John Gill Commentary John 14

Let not your heart be troubled
In some copies this verse begins thus, and he said to his disciples; and certain it is, that these words are addressed to them in general, Peter being only the person our Lord was discoursing with in the latter part of the preceding chapter; but turning, as it were, from him, he directs his speech to them all.

There were many things which must needs lie heavy upon, and greatly depress the minds of the disciples; most of all the loss of Christ's bodily presence, his speedy departure from them, of which he had given them notice in the preceding chapter; also the manner in which he should be removed from them, and the circumstances that should attend the same, as that he should be betrayed by one of them, and denied by another; likewise the poor and uncomfortable situation they were likely to be left in, without any sight or hope of that temporal kingdom being erected, which they had been in expectation of; and also the issue and consequence of all this, that they would be exposed to the hatred and persecutions of men.

Now in the multitude of these thoughts within them, Christ comforts them, bids them be of good heart, and exhorts them to all exercise of faith on God, and on himself, as the best way to be rid of heart troubles, and to have peace:

ye believe in God, believe also in me ;
which words may be read and interpreted different ways: either thus, "ye believe in God, and ye believe in me"; and so are both propositions alike, and express God and Christ to be equally the object of their faith; and since therefore they had so good a foundation for their faith and confidence, they had no reason to be uneasy:

or thus, "believe in God, and believe in me"; and so both are exhortations to exercise faith alike on them both, as being the best antidote they could make use of against heart troubles:

or thus, "believe in God, and ye believe in me"; and so the former is an exhortation, the latter a proposition: and the sense is, put your trust in God, and you will also trust in me, for I am of the same nature and essence with him; I and my Father are one; so that if you believe in one, you must believe in the other:

or thus, and so our translators render them, "ye believe in God, believe also in me"; and so the former is a proposition, or an assertion, and the latter is an exhortation grounded upon it: you have believed in God as faithful and true in all his promises, though you have not seen him; believe in me also, though I am going from you, and shall be absent for a while; this you may be assured of, that whatever I have said shall be accomplished.

The words considered either way are a full proof of the true deity of Christ, since he is represented as equally the object of faith with God the Father, and lay a foundation for solid peace and comfort in a view of afflictions and persecutions in the world.

In my Father's house are many mansions
This he says to draw off their minds from an earthly kingdom to an heavenly one; to point out the place to them where he was going, and to support them with the views and hopes of glory under all their troubles. By his "Father's house" is meant heaven; see (2 Corinthians 5:1) ; which is of his Father's building, where he has, and will have all his family. This Christ says partly to reconcile the minds of his disciples to his departure from them, and partly to strengthen their hope of following him thither; since it was his Father's, and their Father's house where he was going, and in which "are many mansions"; abiding or dwelling places; mansions of love, peace, joy, and rest, which always remain:

and there are "many" of them, which does not design different degrees of glory; for since the saints are all loved with the same love, bought with the same price, justified with the same righteousness, and are equally the sons of God, their glory will be the same. But, it denotes fulness and sufficiency of room for all his people; for the many ordained to eternal life, for whom Christ gave his life a ransom, and whose blood is shed for the remission of their sins, whose sins he bore, and whom he justifies by his knowledge; who receive him by faith, and are the many sons he will bring to glory. And this is said for the comfort of the disciples who might be assured from hence, that there would be room not only for himself and Peter, whom he had promised should follow him hereafter, but for them all.

Very agreeable to this way of speaking are many things in the Jewish writings:

says R. Isaack ^F15 , how many (Nyrwdm le Nyrwdm) , "mansions upon mansions", are there for the righteous in that world? and the uppermost mansion of them all is the love of their Lord.'' Moreover, they say ^F16 , that ``in the world to come every righteous man shall have (rwdm) , "a mansion", to himself.''

Sometimes they ^F17 speak of "seven mansions" (a number of perfection) being prepared for the righteous in the other world, though entirely ignorant of the person by whom these mansions are prepared: who here says,

if it were not so, I, would have told you, I go to prepare a place
for you .
This expresses the certainty of it, that his Father had a house, and in it were many mansions, room enough for all his people, or he would have informed them otherwise, who must needs know the truth of these things, since he came from thence; and who never deceives with vain hopes of glory; and whatever he says is truth, and to be depended on; everything he here delivers; both what he said before, and also what follows: "I go to prepare a place for you"; heaven is a kingdom prepared by the Father for his saints, from the foundation of the world; and again, by the presence and intercession of Christ, who is gone before, and is as a forerunner entered into it, and has took possession of it in the name of his people; and by his own appearance there for them with his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice, he is, as it were, fitting up these mansions for their reception, while they are by his Spirit and grace fitting and preparing for the enjoyment of them.

FOOTNOTES:

• F15: Zohar in Deut. fol. 113. 1.
• F16: Praefat ad Sepher Raziel, fol. 2. 1. Nishmat Chayim, fol. 26. 2. & 27. 1.
• F17: T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 75. 1. Nishmat Chayim, fol. 32. 2. Midrash Tillim in Galatin. l. 12. c. 6.

And if I go and prepare a place for you
Seeing I am going to prepare, and will prepare a place for you, of the truth of which you may be fully assured:

I will come again ;
either by death or in person a second time, here on earth:

and receive you unto myself ;
I will take you up with me to heaven; I will receive you into glory;

that where I am there you may be also :
and behold my glory, and be for ever with me, and never part more.

And where I go you know
They might have known, at least, where he was going, since he had spoke of his Father's house, and of his going to prepare a place for them there, and doubtless had some knowledge of it, though very confused and imperfect:

and the way you know :
this also they might have known from some expressions of his, that the way to his Father's house lay through sufferings and death, in which way they also were to follow him to his kingdom and glory. Though these words may be understood as an interrogation, "and where I go do you know? and the way do you know?" which best agrees with Thomas's answer, and removes all appearance of contradiction between Christ's words and his.

Thomas says to him, Lord
Who was one of his apostles, and here betrays his ignorance, as elsewhere his unbelief; and not only speaks for himself, but for the rest of the apostles, of whom he judged by himself; and who, it may be, might understand things better than himself, though their knowledge at present was but small:

we know not where you are going ;
though he had but just told them of his Father's house, and of his going to prepare a place for them:

and how can we know the way ?
for if we do not know the place, it is not reasonable to think we should know the way to it. Thomas seemed to have no other notion than that Christ was talking of some particular place in Judea, where he was going, and of the road to it.