Charles Ellicott Commentary John 14:23

"Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." — John 14:23 (ASV)

If a man love me, he will keep my words.—Our Lord repeats the condition necessary on man's part so that the manifestation of God to him may be possible. This answers Judas's question: the world, because of its unbelief, its rejection of Christ’s words, and its lack of the spirit of love, could not receive this manifestation.

We will come unto him, and make our abode with him.—For the plural, compare the note on John 10:30. For the word “abode,” compare the note on John 14:2. The thought of God dwelling in the sanctuary and among the people was familiar to the disciples from the Old Testament Scriptures (see, for example, Exodus 25:8; Exodus 29:45; Leviticus 26:11–12; Ezekiel 37:26), and the idea of the spiritual temple in the human heart was also known to contemporary writers.

Philo offers a remarkable parallel in his treatise, De Cherubim (page 124): “Therefore, since God thus invisibly enters into the region of the soul, let us prepare that place in the best way possible to be an abode worthy of God. For if we do not, He will leave us without our realizing it and move to another dwelling that will seem to Him to be better prepared” (Bohn’s edition, volume 1, page 199. See the whole of chapter 29).

Schöttgen, in his note, quotes a Rabbinical writer who says, “Blessed is the man who strives daily to make himself approved by God and prepares himself to receive the divine guest.” (Compare 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19; and Revelation 3:20.)