The Pulpit Commentary on John 7:14-18

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

Justification of his doctrine.

Jesus appeared suddenly in the temple, and began at once to instruct the people.

I. ASTONISHMENT OF THE JEWS AT HIS TEACHING. "And the Jews were astonished, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?"

1. They were astonished at the manner of his teaching. "He spake as never man spake;" he "spake as One having authority, and not as the scribes;" thus "the common people heard him gladly." These passages give an idea of the manner and effect of his teaching.

2. They were astonished at the matter of his teaching. He had not, they thought, been trained in any rabbinic school, yet he seemed to understand the literature of his countrymen—which was essentially theological—quite as well as their approved religious guides.

II. OUR LORD'S EXPLANATION OF HIS TEACHING. "My teaching is not mine, but his that sent me."

1. His doctrine was not self-originated, though he had studied in no school of the rabbis.

2. It was not human; for it was from the Source of all truth, God himself.

3. He claims to be merely the Messenger of his Father, He is the Word of God, who reveals the Father's mind to men.

III. THE METHOD OF VERIFYING THE DOCTRINE. "If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." There is a twofold method of verification—one internal, the other external.

1. The internal verification.

(a) The will of God represents all that is included in doctrine and duty, but it specifically regards man's salvation. "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification'' (1 Thessalonians 4:3).

(b) It is not deed, but will, that holds the primary place in Christian life. The will represents the motive power; the deed is but the outcome of the will. Yet they are inseparably linked in the designs of grace as well as in the experience of the saints—"for it is God that worketh in you, to will and to do of his good pleasure."

(a) unbelief is more the fault of the heart than of the intellect. Therefore Scripture speaks expressively "of the evil heart of unbelief" (Hebrews 3:12).

(b) Religion is essentially a matter of life as well as of thought. Therefore the Jews could not understand the will of God concerning the Messiah, for they were altogether out of sympathy with it.

2. The external verification. "He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh the glory of him that sent him, the same is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him." This points to the character of him who delivers the doctrine.

(a) the truth of the teacher in the sphere of thought, and

(b) his righteousness in the sphere of action. Thus Jesus can be "no deceiver of the people." Therefore his doctrine is to be received.

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