather His people in one joyous company, to reap the harvest of the earth, to wind up this dispensation, to come forth and bless His people, and to proclaim a jubilee to all the earth. Verse 3. His brethren. Who these brethren were is a matter of dispute. Some think, as Alfred, Stier, and others, that they were literally our Lord's own brethren and the children of Mary by Joseph, born after our Lord's birth. See Psalm 69, verse 8. Some think, as Theophilact and others, that they were the children of Joseph by a former marriage and brought up by Mary under the same roof with our Lord. Others think, as Augustine, Zwingl, Musculus, and Wengel, that the word brethren does not necessarily mean more than cousins or kinsmen. See 1 Chronicles 23.22. This is the most probable opinion. I take these brethren to have been relatives and kinsmen of Joseph and Mary, living at Nazareth, or Capernaum, or elsewhere in Galilee, who naturally observed all our Lord's doings with interest and curiosity, but at present did not believe on Him. To suppose, as some do, that these brethren were some of the Lord's apostles is, to my mind, a most improbable theory, and flatly contrary to the fifth verse of this chapter. If Mary really had sons after the birth of our Lord, it certainly seems strange that our Lord should commend her to the care of John on the cross and not to her own sons, his half-brethren. That at the latter part of his ministry he had some brethren who were not apostles, but believed, is clear from Acts 1.14. But whether they were the brethren of the text before us, we have no means of ascertaining. Depart, go into Judea, that thy disciples, etc. This recommendation, as well as the next verse, looks like the advice of men who as yet were not convinced of our Lord's Messiahship. The expression, that thy disciples may see, seems also to indicate that the speakers were not yet of the number of our Lord's disciples. The language is that of bystanders looking on, waiting to see how the question is to be settled before they make up their own minds. It is as though they said, Make haste, rally a party round thee, show some public proof that thou art the Christ, and gather adherents. The works here mentioned must evidently mean miracles. This speech seems to imply that our Lord had a party of disciples in Judea and at Jerusalem. Many, it should be remembered, believed on him at the first Passover he attended. John chapter 2 verse 23. Verse 4. For there is no man, etc. This sentence is a kind of proverbial saying. Everyone knows that if a man seeks to be known openly, it is of no use to do his work secretly. If thou do these things, show thyself to the world." There seems to be a latent sneer about this sentence. If thou really are doing miracles to prove thyself the Messiah, do not continue to hide thyself here in Galilee. Go up to Jerusalem and do miracles there. That the speaker said this from an honest zeal for God's glory and a sincere desire to have our Lord known by others as well as themselves is a view that I cannot think probable. Some think that the words, if thou doest, mean, since thou doest, and see a parallel in Colossians 3, verse 1, where if does not imply any doubt whether the Colossians were risen with Christ. Lamb thinks it means, if thou really and truly, not elusively, doest miracles. The false standard of an unconverted man is very manifest in this and the preceding verse. Such a one has no idea of waiting for man's praise and favor and being content without it if it does not come. He thinks that a religion should have the praise of the world and labor to get it. The man of God remembers that true religion does not cry, nor strive, nor court publicity. Verse 5. For neither, brethren, believe. These words appear to me to admit of only one meaning. They mean that these brethren of our Lord had at present no faith at all. did not yet believe that Jesus was the Christ. They had no grace. They were not converted. The idea of Psalm, that the words mean, his brethren did not fully and entirely believe in him, seems to me utterly without foundation. It cannot, moreover, be reconciled with the language that soon follows, the world cannot hate you, etc. Such language cannot be applied to disciples. The whole teaching of the Bible shows clearly that it was quite possible to be a relative of Christ according to the flesh and yet not be converted. He that does God's will is as dear to Christ as brother or sister or mother. Mark chapter 3 verse 35. How frequently even the natural brethren of God's most eminent saints have been graceless and ungodly, every Bible reader must often have observed. The cases of the brothers of Abel, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and David will occur to our minds. We should learn from a verse like this, the desperate hardness of man's heart, the absolute necessity of grace to make anyone a disciple, and the extreme danger of familiarity with high spiritual privileges. We should remember too, that a man may be a truly good and holy man, and yet not have converted relatives. No one can give grace to his own family. A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country. Mark chapter six, verse four. Even our Lord was not believed by all around Him. He can truly sympathize with all His people who are in a similar position. 6. My time has not yet come. These words must mean that our Lord did everything during His earthly ministry according to a preordained plan and that He could take no step except in harmony with that plan. He doubtless spoke with a divine depth of meaning that none but himself could comprehend and that must have been unintelligible at the time to his brethren. To them his words would probably convey nothing more than the idea that for some reason or other he did not think the present a favorable opportunity for going to Jerusalem. Your time is always ready. This sentence must mean that to unconverted people, like our Lord's brethren, it could make no matter what time they went up—all times were alike—they would excite no enmity and run no risk. A Christian not possessing foreknowledge can only pray for guidance and direction as to the steps of his life and the ways and times of his actions, and, having prayed, then make the best use of his judgment, trusting that a faithful God will not let him make mistakes. 7. The world cannot hate you. These words surely settle the question as to the present state of our Lord's brethren. They were yet unconverted. Our Lord says in another place, If ye were of the world, the world would love his own. John 15, verse 19. Me it hateth, because I testify, works evil. The true reason of this enmity of many of the Jews against Christ is here distinctly indicated. It was not merely his claims to be received as the Messiah. It was not merely the high and spiritual doctrine he preached. It was rather his constant testimony against the sinful lives and wicked practices of the many in his day. That adultery, covetousness, and hypocrisy were rife and common among the leading Pharisees is evident from many expressions in the Gospels. It was our Lord's witness against these darling sins that enraged His enemies. The wickedness of human nature is painfully shown in the sentence, Christ was hated. It is an utter delusion to suppose that there is any innate response to perfect moral purity or any innate admiration of the true, the pure, the just, the kind, the good and the beautiful in the heart of man. God gave man, 1,800 years ago, a perfect pattern of purity, truth, and love in the person of our Lord while he was upon earth, and yet we are told he was hated. True Christians must never be surprised if they are hated, like our Lord. The disciple is not above his master. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you. Matthew 10, verse 24, 1 John 3, verse 13. In fact, the more like Christ they are, the more likely to be hated. Moreover, they must not be cast down and make themselves miserable, under the idea that it is their inconsistencies the world hates, and that if they were more consistent and lovely in life, the world would like them better. This is a complete mistake, and a common delusion of the devil. What the world hates about Christians is neither their doctrines nor their faults, but their holy lives. Their lives are a constant testimony against the world, which makes the men of the world feel uncomfortable, and therefore the world hates them. Let us note that unpopularity among men is no proof that a Christian is wrong, either in faith or practice. The common notion of many that it is a good sign of a person's character to be well spoken of by everybody is a great error. When we see how our Lord was regarded by the wicked and worldly of His day, we may well conclude that it is a very poor compliment to be told that we are liked by everybody. There can surely be very little witness about our lives if even the wicked like us. Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you. Luke chapter 6 verse 26. That sentence is too much forgotten. Erasmus used to say that Luther might have had an easy life if he had not touched the Pope's crown and the monk's bellies. Bengel observes, those who please all men at all times ought deservedly to look on themselves with suspicion. Verse 8. Go ye up, this feast. These words can hardly be called a command. They rather mean, if you wish to go at once, go, and do not tarry for me. I go not up yet, my time is not full come. Here the reason already given and commented on is repeated. Our Lord did not say He would not go to the feast, but not yet. There was a time for all His actions and every step of His ministry, and that time had not yet fully arrived, or, as the Greek literally means, was not fulfilled. True Christians should remember that, like their Master on this occasion, They and worldly men cannot well work and act and move together. They will often find it so. Their principles are different. Their reasons and motives of action are different. They will often find that two cannot walk together, except they are agreed. It seems strange that any reasonable person should see difficulty in this passage as if it threw a color of doubt on our Lord's veracity. Yet Augustine has a homily on the subject in defense of our Lord. Surely the simplest and most natural view is that our Lord meant, I'm not going up yet, and am not going at any rate, in the public caravan with yourselves. This was Chrysostom's view and Theophilax. At an early period Porphyry tried to fasten on our Lord the charge of inconsistency of purpose out of this passage. An enemy of Christianity must be sadly at a loss for objections if he can find no better than one founded on this place. 9. When, said these words, abode, Galilee. This means that he stands at the place where the conversation took place while his brethren started on their journey to Jerusalem. what the place in Galilee was, we are not told. Verse 10. But when, brethren, gone up, then he went. We are not told what interval there was between our Lord's setting off for Jerusalem and his brethren's departure. The words before us would seem to indicate that he set off very soon after them. One reason perhaps for our Lord not going with them was his desire to avoid being made a public show by his relatives. They had very likely a carnal desire to call attention to him and to rally a party of adherents round him for their own worldly ends. To avoid affording any opportunity for this, our Lord would not go in their company. He had not forgotten, no doubt, that in Galilee there was a party who once would feign to have taken him by force to make him a king. John chapter 6, verse 15. He wished to keep clear of that party. Not openly, but in secret. This probably only means that our Lord did not go in the caravan or large company of his kinsmen, who according to custom went up to gather from Galilee, but in a more private manner. How large the caravans or gatherings of fellow travellers going up to the three great feasts must have been, we may easily see from the accounts of our Lord not being missed by Mary and Joseph at first, when he went up to Jerusalem with them at the age of twelve. Supposing him to have been in their company, they went a day's journey and saw for him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. Luke chapter 2 verse 44. Our Lord never sought publicity but once, and that was when he entered Jerusalem at the last Passover, just before his crucifixion. Then he wanted to draw attention to the great sacrifice he was about to offer up on the cross. The contrast between his conduct on that occasion and the present one is very remarkable. When it says that he went in secret, it does not necessarily mean that he went alone. There's no reason to suppose that his own chosen apostles had gone without him. It only means that he did not go up publicly in the company of all his kinsfolk and acquaintance from Galilee. Verse 11. Then the Jews sought him. If, as usually is the case in St. John, the Jews here mean the rulers and Pharisees, there can be little doubt that they sought Jesus in order to kill him, as the first verse tells us they wished to do. They naturally concluded that, like all devout Jews, he would come up to Jerusalem to the feast. Where is he? Here, as in many other places, the Greek word rendered he implies dislike and contempt. It is as if they said, that fellow. See Matthew chapter 27 verse 63, that deceiver. Verse 12, there was much murmuring. As a general rule, the Greek word rendered murmuring means an undercurrent of discontent or dislike, not openly expressed. Thus Acts chapter 6 verse 1. But here, and at verse 32, it does not seem to mean more than muttering and private conversation, implying only that people were not satisfied about our Lord, and privately talked much to one another about Him. The People. This word in the Greek is in the plural and evidently means the multitude or crowd of persons who were gathered at Jerusalem on account of the feast, in contradistinction to the rulers who are called the Jews. some good man, others deceiveth people. These expressions show the feelings of the common people towards our Lord, and are doubtless indicative of the classes from which the two opinions come. The class of simple-minded, true-hearted Israelites, who had sufficient independence to think for themselves, would say of our Lord, He is a good man. So also would the Galileans, probably, who had seen and heard most of our Lord's ministry. On the other hand, the class of carnal Jews who thought nothing of true religion, and were led like a mob at the back of the priests and Pharisees, would probably take their cue from the rulers and say, he deceiveth the people, simply because they were told so. Such, probably, was the feeling of the lower orders at Jerusalem. Let it be noted that Christ is, and always has been, the cause of division of opinion whenever he has come or has been preached. To some he is a saver of life, and to others of death. He draws out the true character of mankind. They either like him or dislike him. Strife and conflict of opinion are the certain consequences of the gospel really coming among men with power. The fault is not in the gospel, but in human nature. Stillness and quiet are signs not of life, but of death. The sun calls forth miasma and malaria from the swamps it shines upon, but the fault is not in the sun, but in the land. The very same rays call forth fertility and abundance from the cornfield. Verse 13. How be it no man openly fear Jews? This expression, of course, applies especially to those who favored our Lord. Those who hated Him would not fear to say so openly. This verse shows the length to which the enmity of the Jewish rulers against our Lord had already gone. It was a notorious fact among the lower orders that the heads of the nation hated Jesus, and that it was a dangerous thing to talk favorably of him, or to manifest any interest in him. The fear of man is a powerful principle among most people. Rulers have little idea how many things are secretly talked of sometimes among subjects and kept back from them. Two hundred years ago, the stewards could persecute all open and outspoken favorers of the English Puritans. that they could not prevent the lower orders secretly talking of them, and imbibing prejudices in their favor. honest obedience, the way of spiritual knowledge, a self-exalting spirit in ministers depreciated, the danger of hasty judgments. Now about the midst of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught. And the Jews marveled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory, but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.

Did not Moses give you the law? And yet none of you keepeth the law. Why go ye about to kill me? The people answered and said, Thou hast a devil. Who goeth about to kill thee? Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one work, and ye all marvel. Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision, not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers. And ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man. If a man on the sabbath day receives circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken, are ye angry at me, because I made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day? Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

We learn, first in this passage, that honest obedience to God's will is one way to obtain clear spiritual knowledge. Our Lord says, The difficulty of finding out what is truth in religion is a common subject of complaint among men. They point to many differences which prevail among Christians on matters of doctrine and profess to be unable to decide who is right. In thousands of cases, this professed inability to find out truth becomes an excuse for living without any religion at all. The saying of our Lord before us is one that demands the serious attention of persons in this state of mind. It supplies an argument, whose edge and point they will find it hard to evade. It teaches that one secret of getting the key of knowledge is to practice honestly what we know, and that if we conscientiously use the light that we now have, we shall soon find more light coming down into our minds.

In short, there is a sense in which it is true that by doing we shall come to knowing. There is a mind of truth in this principle. Well would it be for men if they would act upon it. Instead of saying, as some do, I must first know everything clearly, and then I will act. We should say, I will diligently use such knowledge as I possess, and believe that in the using fresh knowledge will be given to me. How many mysteries this simple plan would solve. How many hard things would soon become plain if men would honestly live up to their light and follow on to know the Lord.

Hosea chapter 6 verse 3. It should never be forgotten that God deals with us as moral beings, and not as beasts or stones. He loves to encourage us to self-exertion and diligent use of such means as we have in our hands. The plain things in religion are undeniably very many. Let a man honestly attend to them, and he shall be taught the deep things of God. Whatever some may say about their inability to find out truth, you will rarely find one of them who does not know better than he practices. Then if he is sincere, let him begin here at once. Let him humbly use what little knowledge he has got, and God will soon give him more.

If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. Matthew 6, verse 22.

We learn, secondly in this passage, that a self-exalting spirit in ministers of religion is entirely opposed to the mind of Christ. Our Lord says, He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory, but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him." The wisdom and truth of this sentence will be evident at once to any reflecting mind. The minister truly called of God will be deeply sensible of his master's majesty and his own infirmity, and will see in himself nothing but unworthiness. He, on the other hand, who knows that he is not inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost, will try to cover over his defects by magnifying himself and his office. The very desire to exalt ourselves is a bad symptom. It is a sure sign of something wrong within.

Does anyone ask illustrations of the truth before us? He will find them, on the one side, in the scribes and Pharisees of our Lord's times. If one thing more than another distinguished these unhappy men, it was their desire to get praise for themselves. He will find them, on the other side, in the character of the Apostle Paul. The keynote that runs through all his epistles is personal humility and zeal for Christ's glory.

I am less than the least of all saints. I am not meant to be called an apostle. I am chief of sinners. We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Christ's sake. Ephesians 3, verse 8, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 9, 1 Timothy 1, verse 15, 2 Corinthians 4, verse 5.

Does anyone ask for a test by which he may discern the real man of God from the false shepherd in the present day? Let him remember our Lord's weighty words and notice carefully what is the main object that a minister loves to exalt. Not he who is ever crying, Behold the church, behold the sacraments, behold the ministry, but he who says, Behold the Lamb, is the pastor after God's own heart. Happy indeed is that minister who forgets self in his pulpit and desires to be hid behind the cross. This man shall be blessed in his work and be a blessing.

We learn, lastly in this passage, the danger of forming a hasty judgment. The Jews at Jerusalem were ready to condemn our Lord as a sinner against the law of Moses, because he had done a miracle of healing on the Sabbath day. They forgot in their blind enmity that the fourth commandment was not meant to prevent works of necessity or works of mercy. A work on the Sabbath our Lord had done, no doubt, but not a work forbidden by the law. And hence they drew down on themselves the rebuke, judge not according to the appearances, but judge righteous judgment.

The practical value of the lesson before us is very great. We shall do well to remember it as we travel through life, and to correct our estimate of people and things by the light which it supplies. We are often too ready to be deceived by an appearance of good. We are in danger of rating some men as very good Christians because of a little outward profession of religion and decent Sunday formality, because, in short, they talk the language of Canaan and wear the garb of pilgrims. We forget that all is not good that appears good, even as all is not gold that glitters, and that daily practice, choice, taste, habits, conduct, private character, are the true evidence of what a man is. In a word, we forget our Lord's saying, judge not according to the appearance.

We are too ready, on the other hand, to be deceived by the appearance of evil. We are in danger of setting down some men as no true Christians because of a few faults or inconsistencies and making them offenders because of a word. Isaiah chapter 29 verse 21. We must remember that the best of men are but men at their very best and that the most eminent saints may be overtaken by temptation and yet be saints at heart after all. We must not hastily suppose that all is evil when there is an occasional appearance of evil. The holiest man may fall sadly for a time, and yet the grace within him may finally get the victory. Is a man's general character godly? Then let us suspend our judgment when he falls, and hope on. Let us judge righteous judgment. In any case, let us take care that we pass fair judgment on ourselves. Whatever we think of others, let us beware of making mistakes about our own character. There, at any rate, let us be just, honest, and fair. Let us not flatter ourselves that all is right, because all is apparently right before men. The Lord, we must remember, looketh on the heart. 1 Samuel chapter 16 verse 7. Then let us judge ourselves with righteous judgment, and condemn ourselves while we live lest we be judged of the Lord and condemned forever at the last day. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 31. Notes. John 7, verses 14 to 24. Verse 14. About, midst of, feast. This would be about the fourth day of the week, as the feast lasted seven days. Some who consider the Feast of Tabernacles a type of Christ's incarnation think this circumstance is typical of our Lord's earthly ministry lasting three years and a half, answering to the three days and a half during which our Lord taught publicly here in Jerusalem. I doubt myself whether the circumstance is typical at all. If the Feast of Tabernacles is typical, I believe it points to the second advent of Christ much more than to the first. Jesus went up, temple. This means the outer court of the temple where pious Jews were in the habit of assembling in order to hear the doctors of the law and others, and to discuss religious subjects. This is the place where our Lord was when Joseph and Mary found him at 12 years of age in the temple, Luke chapter 2 verse 46. It was probably a large open courtyard with piazzas or verandas around it for shelter against heat and cold. taught. What our Lord taught we are not told. Expositions of Scripture, as Luke chapter 4 verses 17 to 21, and such lessons as those contained in the Sermon on the Mount and the parables, were most likely the kind of things that He taught, first, on such occasions as this. It admits of doubt whether He taught such deep things as those contained in the fifth and sixth chapters of St. John, unless publicly attacked or put on His defense. Alfred thinks this was the first time that our Lord taught publicly at Jerusalem, yet this seems at least questionable when we consider the second and fifth chapters of John. Verse 15. The Jews marveled. The wisdom and knowledge of Scripture which our Lord showed must have been the principal cause of wonder, yet we may well believe there was something wonderful in his manner and style of speaking. How knoweth this man letters? The word rendered letters here must probably be taken in the sense of learning. It is so used in Acts 26, verse 24. In John 5, verse 47, it is rendered writings. In 2 Timothy 3, verse 11, it is the scriptures. The original idea is a written character, a letter of the alphabet. It is thus used in Luke 23, verse 38, of the inscription on the cross written in letters of Greek, etc. having never learned. The Jews must have meant by this, that our Lord had never attended any of the great theological schools, which the scribes and Pharisees kept up in Jerusalem, to which St. Paul refers when he says, he was brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel. Acts chapter 22 verse 3. They did not, of course, mean that anyone brought up at Nazareth must necessarily have been totally ignorant. that our Lord could read and write is clear from Luke 4.16 and John 8.6, but the Jerusalem Jews, in their pride and self-conceit, set down anyone as comparatively ignorant who had not been trained in their great metropolitan schools. People are very apt to condemn anyone as ignorant who disagrees with them in religion. According to Tholak, it was a rule of the Talmud that no man could appear as a teacher who had not for some years been a colleague of a rabbi. Verse 16. My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. Our Lord meant by these words, My doctrine is not mine only. The teaching that I am proclaiming is not a thing of my own private invention, and the product of my own isolated mind. It is the doctrine of my Father who sent me. It deserves attention because it is His message. He that despiseth it despiseth not only me, but him whose messenger I am." The great truth of his own inseparable and mysterious union with God the Father is here once more pointed at. It is like, I can of my own self do nothing. John chapter 5 verse 30. And as my father hath taught me, I speak these things. John chapter 8 verse 28. And I have not spoken of myself, but the father which sent me, he gave me commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. John chapter 12 verse 49. Some think that our Lord only meant the sense of scripture, which I give is not my own, but the sense in which God at first gave it. but this is a very meager view of the sentence, though an Aryan or Sassanian may like it. Cyril remarks, In saying that he was sent by the Father, he does not show himself inferior to the Father, for this mission is not that of a servant, though it might be called so, as he took on him the form of a servant, but he is sent, as a word is out of the mind, or a sunbeam out of the sun. Augustine remarks, this sentence undoeth the Sibyllian heresy. The Sibyllians have dared to say that the son is the same as the father, the names two, the reality one. If the names were two and the reality one, it would not be said, my doctrine is not mine. If thy doctrine be not thine, Lord, whose is it? Unless there be another whose it may be. Hengstenberg thinks that our Lord had in view the famous prophecy of Moses in which God says of Messiah, I will put my words into his mouth. Deuteronomy chapter 18, verse 18. Let us carefully note with what peculiar reverence we should receive and study every word that fell from our Lord's lips. When he spoke, he did not speak his own mind only as one of his apostles or prophets did. It was God the Father speaking with and through him. No wonder when we read such expressions as this, that St. John calls our Lord, the Word. Verse 17. If any man will do his will. The English language here fails to give the full force of the Greek. It is literally, if any man is willing to do, has a mind and desire and inclination to do God's will, It is not the simple future of the verb do. There are two distinct verbs. The stress, therefore, in reading the sentence must not be laid entirely on doing God's will. It is if any man is willing to do. He shall know of the doctrine. This means he shall know concerning and about the doctrine that I am proclaiming. Whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself, This means, whether the doctrine is from God, as I say it is, the doctrine of God the Father, which he has commissioned and sent me to proclaim to man, or whether I speak from myself, on my own isolated responsibility, without any license or commission. The translation, speak of myself, is unfortunately equivocal. The expression does not mean, about and concerning myself, but from myself. By doing the will of God, our Lord must mean, obeying and performing, as far as in us lies, that will of God which we have expressly declared to us in the word of God. 17th Article. Such doing, he declares, is the way of knowledge. It is the same idea as the doing truth of John 3.21. The principle here laid down is one of immense importance. We are taught that clear knowledge depends greatly on honest obedience and that distinct views of divine truth cannot be expected unless we try to practice such things as we know. Living up to our light, we shall have more light. Striving to do the few things we know, we shall find the eyes of our understanding enlightened and shall know more. Did the Jews profess to feel perplexed and not to know whether our Lord was sent from God? Let them honestly do God's will and seek knowledge in the path of sincere obedience in such matters as were clear and plain. So doing they would be guided into all truth and find their doubts removed. We learn from these words how greatly they err who profess to be waiting till their mental difficulties are removed before they become decided Christians. They must change their plan. They must understand that knowledge comes through humble obedience, as well as through the intellect. Let them begin by honestly doing God's will as far as they know that will, and in so doing they will find their minds enlightened. We learn, furthermore, that God tests men's sincerity by making obedience part of the process by which religious knowledge is obtained. Are we really willing to do God's will so far as we know it? If we are, God will take care that our knowledge is increased. If we are not willing to do His will, we show clearly that we do not want to be God's servants. Our hearts, and not our heads, are in fault. We learn, finally, the great principle on which many will be condemned at the last day. They did not live up to their light. They did not use such knowledge as they possessed, and so were left in dark and dead in sins. There's probably not one in a thousand among unconverted people who does not know far better than he practices. Such men surely, if lost, will have none to blame but themselves. In interpreting this verse, I believe we must be careful not to lay more meaning on the expression, do his will, than our Lord meant it to bear. I say this because I observe many respectable commentators place such a very wide and comprehensive sense upon doing God's will that they miss entirely our Lord's purpose in speaking the words. They start with saying that to do God's will, we must have faith in Christ, new hearts, grace, reigning within us, and the like, and thus represent our Lord as saying in effect, if any man will become a true believer and a converted man, he shall know of the doctrine, etc. I venture to think that such interpretation completely misses the mark and is going round in a circle. Of course, any true believer knows true doctrine. I believe that our Lord's object was simply to encourage the honest-minded, sincere, single-eyed inquirer after truth. To such a man, though at present very ignorant, He says, If you really have a desire to do God's will, to please Him and to follow any light He gives you, you will be taught of Him, you will find out the truth. My doctrine may be hid from the wise and prudent, but it is revealed to babes." Matthew 11, verse 25. I hold, in short, that we should take as simple a view as possible of the sentence, if any man will do his will, and be very careful that we do not mar its usefulness by putting more meaning on it than our Lord intended. Bishop Hall thus paraphrases the text, If any man shall, with a simple and honest heart, yield himself over to do the will of my Father according to the measure that he knows, God shall encourage and bless that man with further light, so as he shall fully know whether my doctrine be of God or of myself." Burgon remarks, The perception of truth depends on the practice of virtue. It is a favorite maxim of the present day that increased knowledge will bring with it growth in godliness. Scripture, at all events, entirely reverses the process. the way to know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, is to do his will. See John chapter 5 verse 44, chapter 8 verse 12. Henstenburg remarks, Whosoever would lead souls to Christ should not tarry long about the specious arguments with which the natural man seeks to disguise the hateful perversion of his state of will, but should above all things try to excite willingness to do the will of God. verse 18, he that speaketh of himself, etc. In this verse, as in the preceding verses, he that speaketh of himself would be more literally rendered speaketh from himself. The verse contains a general principle applicable not only to our Lord's own case, but to teachers of religion in every age. The meaning seems to be as follows. He that undertakes on his own responsibility and without being sent by God to speak to men about religion, will naturally seek to advance his own importance and get honor for himself. Speaking from himself, he will speak for himself and try to exalt himself. He, on the contrary, who is a true messenger of God, and in whom there is no dishonesty or unrighteousness, will always seek first the glory of the God who sent him. In short, it is one mark of a man being a true servant of God, and really commissioned by our Father in Heaven, that he ever seeks his Master's glory more than his own. The principle here laid down is a very valuable one. By it we may test the pretensions of many false teachers of religion, and prove them to be unsound guides. there's a curious tendency in every system of heresy or unsound religion to make its ministers magnify themselves, their authority, their importance and their office. It may be seen in Romanism and Brahmanism to a remarkable extent. Alfred's remark, however, is very true, that in the highest and strictest sense, the latter part of the sentence is only true of the Holy One Himself, and that owing to human infirmity, purity of motive is no sure guarantee for correctness of doctrine. And therefore in the end of the verse it is not said, He who seeketh God's glory, but, He that seeketh His glory that sent Him, specially indicating Christ Himself. For God thinks that true is a word used intentionally in contrast with the expression he deceiveth the people. Verse 19. Did not Moses give you the law? Our Lord here appeals to the well-known reverence with which all Jews regarded Moses and the law. But it is highly probable that he had in view the practice of publicly reading the law of Moses to the people during the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, which was observed once in every seven years at that feast. Deuteronomy 31.10. If, as is possible, this was one of the seventh years in which the law was so read, there would be a singular significance and aptness in his appeal. This very day you have been hearing that law which you profess to honor so much, but do you honor it in your lives? None of you keepeth the law, this would be more literally rendered, none of you doeth the law. It is the same word that is used in the expression, if any man will do his will. Verse 17. The meaning seems to be, you reject me and my doctrine, and profess to be zealous for the honor of Moses and the law, and yet none of you really obey the law in heart and in spirit. For instance, why do you seek to kill me? You are full of hatred of me, and want to put me to death unjustly, in the face of the sixth commandment. This is not keeping the law. The Greek word rendered, go about, is the same that is rendered, seek, in verse 1 of this chapter and chapter 5, verses 16 and 17. Verse 20. The people answered and said, etc. It seems probable that those who said this were the common people, the multitude of Jews gathered from all parts of the world, to many of whom our Lord was a stranger, We can hardly suppose that the rulers and leaders of Jerusalem would have spoken in this way. The expression, thou hast a devil, may possibly be a repetition of the old charge that our Lord wrought his miracles by Beelzebub and was in league with the devil, as John chapter 8 verse 48. In that sense, it would be the strongest form of reproach, blasphemy, and contempt. But considering who the speakers were, it is more likely that it simply means, thou art beside thyself, and mad. So John chapter 10 verse 20. The expression, who goeth about to kill thee, can easily be understood if we suppose the speakers to be the common people and not the rulers. The common people probably knew nothing about the intentions of the rulers to put Jesus to death. and would think him beside himself to say that anyone wanted to kill him. Verse 21. Jesus answered, I have done one work. Our Lord can only refer here to the miracle he had wrought on a former occasion at the pool of Bethesda. Chapter five, verse one, etc. This was at present the only great miracle that had been publicly performed in Jerusalem, and from its having led to our Lord being brought before the Sanhedrin, or great council of the Jews, to his defense made before them, it would be a miracle that all would know. Ye all marvel. This strong present tense seems to mean, ye are all still wondering, not only at the greatness of the miracle, but also at my working it on the Sabbath day. Schlesner maintains that the Greek word rendered marvel means here, ye are indignant, ye take amiss. He thinks the word is used in this sense In Mark chapter 6 verse 6, John chapter 5 verse 28, and Galatians chapter 1 verse 6. Verse 22, Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision. There's a difficulty in this verse in the expression we translate, therefore. It is literally on this account, for this reason, on account of this. It is not easy to say how the expression comes in and with what it is connected. One, Some, as Theophylact, Beza, Poole, Whitby, Hammond, Maldonadus, Pearce, Doddridge, Bloomfield, Olshausen, Tholak, Hengstenberg, and Stier, propose to alter the stopping and to connect it with the end of the preceding verse, ye all marvel because of this one work. Compare Mark chapter 6, verse 6. But it is doubtful whether the Greek language will fairly admit this. Some would connect, therefore, with ye are angry, in the following verse. Are ye really angry with me on account of this one work, when you yourselves break the sabbath, in a sense, by circumcising on the sabbath day? But this connection seems very distant indeed. 3. Some, as Grotius, Colovius, Jesenius, and Webster, think the expression altogether elliptical, and would fill up the sense after, therefore, by supposing some such connection as this. On account of this work and your anger at it, let me remind you of your own practice about circumcision. See Matthew 18.22, 12.30, Luke 12.22. 4. Some, as Chemnitius, Musconus, and Dudu, interpret therefore as because and make the sentence to mean, because Moses gave you circumcision, you circumcise a man on the Sabbath day, etc. But it seems a violent strain to make the Greek word re-render therefore mean because. 5. Some, finally, as Alfred, Burgon, Verdius, Toletus, and Lyrannus, would connect, therefore, with the middle of this verse, and would have it mean, For this reason Moses gave you circumcision, viz., not because it was an ordinance appointed first by him, but because it was given to the fathers, i.e., Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This last is perhaps as tenable a view as any, but it is undeniably a difficulty and must remain so. Adopting this view, the whole verse may be paraphrased as follows. Moses, whose name and law you highly reverence, gave you among other things the ordinance of circumcision. He gave it, remember, for this reason, because it was an old ordinance handed down to you by your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and not an ordinance first communicated to him like the Levitical law. Now you, in obedience to the ordinance of circumcision, which ought to be administered on the eighth day after a child's birth, think it no breach of the fourth commandment to circumcise a child on the Sabbath day. In fact, you postpone the law of the Sabbath to the law of circumcision. You admit that a work of piety and necessity may be done on the Sabbath day. You admit that the fourth commandment, which was given on Mount Sinai, was not so important as the older law of circumcision. Braganze shows that, therefore, is used just in the same way as here, at the beginning of a sentence and pointing forward, in John 5, 16, 18, 8, 47, 10, 17, 12, 18, 39. We should note how here, as elsewhere, our Lord refers to Moses as a real person and to the Old Testament history as real true history. 23. If a man, etc. The argument in this verse is as follows. Even among yourselves You circumcise a child on the Sabbath day, when it happens to be the eighth day after his birth, in order that the law of circumcision, which your great lawgiver, Moses, sanctioned and reordained, should not be broken. You thus admit the whole principle that there is some work which may be done on the Sabbath day. Is it then just and fair to be angry with me, because I have done a far greater work to a man on the Sabbath, than the work of circumcision? I have not wounded his body by circumcision, but made him perfectly whole. I have not done a purifying work to one particular part of him, but have restored his whole body to health and strength. I have not done a work of necessity to one single member only, but a work of necessity and benefit to the whole man. I cannot see any ground for the idea suggested by Alford that our Lord implies in this verse, that the law of the Sabbath is a mere Judaical practice and, comparatively, a modern ordinance, and that as such it properly gave way to the older and higher law of circumcision, which was of the fathers. It might be replied, firstly, that the Sabbath is so far from being a Judaical institution that it is actually older than circumcision and was appointed in paradise. It might be replied, secondly, that our Lord seems purposely to guard against the idea by speaking of circumcision as given by Moses and as a part of the law of Moses. In fact, he does this twice, with such curious particularity that one might think he meant to guard against anyone wresting this passage into an argument against the perpetual obligation of the Sabbath day. He is pleased for the occasion to speak both of circumcision and the Sabbath as part of the Law of Moses. He did this purposefully because the minds of his heirs were full of Moses and the Law at this particular period. And his argument amounts to this, that if they themselves allowed the Mosaic Law of the Sabbath must give way in a case of necessity to the Mosaic Law of circumcision, they admitted that some works might be done on the Sabbath day, and therefore his work of healing an entire man on the Sabbath day could not be condemned as sinful. The marginal reading, without breaking the law of Moses, instead of, that the law of Moses should not be broken, appears to me inadmissible and unnecessary. It is inadmissible because it is a forced and unnatural interpretation of the Greek words. It is unnecessary because our Lord is evidently speaking of circumcision as a part of the law of Moses. The idea of some commentators, as Trapp, Rollock, Hutchinson, Biza, and Steer, that every went whole means wholeness of soul as well as body and implies conversion of heart as well as restoration to entire health and strength of the physical man appears to me unlikely and far-fetched. It is a pious thought but not apparently in our Lord's mind. Moreover, it is not quite certain that the man healed at Bethsaida was healed in soul as well as body. There's no clear proof of it. Verse 24. Judge not according to appearance, etc. The sense of this verse must be sought in connection with the subject of which our Lord has just been speaking. The Jews had condemned our Lord and denounced him as a sinner against the fourth commandment because he had done a work on the Sabbath day. Our Lord refers to this and says, Judge not the deed I did according to the appearance. I did a work on the Sabbath unquestionably, but what kind of work was it? It was an act of necessity and mercy and therefore an act as lawful to be done as circumcision, which you yourselves perform on the Sabbath day. In appearance, the Sabbath was broken. In reality, it was not broken at all. Judge fair and just and righteous judgment. Do not hastily condemn an action such as this without looking below the surface. There is perhaps a reference here to Isaiah's prophecy about Messiah. He shall not judge after the sight of his eyes. Isaiah chapter 11 verse 8. The principle here laid down is one of vast importance. Nothing is so common as to judge too favorably or too unfavorably the characters and actions from merely looking at the outward appearance of things. We are apt to form hasty opinions of others, either for good or evil, on very insufficient grounds. We pronounce some men to be good and others to be bad, some to be godly and others to be ungodly, without anything but appearance to aid our decision. We should do well to remember our blindness and to keep in mind this text. The bad are not always so bad, nor the good so good, as they appear. A paw-shirt may be covered over with gilding and look bright outside. A nugget of gold may be covered with dirt and look worthless rubbish. One man's work may look good at first, and yet turn out, by and by, to have been done from the basest motives. Another man's work may look very questionable at first, and yet at last may prove Christlike and truly godly. From rashly judging by appearances, may the Lord deliver us. Whether our Lord meant, judge not persons, or judge not actions, according to appearance, is a point on which commentators do not agree. If we take the application to be persons, the sentence means, do not hastily suppose that Moses and I are at variance, and that, therefore, I must be wrong, because Moses, the great lawgiver, must be right. But it seems far simpler and more natural to apply the expression to actions. Judge not the thing done by the appearance only, look below the surface, and weigh it justly. Section 3 of Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of St. John, Volume 2, by J. C. Ryle. Chapter 7, Verses 25 to 36 BLINDNESS OF UNBELIEVING JEWS, GOD'S OVERRULING HAND OVER HIS ENEMIES, MISERABLE END OF UNBELIEVERS John, Chapter 7, Verses 25 to 36 Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he of whom they seek to kill? But, lo, he speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ? Howbeit we know this man whence he is, but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is. Then cried Jesus in the temple, as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am. And I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not. But I know him, for I am from him, and he hath sent me. Then they sought to take him, but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come. And many of the people believed on him, and said, When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these, which this man hath done? The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him. Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while I am with you, and then I go unto him that sent me. Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me, and where I am, thither ye cannot come." Then said the Jews among themselves, Whither will he go, that we shall not find him? Will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles? What manner of saying is this, that he said, Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me, and where I am, thither ye cannot come? We see in these verses the obstinate blindness of the unbelieving Jews. We find them defending their denial of our Lord's Messiahship by saying, We know this man whence he is, but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is. And yet in both these assertions they were wrong. They were wrong in saying that they knew whence our Lord came. They meant no doubt to say that he was born at Nazareth, and belonged to Nazareth, and was therefore a Galilean. Yet the fact was that our Lord was born at Bethlehem, that he belonged legally to the tribe of Judah, and that his mother and Joseph were of the house and lineage of David. It is incredible to suppose that the Jews could not have found this out if they had honestly searched and inquired. It is notorious that pedigrees, genealogies, and family histories were most carefully kept by the Jewish nation. Their ignorance was without excuse. They were wrong again in saying that no man was to know whence Christ came. There was a well-known prophecy with which their whole nation was familiar, that Christ was to come out of the town of Bethlehem. Micah chapter 5 verse 2, Matthew chapter 2 verse 5, John chapter 7 verse 42. It is absurd to suppose that they had forgotten this prophecy, but apparently they found it inconvenient to remember it on this occasion. Men's memories are often, sadly, dependent on their wills. The Apostle Peter, in a certain place, speaks of some as willingly ignorant. 2 Peter 3, verse 5. He had good reason to use the expression. It is a sore spiritual disease, and one most painfully common among men. There are thousands in the present day just as blind in their way as the Jews. They shut their eyes against the plainest facts and doctrines of Christianity. They pretend to say that they do not understand and cannot therefore believe the things that we press on their attention as needful to salvation. But, alas! In 19 cases out of 20, it is a willful ignorance. They do not believe what they do not like to believe. They will neither read, nor listen, nor search, nor think, nor inquire honestly after the truth. Can anyone wonder if such persons are ignorant? Faithful and true is that old proverb, there are none so blind as those who will not see. We see, for another thing, in these verses, the overruling hand of God over all His enemies. We find that the unbelieving Jews sought to take our Lord, but no man laid hands on Him because His hour was not yet come. They had the will to hurt Him, but by an invisible restraint from above they had not the power. There is a mine of deep truth in the words before us which deserves close attention. They show us plainly that all our Lord's sufferings were undergone voluntarily and of His own free will. He did not go to the cross because He could not help it. He did not die because He could not prevent His death. Neither Jew nor Gentile, Pharisee nor Sadducee, Annas nor Caiaphas, Herod nor Pontius Pilate, could have injured our Lord except power had been given them from above. All that they did was done under control and by permission. The crucifixion was part of the eternal counsels of the Trinity. The Passion of our Lord could not begin until the very hour which God had appointed. This is a great mystery, but it is a truth. The servants of Christ in every age should treasure up the doctrines before us and remember it in time of need. It is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons. Let such never forget that they live in a world where God overrules all times and events, and where nothing can happen but by God's permission. The very hairs of their head are all numbered. Sorrow and sickness and poverty and persecution can never touch them unless God sees fit. They may boldly say to every cross, Thou couldst have no power against me except it were given thee from above. then let them work on confidently. They are immortal till their work is done. Let them suffer patiently if needs be that they suffer. Their times are in God's hand. Psalm 31 verse 15. That hand guides and governs all things here below and makes no mistakes. We see lastly in these verses the miserable end to which unbelievers may one day come. We find our Lord saying to his enemies, ye shall seek me, and shall not find me, and where I am thither ye cannot come." We can hardly doubt that these words were meant to have a prophetical sense. Whether our Lord had in view individual cases of unbelief among His hearers, or whether He looked forward to the natural remorse which many would feel too late in the final siege of Jerusalem, are points which we cannot perhaps decide. but that many Jews did remember Christ's sayings, long after he had ascended into heaven, and did in a way seek him and wish for him when it was too late, we may be very sure. It is far too much forgotten that there is such a thing as finding out truth too late. There may be convictions of sin, discoveries of our own folly, desires after peace, anxieties about heaven, fears of hell, but all too late. The teaching of Scripture on this point is clear and express. It is written in Proverbs, Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer. Then shall they seek me early, but they shall not find me. Proverbs chapter 2 verse 28. It is written of the foolish virgins in the parable that when they found the door shut, they knocked in vain, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. Matthew chapter 35 verse 11. Awful as it may seem, it is possible by continually resisting light and warnings to send away our own souls. It sounds terrible. but it is true. Let us take heed to ourselves lest we sin after the example of the unbelieving Jews and never seek the Lord Jesus as a Savior till it is too late. The door of mercy is still open. The throne of grace is still waiting for us. Let us give diligence to make sure our interest in Christ while it is called today. Better never to have been born than to hear the Son of God say at last, Whither I am, thither ye cannot come. Notes, John chapter 7 verses 25 to 36. Verse 25. Then said some of Jerusalem, etc. It is likely that these speakers were some of the lower orders who lived at Jerusalem and knew what the rulers wanted to do to our Lord. They can hardly be the same as the people at verse 20. They, being probably strangers to the plans of the priests and Pharisees, said, Who goeth about to kill thee? These, on the other hand, say, Is not this he whom they seek to kill? Titman remarks that the argument of the preceding verses appears to have had great weight in the mind of our Lord's hearers. Verse 26, But lo, he speaketh boldly, and they say nothing, etc. There appears to have been a restraining power put on our Lord's enemies at this juncture. See verse 30. It certainly seems to have struck the people before us as a remarkable thing that our Lord should speak out so boldly, openly and publicly, and yet no effort be made by the rulers to apprehend him and stop his teaching. No wonder that they asked the question which immediately follows. Have our rulers changed their mind? Are they convinced at last? Have they really found out that this is truly the Messiah, the Christ of God? The Greek words would have been more literally rendered, have the rulers truly learned that this man is truly the Christ? Verse 27. How be it we know this man whence he is? This means that they knew that our Lord was from Nazareth of Galilee. This, we must remember, was the universal belief of all the Jews. When our Lord rode into Jerusalem, just before his crucifixion, the multitude said, This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. Matthew 21, verse 11. When an inscription was put over his head on the cross, in the letters of the three languages it was, Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. John chapter 19, verse 19. See also Matthew chapter 13, verse 55. Mark chapter 6, verse 3. Luke chapter 4, verse 22. Yet we know all this time that the Jews were mistaken and that our Lord was in reality born at Bethlehem, according to prophecy. Micah chapter 5, verse 2. We can hardly doubt that the Jews might have found this out if they had taken the pains to inquire narrowly into the early history of our Lord's life. In a nation so strict about pedigrees and birthplaces, such a thing could not be hid. But it seems as if they would not take the pains to inquire and satisfy themselves with the common story of His origin as it gave them an additional excuse for not receiving Him as the Messiah. The entire ignorance which appears to have prevailed among the Jews about all the circumstances of our Lord's miraculous conception and His birth at Bethlehem is certainly rather remarkable. Yet it should be remembered that thirty years have passed away between our Lord's birth and His public ministry, that His mother and Joseph were evidently in a very humble position and might easily be overlooked, as well as all that happened to them, and that living quietly at Nazareth, their journey to Bethlehem at the time of the taxing would soon be forgotten by others. After all, we must not forget that it is part of God's dealings with man not to force conviction and belief on anyone. The obscurity purposefully left over our Lord's birthplace was a part of the moral probation of the Jewish nation. If, in their pride and indolence and self-righteousness, they would not receive the abundant evidence which our Lord gave of His Messiahship, it could not be expected that God would make unbelief impossible by placing His birth of a virgin at Bethlehem beyond the reach of doubt. In this, as in everything else, if the Jews had honestly desired to find out the truth, they might have found it. When Christ cometh, no man knoweth, etc. It is rather difficult to see what the Jews meant by these words. Most writers think that they refer to the mysterious language of Isaiah about Messiah, who shall declare his generation, Isaiah chapter 53 verse 8, or to Micah's words, whose going forth have been from of old, from everlasting, Micah chapter 5 verse 2, and that they had in view the divine and heavenly origin of Messiah, which all Jews allowed would be a mystery. Yet it is hard to understand why they did not say, when Christ cometh, he shall be born in Bethlehem, and why they should be supposed to speak of our Lord's earthly origin in the beginning of the verse, and of Messiah's divine origin in the end. There seems no explanation, except to suppose that these speakers were singularly ignorant Jews, who did not know that Messiah was to be born at Bethlehem, and only knew that his birth was to be a mysterious thing. This is a possible view, if not a very probable one. The argument of the speakers before us would then be as follows. When Messiah comes, he is to come suddenly, as Malachi foretold, saying, The Lord shall suddenly come to his temple. Malachi chapter 3 verse 1. Unexpectedly, mysteriously, and taking people by surprise. This man, therefore, who is sitting in the temple among us, cannot be the Messiah, because we know that he came from Nazareth in Galilee and has been living there for more than 30 years. The prophecy about Messiah being born at Bethlehem they conveniently dropped out of sight, and in fact never dreamed that it was fulfilled by our Lord. The only prophecy they chose to look at was the one in Malachi, Malachi chapter 3 verse 1. And as the Lord did not appear to fulfill that, they concluded that He could not be the Christ. In religious matters, people are easily satisfied with very imperfect and superficial reasoning, when they want to be satisfied and to be spared further trouble. Men never want reasons to confirm their will. This seems to have been the case with the Jews. Rupertus mentions a common tradition of the Jews that when Christ came, he would come at midnight, as the angel came at midnight when the firstborn were destroyed in Egypt, and he thinks it may have been in their minds here. Hutcheson observes that, not comparing of Scripture with Scripture, but taking any single sentence that seems to plead for that, we would be at, is a very great nursery and cause of error, such as the Jews' reasoning here. They catch at one thing, speaking of Messiah's divinity, and take no notice of other places. Besser quotes a saying of Luther's. The Jews are poor scholars. They have caught the sound of the prophet's clock. Micah chapter 5 verse 2. But they have not noted the stroke aright. He who does not hear well imagines well. They heard that Christ was so to come that none should know whence he came. But they understood not right that coming from God he was to be born of a virgin and come secretly into the world. Verse 28. Then cried Jesus. Temple taught. This is a remarkable expression. We find our Lord departing from his usual practice when we read that he cried or raised his voice to a high pitch. Generally speaking, the words in St. Matthew apply strictly. Quoted from Isaiah chapter 47 verse 1. He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the street. Matthew chapter 12 verse 19. Yet we see there were occasions when he did see it right to cry aloud and lift up his voice, and this is one. The perverse ignorance of the Jews, their persistence in blindness to all evidence, and the great opportunity afforded by the crowds around him in the temple courts were probably reasons why he cried. The Lord is only said to have cried or lifted up His voice in four other passages in the Gospels. This Matthew 27, Mark 15, John 7, and 12. The Greek for cried in Matthew 27, is even a stronger word than that before us. Yet both knew me and whence I am. This is an undeniably difficult expression, partly because it is hard to reconcile with John chapter 8 verse 14, and partly because it is not clear how the Jews could be said to know our Lord and whence he was. The explanations suggested are various. 1. Some, such as Grotius, Lamp, Doddridge, Bloomfield, Tittman, and A. Clarke, would have the sentence read as a question. Do you both know me, and do ye know whence I am? Are ye quite sure that you are correct in saying this? In this view, it would be rather like the mode of expression used by our Lord in John 16, verse 31. Do you now believe? were the interrogative forms the beginning of the sentence. some, as Calvin, Echolampadius, Biza, Flacius, Gouter, Rollock, Tollitus, Glacius, Olshausen, Thorlock, Stier, and Webster, think that the sentence is spoken ironically. Truly you do know me and whence I am, and poor, miserable knowledge it is, worth nothing at all. Bengel and others object to this view, that Our Lord never spoke ironically. Yet it would be hard to show that there is no irony in John 10, verse 32, if not in Matthew 26, verse 45 and Mark 7, verse 9. 3. Some think, as Chrysostom, Cossius, Jansenius, Diodati, Wengel, Henry, Burkett, Hengstenberg, Alford, Wordsworth, and Burgon, that the sentence is a simple affirmation. It is true that you know me and whence I am, I grant that in a certain sense you are right. You know where I have been brought up and who my relatives, according to the flesh, are, and yet in reality you know very little of me. Of my divine nature and my unity with my father, you know nothing at all. On the whole, I prefer this last view to either of the other two. And I am not come of myself, etc. This sentence and the rest of the verse are evidently elliptical and must be paraphrased to give a full idea of the sense. And yet ye do not really and thoroughly know me, for I am not come of myself, independent of God the Father, and without commission, but sent by the Father into the world. And he that sent me has proved himself true to his promises by sending me, and is indeed a real true person, and the true and faithful God of Israel, whom ye, with all your profession, do not know. Here, as elsewhere, our Lord's expression, not come of myself, points directly to that intimate union between himself and God the Father, which is so constantly referred to in the Gospel of John. Here, too, as elsewhere, our Lord charges on the unbelieving Jews ignorance of a God whom they profess to serve, and for whose honor they profess to be jealous. With all their boasted zeal for true religion and the true God, they did not really know God. The word true, here, is of doubtful interpretation. It means truthful, according to Cyril, Chrysostom, Theophilact, Lamb, Tholoc. But it is not clear that this is so. Alfred maintains that it must mean really existent. Trench takes the same view in his New Testament synonyms. Verse 29. But I know him, etc. The knowledge of which our Lord here speaks is that peculiar and intimate knowledge which is necessarily implied in the unity of the three persons of the Trinity in the Godhead. There is a high and deep sense of which the Son knows the Father and the Father knows the Son, which we cannot pretend to explain because it is far above our capacities. John 10, verse 15. The Jews knew nothing, rightly, of God the Father. Jesus, on the contrary, could say, I know him, as no one else could. Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Matthew 11, verse 27. The expression, I am from him, must not be confined and cramped down to mean only that our Lord had come like any prophet of old, with a message and commission from God. It declares the relationship between God the Father and God the Son. I am from Him by eternal generations, always one with Him, always equal with Him, but always a distant person, always the only begotten Son, always from Him. The expression, he hath sent me, is, like the preceding one, something far more than the mere assertion of a prophet's commission. It is a declaration that he was the sent one, the Messiah, the prophet greater than Moses, whom the Father had always promised to send. I am the seed of the woman sent to bruise the serpent's head. I am he whom the Father covenanted and engaged to send for the redemption of a lost world. I am he whom the Father hath sent to be the Saviour of lost man. I proclaim myself the sent one, the Christ of God. Bishop Hall paraphrases the two verses thus, Ye mutter secretly that ye know me, and the place of my birth, and parentage, but ye are utterly mistaken, for I have a Father in heaven, whom ye know not. I came not of myself, but my Father is He that sent me, who is the God of truth, of whom ye, after all your pretenses of knowledge, are utterly ignorant. But I do perfectly know Him, as I have good reason, for both I am from Him by eternal generations, and am by Him sent into the world to do the great work of redemption." Then they sought to take him. This last declaration seems to have raised the anger of the Jerusalem multitude who were listening to our Lord. With the characteristic keenness of all Jews, they at once detected in our Lord's language a claim to be received as the Messiah. Just as on a former occasion, they saw in his calling God his father, that he made himself equal with God, John chapter 5 verse 18. So here in his sayings, I am from him, he hath sent me, they saw an assertion of his right to be received as Messiah. But no man, our not yet come. This restraint on our Lord's enemies can only be accounted for by direct divine interposition. It is like John chapter 8 verse 20 and chapter 18 verse 6. It is clear that they could do nothing against him except by God's permission and when God in his wisdom was pleased to let it be done. Our Lord did not fall into his enemies hands through inability to escape but because the hour had come when he voluntarily undertook to die as a substitute. The doctrine before us, let us note, is full of comfort to God's people. Nothing can hurt them except and until God permits. We are all immortal till our work is done. To realize that nothing happens in this world except by the eternal counsels of our Father and according to His eternal plans is one grand secret of living a calm, peaceful, and contented life. Besser quotes a saying of Luther's. God has appointed a nice, easy hour for everything, and that hour has the whole world for its enemy. It must attack it. The devil shoots and throws at the poor clock hand, but in vain, for all depends on the hour. Till the hour comes, and the hand has run its course, the devil and the world shall accomplish nothing. Verse 31. Many of the people. This means the common people, the lower orders, encounter distinction to the Pharisees and chief priests. Believed on him. There seems no reason to think that this was not a true faith, so far as it went, but it would not be safe to perhaps conclude that it was more than a general belief that our Lord must be the Messiah, the Christ, and that he deserved to be received as such. When Christ cometh, more miracles done. This language must clearly have been used by people who were familiar with many of our Lord's miracles wrought in Galilee and knew a good deal about his ministry. So few miracles probably have been wrought as yet in and round Jerusalem that the language would hardly be used by Jerusalem people. The word more probably means not only more in number but greater in character. The question raised by this people was a fair and reasonable one. What greater evidence could anyone give that he is the Christ than this man has given? He could not work greater miracles even if he worked more numerous ones. What then are we waiting for? Why should we not acknowledge this man as the Christ? Verse 32. The Pharisees heard that the people murmured him. This would be more literally translated, the Pharisees heard the people murmuring. They actually heard with their own ears the common people as they walked about the temple courts and gathered in the streets of Jerusalem at the crowded time of the feast, keeping up their under-conversation about our Lord. Here, as at the twelfth verse, the word we render murmuring does not necessarily imply any finding fault, but only a dissatisfied and restless state of mind, which found vent in much conversation and whispering among the people. and the Pharisees sent officers to take him. It would seem that the talk and stir of men's minds about our Lord so alarmed and irritated the rulers of the Jews that they resolved, even now, in the midst of the feast, to arrest him, and so stop his preaching. What day of the feast this was, and what interval elapsed between this verse and the 37th, where we are told of the last day of the feast, we are not told. It seems probable that the officer sought an opportunity for taking our Lord, but could find none, partly because of the crowds that surrounded him, and partly because of a divine restraint laid upon them, and that this was the state of things for three days at least. Full well did these Pharisees justify our Lord's character of them in another place. Ye neither go in yourselves into the kingdom, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Matthew 23, verse 13. Verse 33. Then Jesus said unto them, The officers of the Pharisees and their supporters seem clearly to be the persons whom our Lord here addresses. Not only were they, through divine restraint, unable to lay hands on him, but they were obliged to stand by and listen to him. They dared not seize him for fear of the people, and yet dared not go away to report their inability to carry out their orders. Yet a little while, etc. There is probably an undertone of sadness and tenderness about this and the following sentences. It is as though our Lord said, Ye have come to lay hands on me, and ye might well bear with me. I am only a little time longer with you, and then, when my time has come for leaving the world, I shall go back to my father who sent me. Or else it must mean. You are sent to lay hands on me, but it is useless at present. You cannot do it, because my hour is not yet come. I have yet a little longer time to minister on earth, and then, and not till then, I will go to him that sent me." Alfred takes this view. The Jews, of course, could not understand whom our Lord meant by, him that sent me, and this saying must necessarily have seemed dark and mysterious to them. Verse 34. Ye shall seek me, shall not find me. These words seem addressed both to the officers and to those who sent them. To the whole body, in fact, of our Lord's unbelieving enemies. A day will come too late when you will anxiously seek me and bitterly lament your rejection of me, but too late. The day of your visitation will be past and gone, and you will not find me. There's a great Bible truth taught here as elsewhere, which is far too much overlooked by many. I mean the possibility of men seeking salvation when it is too late, and crying for pardon and heaven when the door is shut forever. Men may find out their folly and be filled with remorse for their sins, and yet feel that they cannot repent. No doubt true repentance is never too late. But late repentance is seldom true. Pharaoh, King Saul, and Judas Iscariot could all say, I have sinned. Hell itself is truth known too late. God is unspeakably merciful, no doubt, but there is a limit even to God's mercy. He can be angry and may be provoked to leave men alone. People should often study Proverbs 1, 24-31, Job 27, 9, Isaiah 1, 15, Jeremiah 11, 11, 14, 12, Ezekiel 8, 18, Hosea 5, 16, Micah 3, 4, Zechariah chapter 7 verse 13, Matthew chapter 25 verses 11 and 12. These words very possibly received a most awful fulfillment during the siege of Jerusalem 40 years after they were spoken. So think Chrysostom, Theophilact, and Euthymius. But they were probably found true by many of our Lord's hearers long before that time. Their eyes were opened to see their folly and sin after our Lord had left the world. Forgon remarks that to this very day the Jews are in a sense seeking the Messiah and yet not finding him. Where I am, thither ye cannot come. The place our Lord speaks of here is evidently heaven. Some have thought, as Bengal, that the words, where I am, should be translated, where I go, but it is neither a natural nor usual sense to put on the words, nor is it necessary. There was a sense in which the Son of God could say with perfect truth, where I am, thither ye cannot come. As God, He never ceased to be in heaven, even when He was fulfilling His ministry on earth during His incarnation. As God, he could truly say, where I am, and not merely where I was or where I shall be. It is like John 3, verse 13, where our Lord, speaking to Nicodemus, calls himself the Son of Man, which is in heaven. The expression is one of many texts proving our Lord's divinity. No mere man speaking on earth could speak of heaven as a place where I am. Augustine strongly maintains this view. Ye cannot come. This is one of those expressions which show the impossibility of unconverted and unbelieving men going to heaven. It is a place where they cannot come. Their own nature unfits them for it. They would not be happy if they were there. Without new hearts, without the Holy Ghost, without the blood of Christ, they could not enjoy heaven. The favorite notion of some modern theologians, that all mankind are finally to go to heaven, cannot possibly be reconciled with this expression. Men may please themselves with thinking it is kind and loving and liberal and large-hearted to teach and believe that all men and women of all sorts will finally be found in heaven. One word of our Lord Jesus Christ overturns the whole theory. Heaven is a place, he says to the wicked, where ye cannot come. The word ye is emphatical and in the Greek stands out in strong contrast to the I of the sentence. Verse 35. then said the Jews themselves. The expression Jews here can hardly be confined to the Pharisees and rulers. It must mean, at any rate, those among them who heard our Lord say the words in the preceding verse. Whoever they were, they were probably not friendly to him. Whither will he go, not find him? This would be more literally rendered, whither is this man about to go? They could put no meaning of a spiritual kind on our Lord's words. Will he go, dispersed, Gentiles, etc.? This would be more literally rendered, is he about to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and to teach the Greeks? Greek language and Greek literature and Greek philosophy had so thoroughly leavened Asia Minor and Syria and Palestine that the expression Greeks in the New Testament is often equivalent to Gentiles and stands for any people who are not Jews. Thus Romans chapter 2 verse 9, chapter 10 verses 3 to 9, 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 32, and chapter 12 verse 13. Yet it is a singular fact that this is the only passage in the New Testament where the word Greek, standing alone and not in contradistinction to Jews, is rendered Gentile. The verse teaches two interesting things. One is the fact that the existence of a large number of Jews scattered all over the Gentile world was acknowledged as notorious in our Lord's time. The other is the impression that it proves to have prevailed among the Jews that a new teacher of religion might be expected to go to the Jews scattered among the Gentiles and, beginning with them, proceed to teach the Gentiles. This is in fact precisely what the Apostle Paul and his companions afterwards did. They did go to the dispersed among the Gentiles and teach the Gentiles. The idea starting here of teaching the Gentiles was probably the suggestion of those who hated our Lord. How much the Jews detested the opening of the door of salvation to the Gentiles we know from the Acts of the Apostles. Some, as Chrysostom, Theophilact, Hengstenberg, and many others, think that the words, dispersed among the Gentiles, mean the Gentiles themselves dispersed and scattered all over the world, and not the Jews. But our own version seems far more likely. There is an awkwardness in calling the Gentiles the dispersion, and it is an expression nowhere else used. James calls the Jews the twelve tribes scattered abroad. James 1. Verse 36. What manner of saying, etc. This question of the Jews is the language of people who saw that there was probably some deep meaning in our Lord's words, and yet were unable to make out what He meant. Hating our Lord bitterly, as many of them did, determined to kill Him the first opportunity, vexed and annoyed at their own inability to answer Him or to stop His influence with the people, they suspected everything that fell from His lips. Do not these words of his imply some mischief? Is there not some evil at the bottom of them? Do they not indicate that he is going to dishonor the law of Moses by pulling down the wall of partition between Jew and Gentile? Section 4 of Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of St. John, Volume 2, by J. C. Ryle. Chapter 7, verses 37 to 39 A case supposed, a remedy proposed, a promise held out. John, Chapter 7, verses 37 to 39 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this bake ye of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. It has been said that there are some passages in scripture which deserve to be printed in letters of gold. Of such passages, the verses before us form one. They contain one of those wide, full, free invitations to mankind which make the gospel of Christ so eminently the good news of God. Let us see of what it consists. We have, first, in these verses, a case supposed. The Lord Jesus says, If any man thirst, These words no doubt were meant to have a spiritual meaning. The thirst before us is of a purely spiritual kind. It means anxiety of soul, conviction of sin, desire of pardon, longing after peace of conscience. When a man feels his sins and wants forgiveness, is deeply sensible of his soul's need, and earnestly desires help and relief, then he is in that state of mind which our Lord had in view when he said, if any man thirsts. The Jews who heard Peter preach on the day of Pentecost and were pricked in their hearts, the Philippian jailer who cried to Paul and Silas, what must I do to be saved, are both examples of what the expression means. In both cases there was thirst. Such thirst as this, unhappily, is known by few. All ought to feel it, and all would feel it if they were wise. sinful, mortal, dying creatures as we all are, with souls that will one day be judged and spend eternity in heaven or hell, there lives not the man or woman on earth who ought not to thirst after salvation. And yet, the many thirst after everything almost except salvation. Money, pleasure, honor, rank, self-indulgence, These are the things which they desire. There is no clearer proof of the fall of man and of the utter corruption of human nature than the careless indifference of most people about their souls. No wonder the Bible calls the natural man blind and asleep and dead, when so few can be found who are awake, alive, and athirst about salvation. Happy are those who know something by experience of spiritual thirst. The beginning of all true Christianity is to discover that we are guilty, empty, needy sinners. Till we know that we are lost, we are not in the way to be saved. The very first step toward heaven is to be thoroughly convinced that we deserve hell. That sense of sin, which sometimes alarms a man and makes him think his own case desperate, is a good sign. It is, in fact, a symptom of spiritual life. Blessed, indeed, are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Matthew 5, verse 6. We have, secondly, in these verses, a remedy proposed. The Lord Jesus says, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He declares that he is the true fountain of life, the supplier of all spiritual necessities, the reliever of all spiritual wants. He invites all who feel the burden of sin heavily to apply to him and proclaims himself their helper. These words, let him come unto me, are few and very simple, but they settle a mighty question which all the wisdom of the Greek and Roman philosophers could never settle. They show how man can have peace with God. They show that peace is to be had in Christ by trusting in him as our mediator and substitute, in one word, by believing. To come to Christ is to believe on him, and to believe on him is to come. The remedy may seem a very simple one, too simple to be true, but there is no other remedy than this, and all the wisdom of the world can never find a flaw in it, or devise a better. To use this grand prescription of Christ is the secret of all saving Christianity. The saints of God in every age have been men and women who drank of this fountain by faith and were relieved. They felt their guilt and emptiness and thirsted for deliverance. They heard of a full supply of pardon, mercy and grace in Christ crucified for all penitent believers. They believed the good news and acted upon it. They cast aside all confidence in their own goodness and worthiness and came to Christ by faith as sinners. So coming they found relief. so coming daily they lived, so coming they died. Really to feel the sinfulness of sin and to thirst, and really to come to Christ and believe, are the two steps which lead to heaven. But they are mighty steps. Thousands are too proud and careless to take them. Few, alas, think and still fewer believe. We have, lastly in these verses, a promise held out. The Lord Jesus says, These words, of course, were meant to have a figurative sense. They have a double application. They teach, for one thing, that all who come to Christ by faith shall find in him abundant satisfaction. They teach, for another thing, that believers shall not only have enough for the wants of their own souls, but shall also become fountains of blessings to others. The fulfillment of the first part of the promise could be testified by thousands of living Christians in the present day. They would say, if their evidence could be collected, that when they came to Christ by faith they found Him more than they expected. They have tasted peace and hope and comfort since they first believed, which, with all their doubts and fears, they would not exchange for anything in the world. They have found grace according to their need, and strength according to their days. In themselves and their own hearts they have often been disappointed, but they have never been disappointed in Christ. The fulfillment of the other half of the promise will never be fully known until the Judgment Day. That day alone shall reveal the amount of good that every believer is made the instrument of doing to others from the very day of his conversion. Some do good while they live, by their tongues, like the apostles and first preachers of the gospel. Some do good when they are dying, like Stephen and the penitent thief, and our own martyred reformers at the stake. Some do good long after they are dead, by their writings, like Baxter and Bunyan and Machain. But in one way or another, probably, almost all believers will be found to have been fountains of blessings. By word or by deed, by precept or by example, directly or indirectly, they are always leaving their marks on others. They know it not now, but they will find at last that it is true. Christ's saying shall be fulfilled. Do we ourselves know anything of coming to Christ? This is the question that should rise in our hearts as we leave this passage. The worst of all states of soul is to be without feeling or concern about eternity, to be without thirst. The greatest of all mistakes is to try to find relief in any other way than the one before us, the way of simply coming to Christ. It is one thing to come to Christ's church, Christ's ministers, and Christ's ordinances. It is quite another thing to come to Christ himself. Happy is he who not only knows these things, but acts upon them. Notes, John chapter 7, verses 37 to 39. There seems to be an interval of three days between this verse and the preceding one. At any rate, it is certain that our Lord went to the temple and taught about the midst of the feast. There seems no break from that point, but a continuous narrative of teaching and argument up to this verse There is, therefore, no account of what our Lord did during the three latter days of the Feast. We can only conjecture that He taught on uninterrupted, and that a restraint was put by divine interposition on His enemies so that they dared not interfere with Him. Whether this last day of the Feast means the eighth day or the seventh is a question not decided. 1. Some, as Bengal and others, think it must be the seventh day, because in the account of the feast of tabernacles given by Moses there's no special mention of anything to be done on the eighth day. Leviticus chapter 24 verses 33 to 43. While in each of the seven days of the feast there were special sacrifices appointed, a special reading of the law once every seven years, and also, according to the Jewish writers, a solemn drawing of water from the pool of Siloam to be poured on the altar in the temple. 2. Others, as Lightfoot, Gill, Alford, Steer, Wordsworth, and Burgon, think it must be the eighth day, because in reality the feast could hardly be said to be finished till the end of the eighth day. And even in the account of the feast in Leviticus, it is said that the eighth day is to be a holy convocation and a Sabbath. Leviticus 23, verses 36 and 39. The point is of no practical importance, but of the two opinions I incline to prefer the second one. The words seem to me to indicate that all the ceremonial of the feast was over, the last offerings had been made, and the people were on the point of dispersing to their respective homes, when our Lord seized the opportunity and made the grand proclamation which immediately follows. It was a peculiarly typical occasion. The last feast of the year was concluding, and before it concluded our Lord proclaimed publicly the great truth, which was the commencement of a new dispensation, and Himself as the end of all sacrifices and ceremonies. The objection that no drawing and pouring of water took place on the eighth day appears to me of no weight. That our Lord referred to it is highly probable, but I think He referred to it as a thing which the Jews had seen seven days running and remembered well. Now on the eighth day, when there was no water drawn, there seems a peculiar fitness in his crying, Come to me and drink. The water of life that I give may be drawn, though the feast is over. Jesus stood and cried. These words must mean that our Lord chose some high and prominent position where he could stand and be seen and heard by many persons at once. If, as we may suppose, the worshippers at the Feast of Tabernacles were just turning away from the last of its ceremonies, one can easily imagine that our Lord stood in some commanding position close by the entrance of the temple. When it is said that He cried, it means that He lifted up His voice in a loud and to Him unusual manner in order to arrest attention, like a herald making a public proclamation. If any man thirst, come unto me and drink. These words can have but one meaning. They are a general invitation to all who are athirst about their souls to come unto Christ in order to obtain relief. He declares himself to be the fountain of life, the reliever of men's spiritual wants, the giver of satisfaction to weary consciences, the remover and pardoner of sins. He recommends all who feel their sins and want pardon to come unto him and promises that they shall at once get what they want. The idea is perfectly the same as that in Matthew chapter 11 verse 28, though the image employed is different. It is probable, as almost all commentators remark, that our Lord chose this figure and imagery because of the Jewish custom of drawing water from the pool of Siloam during the Feast of Tabernacles and carrying it in solemn procession to the temple. it is thought that our Lord purposefully refers to this ceremony, of which the minds of many would doubtless be full. Does anyone want true water of life, better than any water of Siloam? Let him come to me, and by faith draw out of me living waters, even peace of conscience and pardon of sins. But it is fair to remember that this is only conjecture. This custom of drawing water from Siloam at the feast was a human invention, nowhere commanded in the Law of Moses or even mentioned in the Old Testament, and it admits of doubt whether our Lord would have sanctioned it. Moreover, it is evident from John 4.10 and 6.35 that the figures of water and thirst were not unfrequently used by our Lord. The figures, at any rate, were familiar to all Jews, from Isaiah 4.1. Some have thought, because the Feast of Tabernacles was specially intended to remind the Jews of their sojourn in the wilderness, that our Lord had in view the miraculous supply of water from the rock, which followed Israel everywhere, and that he wished the Jews to see in him the fulfillment of that type, the true rock. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 4. The idea is deserving of attention. The whole sentence is one of those golden sayings which ought to be dear to every true Christian, and is full of wide encouragement to all sinners who hear it. Its words deserve special attention. We should note the breadth of the invitation. It is for any man, no matter who and what he may have been, no matter how bad and wicked his former life, the hand is held out and the offer is made to him. If any man thirst, let him come. Let no man say that the gospel is narrow in its offers. We should note the persons invited. They are those who thirst. That expression is a figurative one, denoting the spiritual distress and anxiety which any one feels when he discovers the value of his soul and the sinfulness of sin and his own guilt. Such a one feels a burning desire for relief, of which the distressing sensation of thirst, a sensation familiar to all Eastern nations, is a most fitting emblem. No further qualification is named. There is no mention of repentance, amendment, preparation, conditions to fulfill, new heart to begot. One thing alone is named. Does a man thirst? Does he feel his sins and want pardon? Then the Lord invites him. We should note the simplicity of the chorus prescribed to a thirsting sinner. It is simply Let him come unto me. He has only to cast his soul on Christ. Trust him. Lean on him. Believe on him. Commit his soul with all its burdens to him, and that is enough. To trust Christ is to come to Christ. So coming, Christ will supply all his need. So believing, he is at once forgiven, justified, and received into the number of God's children.

See John, chapter 6, verses 35 and 37. The expression drink is, of course, figurative, answering to the word thirst. It means, let him freely take from me everything that his soul wants—mercy, grace, pardon, peace, strength. I am the fountain of life. Let him use me as such, and I shall be well pleased.

We do not read of any prophet or apostle in the Bible who ever used such language as this, and said to men, Come unto me and drink. None surely could use it but the one who knew that he was very God.

Verse 38. That believeth on me, etc. This verse is undoubtedly full of difficulties and has received many various interpretations. Not the least difficulty is about the connection in which the several expressions of the verse ought to be taken.

1. Psalm, as steer, would connect he that believeth on me with the verb drink in the preceding verse. It would then run thus. If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and let him drink that believeth on me. I cannot think this is a right view. For one thing, it would be a violent strain of all grammatical usage of the Greek language to interpret the words thus. For another thing, it would introduce doctrinal confusion. Our Lord's invitation was not made to him that believeth, but to him that is athirst.

Some, as Chrysostom, Theophilact, Pelican, Henceus, Gotthard, Doudou, Lightfoot, Trapp, and Henry, would connect he that believeth on me with the following words, as the scripture hath said. It would then mean, he that believeth on me after the manner that the scripture bids him believe, I cannot think that this interpretation is correct. The expression, believeth as the scripture hath said, is a very strange and vague one, and unlike anything else in the Bible.

3. Most commentators think that the words, as the scripture hath said, must be taken in connection with those that follow, out of his belly, etc. They think that our Lord did not mean to quote precisely any one text of scripture, but only to give in his own words the general sense of several well-known texts. This, in spite of difficulties, I believe is the only satisfactory view.

One difficulty, of a grammatical kind, arises from the expression, he that believeth on me, having no verb with which it is connected in the verse. This cannot be got over. It must be taken as a nominative absolute, and the sentence must be regarded as an elliptical sentence, which we must fill up.

Another difficulty arises from the fact that there is no text in the Old Testament scriptures which at all answers to the quotation apparently given here. This difficulty is undeniable, but not inseparable. As I've already said, Our Lord did not intend to give an exact quotation, but only the general substance of several Old Testament promises.

Wordsworth thinks Matthew 2.23, a similar case, Jerome also maintains that frequently the inspired writers contended themselves with giving the sense and not the precise words of a quotation. See also Ephesians chapter 5 verse 14.

Another difficulty arises as to the application of the words, Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Some, as Rupertus, Bengel, and Stier, would apply this to our Lord himself and say that it means, Out of Christ's belly shall flow rivers of living water. But it is a grave objection to this view that it totally disconnects the beginning of the verse from the end, makes the expression, he that believeth on me, even more elliptical than it needs be, and throws the latter part of the verse into the form of a precise quotation of scripture. I venture to think that the true interpretation of this verse is as follows. He that believeth on me, or comes to me by faith as his Saviour, is the man out of whose belly shall flow rivers of living water, as the Scripture hath said it should be. It is a strong argument in favour of this view that our Lord said to the Samaritan woman that the water he could give would be in him that drank it a well of water springing up to everlasting life. John chapter 4 verse 14. The full meaning of the promise is that every believer in Christ shall receive abundant satisfaction of his own spiritual wants, and not only that, but shall also become a source of blessing to others. From him, instrumentally, by his word, work, and example, waters of life shall flow forth to the everlasting benefit of his fellow men. He shall have enough for himself, and shall be a blessing to others. The imagery of the figure used is still kept up, and his belly must stand for his inner man. His heart being filled with Christ's gifts shall overflow to others, and having received much, shall give and impart much. The passages to which our Lord referred and the substance of which he gives are probably Isaiah chapter 12 verse 3, chapter 35 verses 6 and 7, chapter 41 verse 18, Chapter 44, verse 3. Chapter 55, verse 1. Chapter 58, verse 11. Zechariah, chapter 14, verses 8 and 16. Of these passages, our Lord gives the general sense, but not the precise words. This is the view of Calvin, Biza, Grotius, Cosselius, Diodati, Lamp, and Scott. It is a curious confirmatory fact that the Arabic and Syriac versions of the text both have the expression scripture in the plural, as the scriptures have said. It is a curious fact which Bengal mentions that the 14th chapter of Zechariah was read in public in the temple on the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles. If this is correct, we can hardly doubt that our Lord must have had this in mind when he used the expression, as the scripture hath said, it is as though he said, as you have heard, for instance, during this very feast from the book of your prophet Zechariah. that almost every believer whose life is spared after he believes becomes a fountain of blessing and good to others is a simple matter of fact which needs no illustration. A truly converted man always desires the conversion of others, and labors to promote it. Even the thief on the cross, short as his life was after he repented, cared for his brother thief, and from the words he spoke have flowed rivers of living water, over this sinful world for more than eighteen hundred years. He alone has been a fountain of blessing. Bloomfield quotes a rabbinical sentence. When a man turns to the Lord, he is like a fountain filled with living water, and rivers flow from him to men of all nations and tribes. The favorite notion of some, that our Lord in this place only referred to the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost to be given on the day of Pentecost, is an idea that does not commend itself to me at all. The thing before us is a thing promised to every believer, but the miraculous gifts were certainly not bestowed on every believer. Thousands were evidently converted to the apostles' preaching who did not receive these gifts, yet all received the Holy Ghost. Luther paraphrases this verse thus, So St. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, by one sermon, as by a rush of water, delivered 3,000 men from the devil's kingdom, washing them in an hour from sin, death, and Satan. Hengstenberg, after quoting this, adds, that was only the first exhibition of a glorious peculiarity which distinguishes the Church of the New Testament from the Church of the Old. She has a living impulse which will diffuse the life within her, even to the ends of the earth. Verse 39. By the spake of the Spirit. This verse is one of those explanatory comments which are so common in St. John's Gospel. The opening words would be more literally rendered. He spake thus concerning the Spirit. Let it be noted that here, at any rate, there can be no doubt that water does not mean baptism, but the Holy Spirit. St. John himself says so in unmistakable language. which they believe should receive. This means which believers in him were about to receive. There is an inseparable connection between faith in Christ and receiving the Holy Ghost. If any man has faith, he has the Spirit. If any man has not the Spirit, he has no saving faith in Christ. The effectual work of the second and third persons of the Trinity is never divided. Rupertus thinks that our Lord had specially in view that mighty outpouring of the Spirit on the Gentile world which was to take place after His own ascension into heaven and the going forth of the apostles into the world to preach the gospel. For the Holy Ghost, not yet given, etc. This sentence means that the Holy Ghost was not yet poured on believers in all His fullness because our Lord had not yet finished His work by dying, rising again, and ascending into heaven for us. It was not till he was glorified by going up into heaven and taking his seat at the right hand of God that the Holy Ghost was sent down in full influence on the Church. Then was fulfilled Psalm 68 verse 18, Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast received gifts for man. Yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them. Before our Lord died and rose again and ascended, the Holy Ghost was, and had been from all eternity, one with the Father and the Son, a distinct person, of equal power and authority, very and eternal God. But he had not revealed himself so fully to those whose hearts he dwelt in, as he did after the Ascension. And he had not come down, in person, on the Gentile world, or sent forth the gospel to all mankind with rivers of blessing, as he did when Paul and Barnabas were sent forth by the Holy Ghost. Acts chapter 13 verse 4. In a word, the dispensation of the Spirit had not yet begun. The expression, the Holy Ghost was not yet given, would be more literally rendered, the Holy Ghost was not. This cannot, of course, mean that the Holy Ghost did not exist and was in no sense present with believers in the Old Testament dispensation. On the contrary, the Spirit strove with the men of Noah's day. David spake by the Holy Ghost, Isaiah spake of the Holy Spirit, and John the Baptist, now dead, was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. Genesis 6, Mark 12, Isaiah 63, Luke 1, What the expression does mean is this. The Holy Ghost was not yet with men in such fullness of influence on their minds, hearts, and understandings as the Spirit of adoption and revelation as He was after our Lord ascended up into heaven. It is clear as daylight from our Lord's language about the Spirit in John 14, 16, 17, 26, chapter 15, verse 26, and chapter 16, verses 7 to 15, that believers were meant to receive a far more full and complete outpouring of the Holy Spirit after His ascension than they had received before. It is a simple matter of fact, indeed, that after the ascension the apostles were quite different men from what they had been before. They both saw and spoke and acted like men grown up, while before the ascension they had been like children. It was this increased light and knowledge and decision that made them such a blessing to the world, far more than any miraculous gifts. The possession of the gifts of the Spirit, it is evident, in the early church was quite compatible with an ungodly heart. A man might speak with tongues and yet be salt that had lost its savor. The possession of the fullness of the graces of the Spirit, on the contrary, was that which made any man a blessing to the world. Alfred says, St. John does not say that the words were a prophecy of what happened on the day of Pentecost, but of the Spirit which believers were about to receive. Their first reception of him must not be illogically put in the place of all his indwelling and working, which are here intended. I am quite aware that most commentators hold that the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost was specially meant by St. John in this passage. But after carefully considering the matter, I cannot subscribe to this opinion. To confine this verse to the day of Pentecost appears to me to cramp and narrow its meaning, to deprive many believers of their interest in a most precious promise, and to overlook all the special language about the inward teaching of the Comforter as a thing to come on believers, which our Lord used the night before His crucifixion. Benko remarks that the use of to be instead of to be present is not uncommon in the Bible. Thus, 2 Chronicles chapter 15 verse 3. When, therefore, we read, the Holy Ghost was not, we need not be stumbled by the expression. It simply means He was not fully manifested and poured out on the Church. Peter, James, and John, no doubt, had the Spirit now, when our Lord was speaking, but they had Him much more fully after our Lord was glorified. This explains the meaning of the passage before us. We should note, in leaving these three verses, what a striking example they supply to preachers, ministers, and teachers of religion. Let such learn from their Master to offer Christ boldly, freely, fully, broadly, unconditionally, to all thirsting souls. The Gospel is too often spoiled in the presentation of it. Some fence it round with conditions and keep sinners at a distance. Others direct sinners wrongly and send them to something else, beside or instead of Christ. He only copies his Lord who says, if anyone feels his sins, let him come at once, straight, direct, not merely to church or to the sacrament or to repentance or to prayer, but to Christ himself. End of section 4. Section 5 of Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of St. John, Volume 2, by J. C. Chapter 7, Verses 40 to 53 USELESSNESS OF MERE HEAD KNOWLEDGE A SINGULAR GREATNESS OF OUR LORD'S GIFTS AS A TEACHER THE WORK OF GRACE IN THE HEART, SOMETIMES GRADUAL John, Chapter 7, Verses 40 to 53 Many of the people, therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of truth this is the prophet. Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh out of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? So there was a division among the people because of him. And some of them would have taken him, but no man laid hands on him. Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said unto them, Why have ye not brought him? The officers answered, Never man spake like this man. Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed. Nicodemus saith unto them, He that came to Jesus by night being one of them, Doth our law judge any man before it hear him, and know what he doeth? They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search and look, for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. And every man went unto his own house. These verses show us, for one thing, how useless is knowledge in religion if it is not accompanied by grace in the heart. We are told that some of our Lord's hearers knew clearly where Christ was to be born. They referred to Scripture, like men familiar with its contents. Hath not the Scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? And yet the eyes of their understanding were not enlightened. Their own Messiah stood before them, and they neither received, nor believed, nor obeyed him. A certain degree of religious knowledge, beyond doubt, is of vast importance. Ignorance is certainly not the mother of true devotion, and helps nobody toward heaven. An unknown God can never be the object of a reasonable worship. Happy indeed would it be for Christians if they all knew the scriptures as well as the Jews seemed to have done when our Lord was on earth. But while we value religious knowledge, we must take care that we do not overvalue it. We must not think it enough to know the facts and doctrines of our faith, unless our hearts and lives are thoroughly influenced by what we know. The very devils know the creed intellectually, and believe and tremble, but remain devils still. James chapter 2 verse 19. It is quite possible to be familiar with the letter of scripture and to be able to quote texts appropriately and reason about the theory of Christianity and yet remain dead in trespasses and sins. Like many of the generation to which our Lord preached, we may know the Bible well and yet remain faithless and unconverted. Heart knowledge, we must always remember, is the one thing needful. It is something which schools and universities cannot confer. It is the gift of God. To find out the plague of our own hearts and hate sin, to become familiar with the throne of grace and the fountain of Christ's blood, to sit daily at the feet of Jesus and humbly to learn of Him, this is the highest degree of knowledge to which mortal man can attain. Let anyone thank God who knows anything of these things. He may be ignorant of Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and mathematics, but he shall be saved. These verses show us, for another thing, how eminent must have been our Lord's gifts as a public teacher of religion. We are told that even the officers of the chief priests, who were sent to take him, were struck and amazed. They were, of course, not likely to be prejudiced in his favor. Yet even they reported, Never man spake like this man. Of the manner of our Lord's public speaking, we can of necessity form little idea. Action, and voice, and delivery, are things that must be seen and heard to be appreciated. That our Lord's manner was peculiarly solemn, arresting and impressive, we need not doubt. It was probably something very unlike what the Jewish officers were accustomed to hear. There is much in what is said in another place. He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. Matthew chapter 7 verse 29. Of the matter of our Lord's public speaking, we may form some conception from the discourses which are recorded in the four Gospels. The leading features of these discourses are plain and unmistakable. The world has never seen anything like them, since the gift of speech was given to man. They often contain deep truths, which we have no line to fathom. But they often contain simple things, which even a child can understand. They are bold and outspoken in denouncing national and ecclesiastical sins, and yet they are wise and discreet in never giving needless offense. They are faithful and direct in their warnings, and yet loving and tender in their invitations. For a combination of power and simplicity, of courage and prudence, of faithfulness and tenderness, we may well say, never man spake like this man. It would be well for the Church of Christ if ministers and teachers of religion would strive more to speak after their Lord's pattern. Let them remember that fine, bombastic language and a sensational, theatrical style of address are utterly unlike their Master. Let them realize that an eloquent simplicity is the highest attainment of public speaking. Of this their Master left them a glorious example. Surely they need never be ashamed of walking in his steps. These verses show us, lastly, how slowly and gradually the work of grace goes on in some hearts. We are told that Nicodemus stood up in the counsel of our Lord's enemies and mildly pleaded that he deserved a fair dealing. Doth our law judge any man, he asked, before it hear him and know what he doeth? This very Nicodemus, we must remember, is the man who, eighteen months before, had come to our Lord by night as an ignorant inquirer. He evidently knew little then, and dared not come to Christ in open day. But now, after eighteen months, he had got on so far that he dares to say something on our Lord's side. It was but little that he said, no doubt, but it was better than nothing at all. And a day was yet to come when he would go further still. He was to help Joseph of Arimathea in doing honor to our Lord's dead body, when even his chosen apostles had forsaken him and fled. The case of Nicodemus is full of useful instruction. It teaches us that there are diversities in the operation of the Holy Spirit. All are undoubtedly led to the same Savior, but they are not led precisely in the same way. It teaches us that the work of the Spirit does not always go forward with the same speed in the hearts of men. In some cases it may go forward very slowly, indeed, and yet may be real and true. We shall do well to remember these things, informing our opinion of other Christians. We are often ready to condemn some as graceless because their experience does not exactly tally with our own, or to set them down as not in the narrow way at all because they cannot run as fast as ourselves. We must beware of hasty judgments. It is not always the fastest runner that wins the race. It is not always those who begin suddenly in religion and profess themselves rejoicing Christians who continue steadfast to the end. Slow work is sometimes the surest and most enduring. Nicodemus stood firm when Judas Iscariot fell away and went to his own place. No doubt it would be a pleasant thing if everybody who was converted came out boldly, took up the cross, and confessed Christ in the day of his conversion. But it is not always given to God's children to do so. Have we any grace in our hearts at all? This, after all, is the grand question that concerns us. It may be small, but have we any? It may grow slowly, as in the case of Nicodemus, but does it grow at all? Better a little grace than none. Better move slowly than stand still in sin and the world. Notes. John chapter 7, verses 40 to 53. Verse 40. Many people this saying said. The people here evidently mean the general multitude of common people who had come together to attend the feast, and not the chief priests and Pharisees. The saying, which called forth their remarks, appears to be the public proclamation that our Lord had just made, inviting all thirsty souls to come to Him as the fountain of life. That any one person should so boldly announce himself as the reliever of spiritual thirst seems to have arrested attention, and, taken in connection with the fact of our Lord's public teaching during the latter half of the feast, which many of the people must have heard, it induced them to say what immediately follows. Brentius, Muscullus, and others hold strongly that our Lord's words in the preceding three verses must have been greatly amplified at the time he spoke, and are in fact a sort of text or keynote to his discourse, and that this is referred to in the expression, this saying. Yet the supposition seems hardly necessary. The words were a conclusion to three days' teaching and preaching. Of truth this man, prophet. This would be more literally rendered, this man is truly and really the prophet. These speakers meant that he must be the prophet likened to Moses foretold in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 18 verses 15 and 18. Verse 41. Others said, this is the Christ. These speakers saw in our Lord the Messiah, or anointed Savior, whom all pious Jews were eagerly expecting at this period, and whose appearing the whole nation were looking for in one way or another, though the most part expected nothing more than a temporal Redeemer. Psalm 45 verse 7, Isaiah chapter 61 verse 1, Daniel chapter 9 verses 25 and 26. Even the Samaritan woman could say, I know that Messiah cometh. John chapter 4 verse 25. But some said, shall Christ, Galilee, This ought to have been rendered, but others said. It was not a few exceptional speakers only, but a party probably as large as any. They raised the objection, which was not unnatural, that this new teacher and preacher, however wonderful he might be, was notoriously a Galilean, of Nazareth, and therefore could not be the promised Messiah. How utterly ignorant most persons were of our Lord's birthplace, we see here as elsewhere. V. 42. HATH NOT THE SCRIPTURE SAID? etc. We should note in this verse the clear knowledge which most Jews in our Lord's time had of Scripture prophecies and promises. Even the common people knew that Messiah was to be of the family of David, and to be born at Bethlehem, the well-known birthplace of David. It may indeed be feared that myriads of Christians know far less of the Bible than the Jews did eighteen hundred years ago. Verse 43. So, division among people because of him. Here we see our Lord's words literally fulfilled. He did not bring peace, but division. Luke chapter 12, verse 51. It will always be so, as long as the world stands. So long as human nature is corrupt, Christ will be a cause of division and difference among men. To some he is a saver of life, and to others of death. Grace and nature never will agree any more than oil and water, acid and alkali. A state of entire quiet and the absence of any religious division is often no good sign of the condition of a church or a parish. It may even be a symptom of spiritual disease and death. The question may possibly be needful in such cases. Is Christ there? Verse 44. And some would taken him. This would be more satisfactorily rendered. Some out of those, who made up the crowd, were desirous and wished to take our Lord prisoner. These were no doubt the friends and adherents of the Pharisees, and very likely were the common people who dwelt at Jerusalem and knew well what their leaders wanted to do. No man laid hands on him. This must be accounted for primarily by divine restraint, which was at present laid on our Lord's enemies, because His hour was not yet come, and secondarily by the fear in which the Pharisees' party evidently stood of a rising in our Lord's defense on the part of the Galileans and others who had come up to the feast. Thus we read that at the last Passover, the priests and scribes sought how they might kill Him, for they feared the people. Luke chapter 22 verse 2. Again, they said, not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people. Mark chapter 14, verse 2, and Matthew chapter 26, verse 5. Verse 45. Then came the officers, etc. It is not clear what interval of time elapsed between verse 32, where we read that the officers were sent by the priests to take our Lord, and the present verse, where we are told that they are coming back to their masters. At first sight, of course, it all happened in one day, yet if we observe that between the sending them to take our Lord and the present verse, there comes in the remarkable verse, in the last day, that great day of the feast, it seems impossible to avoid the conclusion that an interval of two or three days must have elapsed. It seems highly probable that the officers had a general commission and warrant to take our lord prisoner whenever they saw a fitting opportunity, about the fourth day of the feast. They found, however, no opportunity, on account of the temper and spirit of the crowd, and dared not make the attempt. And at last, at the end of the feast, when the multitude was even more aroused than at first, by our lord's open testimony, they were obliged to return to those who sent them, and confess their inability to carry out their orders. V. 46. THE OFFICERS ANSWERED, etc. The answer of the officers has probably a double application. They themselves felt the power of our Lord's speaking. They had never heard any man speak like this man. It tied their hands and made them feel incapable of doing anything against him. They had, besides, marked the power of his speaking over the minds of the multitude which gathered round him. They had never seen anyone exercise such an influence over his hearers. They found it useless to attempt arresting one who had such complete command over his audience. We cannot doubt that they had heard much more speaking than the few things recorded between verses 32 and 46. These are only specimens of what our Lord said, and furnish a keynote to us indicating the general tenor of His teaching. What it was precisely that the officers meant when they said, Never man spake like this man, we are left to conjecture. They probably meant that they never had heard any one speak such deep and important truths, in such simple and yet striking language, and in so solemn, impressive, and yet affectionate style. After all, they probably meant that he spake with a dignified tone of authority, as a messenger from heaven, to which they were entirely unaccustomed. Verse 47, Then answered them, Pharisees, ye deceived. The word rendered deceived means literally led astray or caused to err. Have you too been carried off by this new teaching? The question implies anger, sarcasm, ridicule, and displeasure. Verse 48, Have any rulers, Pharisees, believed on him? This arrogant question was doubtless meant to be an unanswerable proof that our Lord could not possibly be the Messiah. Can a person be deserving of the least credit as a teacher of a new religion if those who are the most learned and highest in position do not believe in Him? This is precisely the common argument of human nature in every age. The doctrine which the great and learned do not receive is always assumed to be wrong. And yet St. Paul says, not many wise, not many noble are called. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 26. The very possession of rank and learning is often a positive hindrance to a man's soul. The great and the learned are often the last and most unwilling to receive Christ's truth. How hardly shall a rich man enter the kingdom of God? Matthew chapter 19 verse 23. It seems clear from this that at present the Pharisees did not know that one of their own number, Nicodemus, was favorably disposed to our Lord. Verse 49. But this people knoweth not law, cursed. This sentence is full of contempt and scorn throughout. This people, a mob, a common herd, which knoweth not the law, is not deeply read in the scriptures, and have no deep rabbinical learning, are cursed, are under God's curse and given over to a strong delusion. Their opinion is worthless, and what they think of the new Galilean teacher is of no moment or value. Charges like these have been made in every age against the adherence of all reformers and revivers of true religion. The multitude who followed Luther in Germany, our own reformers in England, and the leaders of revived religion in the last century were always attacked as ignorant enthusiasts whose opinion was worth nothing. When the enemies of vital religion cannot prevent people flocking after the gospel, and cannot answer the teaching of his advocates, they often fight with the weapons of the Pharisees in this verse. They content themselves with the cheap and easy assertion that those who do not agree with themselves are ignorant and know nothing, and that therefore it matters nothing what they think. Yet St. Paul says, God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 27. The poorer and humbler classes are often much better judges of what is truth in religion than the great and learned.

The disposition of the Jews to pronounce those accursed, who differ from themselves in religious controversy, is exhibited in this verse. Jewish converts to Christianity in modern times are often sadly familiar with cursing from their own relatives.

Verse 50. Nicodemus, he, came to Jesus by night. This would be more literally rendered, he that came to him by night. The omission of our Lord's name here is very peculiar. The fact of Nicodemus having come to see Jesus by night is always mentioned by St. John, where his name occurs, See John chapter 19 verse 39. This is to my mind a strong proof that he was a coward when he first came to our Lord and dared not come openly by day.

Being one of them. This means that he was a chief man or ruler among the Pharisees and as such was present at all their deliberations and counsels. His case shows that the grace of God can reach men in any position however unfavorable it may be to true religion. Even a chief Pharisee, one of that company of men who, as a body, hated our Lord and longed to kill Him, could believe and speak up for Him.

We must never conclude hastily that there can be no Christians among a body of men because the great majority of them hate Christ and are hardened in wickedness. There was lot in Sodom. and Obadiah in Ahab's house, a Daniel in Babylon, saints in Nero's palace, and a Nicodemus among the Pharisees. He was one out of their number, but not one of them in spirit.

Verse 51. Doth our law judge any man, etc.? This was undoubtedly speaking up for our Lord, and pleading for his being treated justly and fairly and according to law, At first sight it seems a very tame and cautious mode of showing his faith, if he had any, but it is difficult to see what more could have been said in the present temper of the Pharisees. Nicodemus wisely appealed to law.

Is it not a great principle of that law of Moses which we all profess to honor, that no man should be condemned without first hearing from him what defense he can make, and without clear knowledge and evidence as to what he has really done? Is it fair and legal to condemn this person before you have heard from his own lips what he can say in his defense, and before you know from the testimony of competent witnesses what he has really done? Are you not flying in the face of our law by hastily judging his case and setting him down as a malefactor before you have given him a chance of clearing himself? See Deuteronomy 1.17, 17.8, 19.15, etc.

Nicodemus, it will be observed, cautiously takes up his ground on broad general principles of universal application, and does not say a word about our Lord's particular case. The Greek words would be more literally rendered, Doth our law condemn the man, unless it hears from him first? I think there can be no reasonable doubt that these words show Nicodemus to have become a real, though a slow-growing, disciple of Christ, and a true believer. It required great courage to do even the little that he did here, and to say what he said. Let us carefully note that a man may begin very feebly and grow very slowly, and seem to make very little progress, and yet have the true grace of God in his heart. We must be careful that we do not hastily set down men as unconverted, because they get on slowly in the Christian life. All do not grow equally quick. Let us learn to believe that, even in high places and most unlikely positions, Christ may have friends of whom we know nothing.

Who would have expected a chief ruler among the Pharisees to rise at this juncture and plead for justice and fair dealing in the case of our Lord? They answered, Thou also of Galilee. This was the language of rage, scorn, and bitter contempt. Art thou too a ruler, a learned man, a Pharisee, one of ourselves, become one of this Galilean party? Hast thou joined the cause of this new Galilean prophet?

The tone of this bitter question seems to me to prove that Nicodemus had said as much as was possible to be said on this occasion. The temper and spirit of the Pharisees, from disappointment and vexation at our Lord's increasing popularity, and their own utter inability to stop His course, made them furious at a single word being spoken favorably or kindly about Him. They must indeed have been in a violent frame of mind when the mere hint at the desirableness of acting justly, fairly, and legally made them ask a brother Pharisee whether he was a Galilean.

Muskullus remarks that Nicodemus got little favor from the Pharisee, though his favorable feeling toward our Lord was so cautiously expressed. He observes that this is generally the case with those who act timidly as he did. People may just as well be outspoken and bold.

Search and look. This seems to be meant sarcastically. Go and search the scriptures again and look at what they say about the Messiah before thou sayest one word about this new Galilean prophet. Examine the prophets and see if thou canst find a tittle of evidence in favor of this Galilean whose cause thou art patronizing.

Out of Galilee ariseth no profit. This would be rendered more literally, a profit out of Galilee has not been raised. About this meaning of the words there are three very different opinions.

1. Some think that the words only mean, no profit of great note or eminence has ever been raised up in Galilee. This, however, is a tame and unsatisfactory view.

2. Some, as Bishop Pierce, Burgon, and Sir N. Natchbull, think that the Pharisees only meant that THE prophet likened to Moses, the Messiah, has nowhere in the scripture been foretold as coming out of Galilee. According to this view, the Pharisees said what was quite correct.

3. Others, as Alford, Woodsworth, Tholak, and most other commentators, think that the Pharisees, in their rage and fury, either forgot, or found it convenient to forget, that prophets had arisen from Galilee. According to this view, they made an ignorant assertion, and said what was not true.

I find it very difficult to receive this third opinion. To me it seems quite preposterous to suppose that men so thoroughly familiar with the letter of Scripture as the Pharisees were, would venture on such a monstrous and ignorant assertion as to say that no prophet had ever arisen out of Galilee. Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Jonah, and perhaps Nahum are all thought by some to have been Galilean prophets. Moreover, Isaiah distinctly prophesies that in Messiah's times, Zebulun and Naphtali and Galilee of the Gentiles should be a region where light should spring up. Matthew chapter 4 verses 14 to 16. On the other hand, I must frankly admit that the Greek of the sentence must be much strained to make it mean if the true prophet is not to arise out of Galilee. I do not forget, moreover, that when men lose their tempers and fly into a passion there is nothing too foolish and ignorant for them to say. Like a drunken man they may talk nonsense and say things of which, in calm moments, they may be ashamed. It may have been so with the Pharisees here. They were no doubt violently enraged, and in this state of mind might say anything absurd. The point, happily, is not one of first-rate importance, and men may afford to differ about it. Nevertheless, if I must give an opinion, I prefer the second of the three views I have given. The improbability of the Pharisees asserting anything flatly contrary to the letter and facts of scripture is, to my mind, an insuperable objection to the other views.

Verse 53. And every man his own house. These words seem to indicate that the assembly of the Pharisees, before whom the officers had appeared, reporting their inability to take our Lord prisoner, broke up at once without taking any further action. They saw they could do nothing. Their desire to put our Lord to death at once could not be carried out and must be deferred. They therefore separated and went to their own houses. We may well believe that they parted in a most bitter and angry frame of mind, boiling over with mortified pride and balked malice. They had tried hard to stop our Lord's course and had completely failed. The Galilean had proved for the time stronger than the Sanhedrin. Once more, as after the miracle of Bethesda, they had been ignominiously foiled and publicly defeated.

Hutcheson remarks, There's no counsel nor understanding against Christ, but when he pleaseth he can dissipate all of it. Here every man went unto his own house without doing anything. Maldonatus thinks the verse proves that though the Pharisees sneered Nicodemus and reviled him, they could not deny the fairness and justice of what he said. He thinks, therefore, that they dispersed in consequence of Nicodemus's interference. Even one man may do something against many when God is on his side.

Besser quotes a saying of Luther's. Much as the Pharisees before had blustered, they dared do nothing to Jesus. They became still and silent. He goes up to the feast, meek and silent, and returns home with glory. They go up with triumph, and come down weak. Trapp remarks, See what one man may do against a mischievous multitude. It is good to be doing, though there be few or none to second us. Baxter remarks, one man's words may sometimes divert a persecution. End of section 5