John Calvin Commentary John 7:4

"For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world." — John 7:4 (ASV)

If you do these things; that is, if you aspire to such greatness that all may applaud you, direct towards you the eyes of all. And they add, show yourself to the world, using the word world, as contrasted with the small number of persons among whom he was spending his time without honor.

We might also draw from it another meaning. “If you do these things, that is, since you are endowed with such great power as to procure reputation for yourself by miracles, do not throw them away; for all that has been given to you by God you spend here to no purpose, because there are none to bear you testimony, or to hold you in just estimation.”

Hence we perceive how great is the indolence of men in considering the works of God; for the relations of Christ would never have spoken in this manner, if they had not — as it were — trampled under foot the manifest proofs of his Divine power, which they ought to have beheld with the greatest admiration and reverence.

What we are told here concerning Christ happens in daily experience: that the children of God suffer greater annoyance from their near relations than from strangers. For they are instruments of Satan who tempt, sometimes to ambition and sometimes to avarice, those who desire to serve God purely and faithfully. But such Satans receive a vigorous repulse from Christ, who thus instructs us by his example, that we ought not to yield to the foolish wishes of brethren or relations.