And if any man hear my words and keep them not, I do not judge him for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.
και εαν τις μου ακουση των ρηματων και μη πιστευση εγω ου κρινω αυτον ου γαρ ηλθον ινα κρινω τον κοσμον αλλ ινα σωσω τον κοσμον
14 Church Fathers comment on this verse
“If anyone” does not listen to Me, “I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.” Lest they think that He ignored those who despised Him out of weakness, He said, “For I did not come to judge the world.” Then, lest they become more negligent because of this... (verse 48) [...] By the words “I do not judge,” He shows that He is in no way responsible for their destruction.
The meaning of these words is this: I am not the cause of the condemnation of the unbelieving man, for I did not come chiefly for this. Rather, this occurred as a consequence. I came to save, and for this I taught. If someone does not believe, I am not the cause of his condemnation. He has brought it upon himself. This will become still clearer from what follows. Listen, then, to what comes next.
Thus, He says, those who do not obey Him and do not receive saving faith will be self-condemned. He who came for illumination came not to judge, but to save.
Therefore let the disobedient man, who subjects himself to the greatest evils, blame himself. He is justly punished. I am not at fault in this, for I desired to save those who would come under judgment, and for this I came.
For one who establishes a law that punishes the disobedient does not establish it in order to punish transgressors. He does so that they may hear it, keep it, and be saved.
Therefore I, having come to save, set before you faith, and not contempt for My words. The present time is a time of salvation, not of judgment.
For on the day of judgment, the word that called you to salvation will bring punishment upon you for disobedience. And what was this word that I spoke?
Recall what you heard in the preceding readings. Those who have suddenly forgotten should return to those passages. Those of you who were absent then, but are now present, should hear why the Son says, "I do not judge him."
Elsewhere He said, "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son" (Jn 5:22). This can only be understood as, "I do not judge him now."
Why, "I do not judge now"? Look at what follows: "For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world," that is, to make the world whole.
Now is the time for mercy. Later will be the time for judgment. For He says, "I will sing of mercy and judgment to Thee, O Lord" (cf. Ps 100:1).
"If anyone hears My words and does not keep them, I do not judge him." Why then did He say, "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son" (Jn 5:22)?
Since He is the Physician of men, He says, "I did not come into this world to judge the world, but to save the world."
And to show that all judgment belongs to Him, He teaches thus: "He who does not receive My words, the word that I have spoken will judge him" (Jn 12:48).
According to the sense of the following argument, instead of "I do not know him," one should read here, "I do not judge him." In Armenian, in which this commentary of Saint Ephrem has been preserved, the two words are very similar.
He does not judge, and do you judge? He says, "That whoever believes in Me may not remain in darkness" (Jn 12:46).
That is, if anyone is in darkness, let him not remain there. Let him abandon his error, expiate his guilt, and keep My commandments.
For I have said, "I do not desire the death of the sinner, but that the sinner turn from his way" (Ezek 33:11).
Earlier I said that he who believes in Me is not condemned. Now I add, "God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him" (Jn 3:17).
I gladly forget and quickly forgive. "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice" (Hos 6:6). By sacrifice the righteous man is exalted, but by mercy the sinner is redeemed.
“If anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him” in the present age. “For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.” Earlier Jesus Christ also said, “For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (Jn 3:17). Read there the explanation of these words.
Treatise 12. On how the words, "For judgment (κρίμα) I came into this world" (Jn 9:39), and, "I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world" (Jn 12:47), do not contradict each other, even if someone thinks they do.
The sayings, "For judgment I came into this world," and, "I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world," are in no way opposed to one another. Rather, they reveal the greatest consistency and harmony.
It is said, "For judgment I came into this world," because those who ought to have seen were willingly blind. Those thought to be blind proved to be looking upon the light of truth.
The former did not receive salvation. The latter, when it came, hastened to it.
Therefore He says, in effect, "Although My coming took place for the salvation of the world, those who maliciously and boldly rise against their own benefit have made My coming a condemnation for themselves."
Why, then, do You not bring fire down upon them? Why do You not shake the earth and open the floodgates of heaven, so as to drown their madness?
"Because," He says, "I came not to judge the world, but to save it and restore it. Therefore I am long-suffering. Therefore I postpone judgment."
The time of My first coming is not a time of judgment (κρίσις), but of love for mankind. It is a time of compassion, favor, and return.
Thus the divine sayings before us are in no way at war with each other. As you see, they preserve full agreement.
On the other hand, sentence (κρίμα) and judgment (κρίσις) are in many respects similar to one another, yet they also differ. Sentence rather signifies condemnation, while judgment indicates the assigning of what is due.
Thus the Savior came into the world as a sentence. That is, He became condemnation for those who did not wish to discern their own benefit and lacked the sense to recognize their own redemption.
Therefore, for such people our universal Savior became a sentence. He Himself was not the cause of their deserving punishment. Rather, they turned the saving medicine into a deadly potion for themselves.
For "that those who see," and so forth (Jn 9:39), does not indicate the cause. It announces those who by malicious choice preferred the worse to the better.
Thus their showing themselves liable to judgment, and not receiving the universal Savior, proves their wickedness. It in no way contradicts Him who said that He came not to judge the world, but to save it.
On the contrary, this testifies to the boundless sea of His love for mankind. He turned many away from error.
Those who disobeyed and subjected themselves to condemnation He does not call to account, punish, or condemn. He deals kindly even with the disobedient, for He says, "All day long I stretched out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people" (Rom 10:21; cf. Is 65:2).
Therefore, in His coming, the Savior becomes condemnation for those who did not receive Him because of their wickedness. Yet He does not judge them or avenge Himself on them, because of His extreme love for mankind.
He also wished to show that His first coming is not a time of judgment, but of condescension and compassion.
If someone should wish to interpret with greater strain, and understand "judgment" as division and separation, I think he will not find that the word has this meaning in the proper usage of Holy Scripture.
Perhaps he will find sayings that do not differ in sense, such as: "Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I came not to bring peace, but a sword."
"For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law" (Mt 10:34-35).
Again: "His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will cleanse His threshing floor. He will gather His wheat into the granary, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire" (Mt 3:12).
There are also other sayings of the same kind.
Yet even in this case, the one who undertakes this will by no means produce a conflict among the sacred words. I mean, "For judgment I came into this world," and, "I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world."
The Savior arrived in order to give peace to the world and to reconcile to the Father those who had long been at enmity with Him. By breaking down the middle wall of partition (Eph 2:14), He united and reconciled things above with things below.
If someone turned peace into enmity for himself, and made reconciliation into discord, the fault does not lie with the Giver of peace and Reconciler.
It lies with those who tore and cut themselves away from those reconciled to the Father and tasting the good of peace.
This distinction is rendered conditionally in English, since both κρῖμα and κρίσις can be translated by closely related terms. The former is better understood here as condemnatory sentence, the latter as judgment.
The evangelist made the preceding observation about the fruits of Jesus Christ's public activity after noting that Jesus, after His words concerning the Greeks' desire to see Him, "departed and hid Himself from them" (36).
Here, however, without noting when or where this happened, he says, "Jesus cried out and said."
Some interpreters think that the evangelist interrupted Jesus Christ's discourse, spoken because of the Greeks' desire to see Him, with his reflection on the people's unbelief. Here, they say, he gives its continuation.
Other interpreters observe that the discourse cited here contains only sayings spoken by Jesus Christ at different times and recorded by the same evangelist in different places.
They therefore think this is not a discourse of Jesus Christ Himself, but the evangelist's gathering of many sayings spoken by Him at different times.
This gathering concludes the history of the Lord's testimonies concerning Himself as the Messiah; cf. 14:9; 8:12; 3:17-18; 8:26-28; 6:63, and others.
In that case, the expression in verse 44, "He cried out and said," must be understood as in 1:15. It means open testimony in general, without designation of time.
In content, the testimonies of Jesus Christ about Himself found here form a rebuke of the unbelief of the Jews described above.
Leaving the temple, Christ addressed the people for the last time. He explained the purpose of His coming to earth and repeated what He had said earlier about His unity with the Heavenly Father.
"I have come into the world so that everyone who believes in Me may not remain in the darkness of ignorance of God's will. For I have not spoken on My own authority. The Father who sent Me commanded Me what to say.
All that I speak, I speak just as the Father told Me. I know that His commandment, His will, is that all men be counted worthy of the blessedness of eternal life and that all be saved.
For this He sent Me, and He sent Me not to judge the world, but to save it. Therefore I judge no one (Jn 8:15). And why judge now, when everyone who does not fulfill the will of God proclaimed by Me condemns himself?"
Unbelievers could learn from His own mouth the fate that awaits such men: "If anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.
He who rejects Me and does not receive My words has a judge for himself. The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day" (Jn 12:47-48).
And this word, in truth, is the word of the Heavenly Father Himself. "For I have not spoken on My own authority. The Father who sent Me gave Me a commandment, what to say and what to speak.
And I know that His commandment is eternal life. Therefore what I speak, I speak as the Father has told Me" (Jn 12:49-50).
Despite all this, Israel remained unfeeling, obstinate, and hostile. In vain, according to the prophetic word of Isaiah cited by the Apostle Paul, God continually stretched out His hands to him during the whole ministry of His Son.
All this provoked only unbelief and opposition in the chosen people. At last grace, as if seeing the uselessness of all its influences, gave that people over to its own criminal inclinations.
It then calmly committed the most outrageous ingratitude, the most terrible crime, and the saddest sacrilege that can darken the memory of a people.
“If anyone hears,” and so forth: see Jn 3:17 and following; Jn 5:45 and following; Jn 8:15 and following; Mt 7:26; Mk 4:15 and following; Jn 18:20. The word of Christ is as divine, holy, and pure as His very person. Therefore this word of His will be man’s judge on the last day. Of course, Christ Himself will judge (Jn 5:22, 27). Yet He will judge according to whether His word and His teaching were received and preserved, whether man believed Him, and whether he acted according to His teaching. Compare Jn 7:51, where the law of Moses is presented as judging.
Verses 47-48: “If anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him...” Those who heard the Jews blaspheme Jesus could have been troubled that Jesus Christ left them unpunished. To reassure such people, it is explained that the Son of God came to save the world. There will be its own time for pronouncing condemnation on the world. This was indicated in Jn 3:17-18. The distinctive feature here is the state of unbelief. This is not mere negligence or inattention. It is the state in which men understand the dignity of the teaching and yet reject it with proud contempt. They see the truth and strive not to admit it into the soul. Heb 3:12-19.
Considering verses 46-48 as a whole, we see that the Lord sets forth His whole teaching concerning believers. He points first to them in verse 46, and then to unbelievers in verses 47-48.
The first recognize in the Lord the single source of light, that is, God (verses 44-45). They are led out of darkness and abide in light and eternal life.
Even to unbelievers mercy is promised in verses 47-48, if they turn to the Lord in time.
The work of the incarnate God was solely a work of mercy and love. God's taking upon Himself the human soul and flesh did not have judgment over men as its goal, for then "no flesh would be justified."
Rather, its goal was the salvation of men. Therefore the merciful Lord came not as Judge, but as Healer of souls and bodies, and as Redeemer.
Thus, when speaking of unbelievers in verse 47, the Lord speaks as of unfortunate men. He is God, manifested for the salvation of mankind, and He does not judge them.
Yet these unfortunate men are answerable before the Word spoken by the God-man. The righteousness of God abides forever.
The violation of this righteousness can be blotted out before God only by faith in the God-man.
The word sown by the Lord in the field of the human soul tests man and lays his soul open before God.
It either becomes choked in the field and bears no fruit, through hardness of heart, worldly cares, or the action of the devil, or else it bears fruit. See Mt 13, the parable of the sower.
Therefore the word of the Lord is the Judge of the human soul, with its good or evil will.
This will expresses the inner man, either surrendering himself to the God of love and mercy, or rebelling, like the devil, the father of lies, against the thought of God.
He rebels in order to set up in its place his own small and malicious thought.
Before the Word, who brought light into the world, appeared in the humble form of man, and before men "saw a great light," they were in darkness, awaiting the Promised One.
This expectation partly illumined the future for them. More than this, while awaiting the Promised One, men still had hope of justification before eternal justice.
The great event had not yet taken place: the coming of God into the world in human form.
But when God manifested Himself to men, and in human form opened His mouth, teaching them the words of God and revealing God's will to them, He removed the burden of the law from them.
He required only love, saying, "For My yoke is good, and My burden is light."
Then only hardened and stony souls, fallen in their pride, could reject the teaching of love. Only such souls could fail to understand that this teaching is from God.
Only it can give peace and happiness to the soul.
Even ordinary human faculties were enough to understand the greatness and holiness of the teaching preached by the Lord.
Therefore, for the unbelieving Jews, the judge is the word that the Lord spoke.
But who, having believed the word, could fail to believe in the Lord, with whom the Word was one? "The Word was God" (Jn 1:1).
"To whom shall we go?" we cry with Peter. "Thou hast the words of eternal life" (Jn 6:68).
And yet let us marvel at the mercy of the Lord. He even postpones judgment for a time.
"He who rejects Me and does not receive My words has one who judges him: the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day."
At the very time when He spoke these words, malice was preparing a dreadful crime. Even when that malice kills the God-man on the Cross, judgment still does not yet come for the criminals and unbelievers.
"The word will judge on the last day." In other words, these persecutors, blasphemers, and murderers are still given time to believe in the Word.
Everything will be forgiven them, if only they believe before the last day. That day has two meanings for man.
One is particular to each person, to whom earthly life is given for repentance and faith. The other is general, pointing to the final great day of judgment.
We know that many of the persecutors, blasphemers, and murderers nevertheless became faithful servants of the Lord.
In the words of John the Baptist, they "fled from the wrath to come" and were saved at the feet of Christ the Savior in the Christian community.
One of the finest examples of this salvation, as is known, is Paul, who became a chosen vessel.
So great is the mercy of God.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 26 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS