If you know these things, you shall be blessed if you do them.
ει ταυτα οιδατε μακαριοι εστε εαν ποιητε αυτα
11 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Then, lest someone say, “Why do You say this? Do we not know it?” He added what follows: I say this to you not as though you do not know, but so that you may put My words into action. All can know, but not all can act. Therefore He said, “Blessed are you if you do them.” For this very reason I also constantly repeat this to you, though you know it, so that I may dispose you toward works. For the Jews also know, yet they are not blessed, because they do not do what they know.
Lest they say, “Why do You tell us this, as though we did not know? We ourselves know that humility is good,” He therefore says: if you know, this alone is not enough. You are blessed when you fulfill it. For the Jews also knew the commandments, yet they are not blessed, but exceedingly wretched, because they did not fulfill them.
Therefore, He says, "if you know these things," that is, if you can clearly understand what I am saying, "blessed are you if you do them." Everyone will say that it is not knowledge of virtue, but its practice, that is more worthy of love and emulation. I even think that perhaps it is better not to know at all than to know and then bind the mind with sloth, refusing to do what one has learned to be best and just. This accords with the Savior's word: "The servant who did not know his master's will and did not do it shall be beaten with few stripes. But the one who knew and did not do it shall be beaten with many" (Lk 12:47-48). If one who did not know at all should suffer some punishment for negligence, it would not be very strange for him to ask for at least a little indulgence.
But for one who knew, this very knowledge will serve for heavier condemnation, because he proved negligent when nothing hindered him from fulfilling his duty. Therefore those who know ought to do. Then, clothed with the perfect glory of life in Christ, we shall receive in due season the fullest recompense. So also the Savior said that he who does and teaches shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven, and quite justly so (Mt 5:19). Indeed, what is lacking to him in piety? If the glory of good works is present in someone in full measure, should he not receive from God the most perfect gifts as reward? Therefore, when knowledge accompanies good works, no small benefit is surely obtained. But when one of the two is lacking, the other will certainly be lame. Scripture also says of this that "faith without works is dead" (Jas 2:26). Faith consists in knowing the one God by nature, and in confessing Him without hypocrisy and truly. Yet even this is dead if it is not accompanied by the glory of works. Therefore, is it not utterly useless to know what the good is and yet be unwilling to do it? For this reason He says that His disciples, or those who believe in Him, will be blessed if they have not only received the knowledge of His words, but also do them.
We have just heard how, in the Holy Gospel, the Lord spoke and declared: “Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” He said this because He had washed the disciples’ feet, as a humble Teacher instructing by word and example. But with His support we shall be able to consider more carefully what requires fuller consideration, if we do not linger over what is already clear.
If you know what has already been said, “blessed are you if you do them.” It is not enough only to know; one must also act.
Having finished this work of humility, the Lord again reclined at supper with His disciples and explained the intention of His action. "If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, then you also ought to wash one another's feet. And blessed are you when you do this." But the thought of Judas again made Him add: blessed, but I do not speak of all of you. I know whom I have chosen. Yet even in this case the word of Scripture is not broken, but fulfilled. It is written: "He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me." Jesus repeated such hints so that the disciples would not waver in their faith when one of them became the instrument of betrayal. They were not to think that their Teacher Himself had been deceived in them. The Lord may also have explained this reason in order to awaken the conscience of Judas.
According to Luke the Evangelist, Jesus Christ accompanied His instructions on humility (25-27) with an indirect answer to the disciples' dispute about primacy. Because they had faithfully and steadfastly followed Him until then, despite all the persecutions against Him, He gave them all a promise of blessedness in His Kingdom: "that you may eat and drink at My table in My Kingdom." He also indicated that the first degrees of blessedness in this Kingdom belonged to them. And that they would be especially near the Lord the King: "and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." John the Evangelist adds that Jesus Christ immediately limited this promise.
This Evangelist does not transmit the promise, though it fits very well among the Lord's sayings which he gives between verses 17 and 18. Namely, He indicated that only those chosen by God for salvation would share in the goods of the promise. Yet over one of them, though he had been chosen among the Lord's disciples, Scripture had to be fulfilled (Ps 40:10; Jn 13:18). The betrayal of Judas, together with all its consequences, would trouble the true disciples of Christ. But they had to remember that this had been foretold to them and therefore foreseen by the Lord (19). To strengthen their faith still more, the Lord, in contrast to the betrayal of Judas, foretells that they will be His messengers. At the same time He describes the high dignity of their ministry: whoever receives them receives Jesus Christ Himself and God Himself (20). The connection of verse 18 with what precedes in St. John, apart from Luke's Gospel, would be this: blessed are you if you not only know, but do what has been said (17). Meanwhile, one of you is not only unready to wash the feet of his fellow disciples, but will soon set his foot even upon his own Teacher and Lord.
And if you do what I tell you, then you will be blessed. Yet you have been faithful to Me amid all the opposition shown to Me by My enemies. You did not abandon Me even when many disciples went away from Me. For this I bequeath My Kingdom to you, and I shall bring you into the Heavenly Kingdom, where you will be counted worthy of the greatest honor: to be with Me.
Having washed the disciples’ feet, the Lord Jesus Christ also explained to them the meaning of this act, as an example of humility, love, and service to one’s neighbors.
These words in the Gospel of St. John precede the Savior's prediction that one of the disciples would betray Him (v. 21). According to St. Luke's account, this was said by the Savior after the Paschal supper (Lk 22:21-22). According to St. Matthew (Mt 26:21, 27) and Mark (Mk 14:18, 22), it was said before the institution of the Eucharist. The Savior promises blessedness to those who understand His mysteries and justify their understanding by works. If, He says, you know with what thoughts and dispositions I celebrate the final Paschal supper, where I, your Lord, wash the feet of My servants, then you are happy and blessed when you fulfill what is known to you.
"For who is greater, the one reclining or the one serving? Is it not the one reclining? But I am among you as one who serves."
Thus the Evangelist Luke records the Lord's words (Lk 22:24-27), preserving one part of the Lord's discourse.
This part, together with the words cited by the holy Evangelist John, is one and the same discourse.
In it He explains that the servant and the messenger are not above the master and the one who sends.
He directly indicates to the Apostles their duties, the spirit of their preaching, and the humble yet great significance they will have in the world among the community of Christ.
The holy Apostle Paul describes this with such vividness: "Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being slandered, we entreat."
"We have become as the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things until now" (1 Cor 4:12-13).
"We are persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed. Always carrying in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body" (2 Cor 4:9-10).
Compare also 1 Cor 2:2-4; 3:5-6; 2 Cor 6:8-20; 11:30, and many other passages.
"My strength is made perfect in weakness," the Lord says to the Apostle Paul.
Paul continues, "Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor 12:9-10).
There was not a single instruction to the disciples, nor a single duty laid upon them by the Lord, that was not taught both by word and by the Lord's example.
He truly bore our diseases and infirmities, our labors, humiliations, and sufferings, tasting even death itself. For He was perfect man, as He was and is almighty God.
Mutual help for one another, and complete humility as well, are what the Lord taught in the washing of the feet.
At the foundation of humility, help, and service, the Lord places love.
The love of the Almighty for the human race lay at the foundation of His taking upon Himself suffering human nature.
The Lord places this same love at the foundation of the whole life of man and all his relations, on the one hand to God, and on the other to his brothers.
The Lord requires man to forget completely his human, selfish "I."
He sets before him an image that is not fully attainable, yet is forever present to man.
It shines upon him forever and calls him onto the path of duty traced by the Lord.
Only on this path does man's spiritual "I" grow bright. It is illumined to the extent that man forgets his material "I" on earth.
But "blessed are you" not only "if you know these things," but "if you do them."
Here lies the stumbling block for many. How often a heart moved to compunction does not find sufficient strength to break through the thorns of the world.
Though it knows where true happiness lies, it cannot renounce the bonds that fasten the soul to the earth.
"Children," the Lord said, "how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God."
But when the disciples were astonished, the Lord revealed another mystery of mercy, saying, "With men this is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God" (Mk 10:24, 27).
From this it is clear that to do what we know, we must ask God for help with many tears.
Without the help of the Holy Spirit, it is impossible for man to rise to that path whose end is the kingdom of God.
Therefore the Lord told the disciples before His Passion that the Comforter would be given to them.
Therefore on the day of the Resurrection He said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit."
Therefore at Pentecost all the faithful were baptized with the fire of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore the Lord also gave us the mysteries, so that they might help man in his infirmity, weakness, and wavering.
For man is powerless without the help of God.
Let us say here, incidentally, that the self-reliance preached by Protestant churches of every name is precisely the stumbling block that separates knowledge from doing.
Within Protestantism it is assumed that study, which gives knowledge, is enough for man. But for those who know human nature, this is not so.
Man needs not preaching, but the help of God, given through the mysteries.
Preaching unfolds, more or less, the meaning of the Word of God and sows good beginnings. This cannot be denied.
But only the Holy Spirit can give strength to fulfill it.
Through the mysteries, by grace, He acts upon the inner man and strengthens him for the accomplishment of God's work.
The disciples are sent to "do righteousness," not only to preach, Chrysostom observes.
"Blessed are you if you do them," and in Mt 5:19: "Whoever does and teaches them shall be called great."
First let him learn to do it himself and know by experience his own powerlessness without God's help. Then let him teach, and he shall be "called great."
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 8 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS