Verse of the Day – 13 March 2023

March 13, 2023 – Monday 

John 14:1  NIV

¹ Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.

John 14:1  ESV

¹ Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

John 14:1  RGT/NKJV

¹ Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me.

Comments

This is Jesus continuing to address His disciples, less one as Judas has already departed. But you may naturally ask what is causing the disciple hearts to be troubled? To answer that question, we only have to go back to chapter 13 where Jesus first washed their feet, predicted His betrayal by one of them, gave them a command to love one another as He had loved them, predicted His departure, and ended by stating Peter would deny Him three times before the rooster would crow. 

So, yes, they had reason to be troubled or as the Pulpit Commentary writes, Is it possible to exaggerate the consternation and distraction, the shrieks of fear, the bitter sobs of reckless grief that convulsed the upper chamber? They had given three years of their lives to following Him and He was leaving them. They had been with Him for His teachings, His healing of the blind of the lame of the diseased, and even the raising of the dead. They had heard Him say He and the Father were One and they believed Him. Yet someone among them was going to betray Him. The most outspoken among them was going to deny Him. And He was going to leave them. How could all this be? 

No matter their distress, He tells them Do not let your hearts be troubled or Let not your heart be troubled. I prefer the first one, Do not let your hearts be troubled, as it seems like a gentle or even loving command, and it is used in a large number of translations. The latter seems like a more empathic understanding direction from Jesus, Let not your heart be troubled and it too is found in a large number of translations. (Both may be seen here.) 

But how are they to avoid having troubled hearts? He provides an answer immediately and again we have two versions. First, You believe in God, believe also in Me. Or Believe in God; believe also in me. There is a lot of discussion and argument in the commentaries here and here about the two clauses given. Are they both imperative or is one imperative and the other indicative?

I don’t care to engage in this debate at all, but to look at what Jesus was saying in context. Look at what He said in the next verses, ² My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. ⁴ You know the way to the place where I am going. From this, when I look back at You believe in God, believe also in Me I imagine a caring and loving leader saying, “Come on, I know you, all of you, believe in God, so now with everything that is going on and going to happen, believe, continue to believe in Me.” After all He had told them He and the Father are One and if you see Me, you see the Father. 

This makes sense to me as Thomas asks in the next verse, ⁵ Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way? Jesus’ answer was one most of us know out of context, ⁶ I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And without pause He continued with, ⁷ If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.

Then Phillip makes a truly odd request as if He had not been really paying attention, ⁸ Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us. Jesus’ reply is a rebuke but a loving rebuke, ⁹ Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. ¹¹ Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. And then added, ¹² Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Bottom Line: Clearly it is Jesus saying in verse 11, Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me as that is core to our faith, especially when we believe He died on the cross to pay the ransom for our sins. 

Prayer: Oh Father God, I believe, and I am so thankful You love us so greatly You sent Your Son to Save us from eternal separation from you. I close with a humble Thank You. – In Jesus’ Name. Amen. 

RileyD, nwJ 
Riley D. Driver – Pastor 
Calvary Chapel of Dayton 
in Beavercreek