John 16:27

Joh 16:27. Αὐτὸς, Himself) of His own accord.—φιλεῖ ὑμᾶς, loveth you) and therefore hearkens to you.—ὅτι, because) This gives the reason why the Father loves and hears them.—πεφιλήκατε, καὶ πεπιστεύκατε) ye have taken hold of (embraced) Me with love and faith. Love is both posterior and prior to faith. For they mutually sustain each other. Nay, faith itself imbibes love and the embracing of the heavenly gift. In this passage love is put first, in order that these words may the better answer to one another, viz. loveth, ye have loved. Ye believe that I came out from God. These words the Lord puts into the mouth of the disciples, in order that there may be echoed back by them the words, We believe that Thou earnest forth from God, in Joh 16:30.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me--This love of theirs is that which is called forth by God's eternal love in the gift of His Son mirrored in the hearts of those who believe, and resting on His dear Son.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

27. Because you have loved me. These words remind us that the only bond of our union with God is, to be united to Christ; and we are united to him by a faith which is not reigned, but which springs from sincere affection, which he describes by the name of love; for no man believes purely in Christ who does not cordially embrace him, and, therefore, by this word he has well expressed the power and nature of faith. But if it is only when we have loved Christ that God begins to love us, it follows that the commencement of salvation is from ourselves, because we have anticipated the grace of God. Numerous passages of Scripture, on the other hand, are opposed to this statement. The promise of God is, I will cause them to love me; and John says, Not that we first loved Him, (1 John 4:10.) It would be superfluous to collect many passages; for nothing is more certain than this doctrine, that the Lord calleth those things which are not, (Romans 4:17) raises the dead, (Luke 7:22,) unites himself to those who were strangers to him, (Ephesians 2:12,) makes hearts of flesh out of hearts of stone, (Ezekiel 36:26,) manifests himself to those who do not seek him, (Isaiah 65:1; Romans 10:20.) I reply, God loves men in a secret way, before they are called, if they are among the elect; for he loves his own before they are created; but, as they are not yet reconciled, they are justly accounted enemies of God, as Paul speaks,

When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, (Romans 5:10.)

On this ground it is said that we are loved by God, when we love Christ; because we have the pledge of the fatherly love of Him from whom we formerly recoiled as our offended Judge.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(27) For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me.—Comp. Notes on Joh_14:21; Joh_14:23. The introduction of the thought again here reminds us that, although in the fulness of the higher spiritual life there is communion between the Father and the human spirit, because the Father Himself ever loveth the heart which can receive His love, this power to receive the love of the Father is itself the result of loving the Son, who has revealed Him. Our Lord is leading them to the fuller truths of spiritual communion with God, and even tells them that this will be independent of mediation; but the very words which tell them that it will be independent of mediation, tell them that all depends upon His own mediation and the manifestation of the love of God in His own person.

And have believed that I came out from God.—The reading is uncertain. Several of the better MSS. read, “. . . that I came forth from the Father.” (Comp. the first words of the next verse and Joh_13:3.) The perfect tenses represent their love and faith as completed, and continuing in the present. It is striking that the order of the words makes faith’ follow love. This order may be chosen to mark emphatically the connection between the Father’s love for the disciples and their love for the Son; but it also suggests that their convictions were the result of having their hearts opened by love so that they received the truth.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

27. himself] Without My intercession.

loveth you] On the difference between the two Greek verbs for ‘love’ see on Joh_11:5. It is the more emotional word that is used here in both cases. At first sight it appears the less appropriate to express God’s love for the disciples: but the point is that it is a Father’s love, it flows spontaneously from a natural relationship as distinct from discriminating friendship.

because ye have loved me] Both pronouns are emphatic and are next one another in the Greek, pointing to the closeness of the relationship; because ye Me have loved. Note the ‘because;’ it is their love for Christ which wins the Father’s love (Joh_14:21; Joh_14:23).

have loved … have believed] Both perfects signify what has been and still continues. No argument can be drawn from the order of the verbs as to love preceding faith: ‘have loved’ naturally comes first on account of ‘loveth’ immediately preceding. ‘Love begets love’ is true both between man and man and between God and man. ‘Faith begets faith’ cannot have any meaning between God and man.

from God] The better reading is, from the Father (see on Joh_1:6, Joh_15:26). It was specially because they recognised Him as the Son sent from the Father, and not merely as a Prophet sent from God (Joh_1:6), that they won the Father’s love.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

His disciples said unto him,.... Upon the above discourse of Christ, such rays and beams of light darted into the minds of the apostles, and things stood so clear in their view, and they so well understood what Christ had said, that they declare,

lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb: what he had said before, were to them like proverbial, or parabolical expressions, not easy to be understood; they were like enigmas, riddles, and dark sayings, the meaning of which they could not apprehend; but now they observe, with admiration, that what he delivered was plain, and intelligible; which was not so much owing to Christ's different way of speaking now, from what it was before, as to their former dulness of hearing, and now having some further degree of light given unto them.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

27 For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.

Ver. 27. For the Father himself loveth you] We say majesty and love cannot dwell together. Non bene conveniunt, nec in una sede morantur maiestas et amor: because love is the abasing of the soul to all services. But it is otherwise in God; majesty and love meet in his heart; so that of his own free accord he will give us anything we ask, and as it were prevent a mediator, crowning his own graces in us.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

See Joh 14:21, Joh 14:23.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

I need not tell you (to beget in you a confidence that your prayers should be heard) that I will pray to the Father for you; for my Father himself hath such a love for you, that you may from thence alone conclude that he will hear you. And though my Father’s love to you be an everlasting love, which hath no cause in the creature; yet as to the manifestations of my Father’s love, they are further drawn forth by the love which he seeth you bear to me, and by your receiving me, who am the Messiah, and came forth from God, to perform the work of man’s redemption.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

27. Father… loveth you—The love of the Father precedes even the gift of the Son, and was the reason of that gift. Joh_3:16. But here is an additional love of the Father for these apostles, in consequence of their love to Christ. And this love is from the Father himself; originating freely and earnestly from him.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For the Father himself loveth you (filei), with love of a fatherly affection, such as mine to you, because ye have loved me (the perfect preterit, in the sense of the realized past in the present which shall then be), and have believed that I came forth from the side of (para) the Father. In their belief of this transcendent fact is the hope of the world. It was wrought in them by the strengthening pulses of a deepening love, and to this love God himself responds with a personal tender affection that encourages boundless prayer. The disciple and lover of Jesus, having Jesus in the heart, united to him by living faith, will find in Christ that there is a perpetual pledge of reciprocal love between the Father and himself. Christ will not (erwtan) ask the Father, because his entire position as Mediator establishes a continual appeal, is a perpetual enteuxiv , a continuous drawing near and appeal to God on our account, a pledge and guarantee of our own fellowship with and access to the Father. Our English word "intercession," though apparently corresponding with the Latin and with the Greek word, does not now represent its original meaning. That meaning is by no means equivalent to the hind of prayer which is here excluded (Trench, "Syn. N.T.,"

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

27. παρἀ τ. Θεοῦ (אActs 3) perhaps comes from Joh 13:3: π. τ. πατρός (BC1DLX) seems preferable.

27. αὐτός. Without My intercession; Joh 6:6. We might have expected ἀγαπᾷ for φιλεῖ here (see on Joh 11:5): but it is a Father’s love, flowing spontaneously from a natural relationship as distinct from discriminating friendship. It is their love for the Son which wins the Father’s love (Joh 14:21; Joh 14:23). The two pronouns, ὑμεῖς ἐμέ, are in emphatic contact. The two perfects signify what has been and still continues. No argument can be drawn from the order of the verbs as to love preceding faith: πεφιλήκατε naturally comes first on account of φιλεῖ just preceding. ‘Love begets love’ is true both between man and man and between God and man. ‘Faith begets faith’ cannot have any meaning between God and man. For π. τ. Θεοῦ we should probably read π. τ. πατρός (Joh 15:26). It was because they recognised Him as the Son sent from the Father, and not merely as a man sent from God (Joh 1:6), that they won the Father’s love.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

27. αὐτὸς γὰρ ὁ πατὴρ φιλεῖ ὑμᾶς, “for the Father Himself loveth you.” There will be no reluctance in His answer to the prayers of those who love Jesus and have faith that His mission was from the Father.

Field calls attention to the “elegant Greek use” of αὐτός in the sense of αὐτόματος, proprio motu, and compares Homer, Iliad, viii. 293, τί με σπεύδοντα καὶ αὐτὸν ὀτρύνεις. This is one of the many passages in which the Greek of the Fourth Gospel does not resemble translation-Greek.

At 3:16, the love of God for the κόσμος (all mankind) has been mentioned; here and at 14:21, 23, 17:23 it is rather the special love of God for those who are disciples of Jesus that is in view (as at 1Jn 4:19). Here the verb φιλεῖν is used, the only instance in which Jn. employs it to express the love of God for man; in the other passages he uses ἀγαπᾶν. It is clear (see further on 21:15) that the attempt to distinguish ἀγαπᾶν from φιλεῖν in Jn. cannot be sustained.

ὅτι ὑμεῖς ἐμὲ πεφιλήκατε, “because you are they who have loved me,” ὑμεῖς and ἐμέ being both emphasised. Here, again, φιλεῖν is used of the love of His disciples for Jesus (21:15-17 providing the only other examples of this phraseology in Jn.; but cf. Mat 10:37, 1Co 16:22); while in 14:15, 21, 23, 24, 28, ἀγαπᾶν is consistently used to express this affection (cf. 21:15, 16).

καὶ πεπιστεύκατε (the perfect tenses bring back the discourse from a prospect of the future to the facts of the present) ὅτι ἐγὼ παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐξῆλθον. To have believed this is to have accepted the central message of the Gospel.

παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐξῆλθον. So א*AC3NWΓ and Syr. sin. (see on 8:42). The rec. for θεοῦ has πατρός (from v. 28), with אca BC*DL. W om. the repeated ἐξῆλθον παρὰ τοῦ πατρός in the next verse.

Cf. παρὰ σοῦ ἐξῆλθον (17:8); and see on 1:14, 7:29 for παρά as expressing the relation of the Son to the Father. See on 13:3 for ἀπὸ θεοῦ ἐξῆλθεν.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Loveth [φιλει] . As sons, with the love of natural affection. See on 5 20. The same verb in the following clause, of the love of the disciples for Christ.

From God. Some editors read, from the Father. Para, from beside.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.