For the Father himself loveth you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came out from God.
αυτος γαρ ο πατηρ φιλει υμας οτι υμεις εμε πεφιληκατε και πεπιστευκατε οτι εγω παρα του θεου εξηλθον
11 Church Fathers comment on this verse
“For He Himself loves you.” Then, lest they fall away from Christ because they no longer need Him and stand in the Father’s direct love, He says: “The Father loves you” because “you have loved Me.”
Therefore, if you fall away from love for Me, you will immediately fall away from the Father as well.
He allows absolutely nothing to be requested in prayer and supplication except "in His name." Yet He promises that the Father will grant with great favor what they ask in prayer. This will be without the Son having to urge Him as advocate and mediator.
Rather, the Father will go, as it were, of Himself to honor them. He will seek to render, as something owed to those who love Christ, the highest and utmost good will.
But let no one who has understanding suppose, or say in ignorance, that the disciples or any others of the saints will have no need at all of the Son's mediation on their behalf. For all things are through Him, from the Father, in the Spirit.
He is the Advocate, according to the word of John (1 Jn 2:1-2), not for our sins only, but also for the whole world. Yet here again He profitably shows that honor and love toward Him who appeared from the Father are most pleasing to God the Father.
Not understanding this, the wretched Jewish people did not fear to insult Him with unbearable abuse. They "sought to kill Him," as it is written (Jn 5:18), because He was transforming the mind of believers from the legal and crude commandment into the spirituality of evangelical life.
Knowing nothing, or rather sharpening their impious tongue against Him, the wretched ones said: "If this Man were from God, He would not break the Sabbath" (Jn 9:16).
Therefore, He says, favor from God the Father will be given most graciously to those who have firmly believed precisely that He "came forth from God the Father." He will, as it were, anticipate and forestall the request of the Mediator. He will fill with spiritual blessings the mind of those who think rightly about Me, not as the lovers of the letter wished to think.
The expression, "I came forth from the Father," as we must understand it here, means one of two things. Either it means that I was begotten and shone forth from His essence, so that His coming forth must be understood as personal, that is, hypostatic existence, yet in all things undivided. For the Father is in the Son, and the Son in turn is by nature in the Father.
Or the words "I came forth" stand for this: I became like you, plainly, man, clothed in your form and nature. The proper nature of each being is, as it were, its own place. From this it comes forth when it passes into something else and becomes what it was not.
But we shall certainly not assert that, when the Only-begotten appeared and truly became man like us, He ceased to be God. For "yesterday and today He is the same, and forever" (Heb 13:8). Rather, having received what He was not while preserving what was His, He is understood to have come forth only according to our conception.
You may understand the expression "I came forth from the Father" in another way, if you wish. The Pharisees, inclined only to ignorance, thought, as I have already said, that the Lord had appeared like one of the false prophets.
They thought He had not been sent from God, but had come by His own intention, as false prophets were accustomed to do, to preach to those who came to them things hostile to the law. For this reason they dared to disobey. They pointed out that observance of the law, though most dear to God the Father, was being overthrown by His doctrines.
Thus they rejected Christ as one who had dared to rise up against the ordinances given by God through Moses. For this they even considered Him alien to God. But the blessed disciples were not so.
They "loved" Him, having thoughts higher than Jewish senselessness. They truly "believed" that He "came forth" from "God" in the way just indicated by us. For this reason they have the Father's love toward them, receiving, as it were in return, equal grace.
If those who believe that the Son came forth from God are most dear and pleasing to God the Father, then clearly those who suffer from the opposite opinion are repulsive and truly hateful to God. And if God is always wholly ready to hear those who love the Son, then clearly He will not receive the prayer of those who are not such.
This, then, is what was said to them by the voice of Isaiah: "When you stretch out your hands to Me, I will turn My eyes away from you. Even if you multiply your prayer, I will not listen to you, for your hands are full of blood" (Is 1:15).
"The Father Himself," He says, "loves you, because you have loved Me." Does He love because we are loved, or rather do we love because He loves? Let the same evangelist answer this from his epistle: "Let us love Him, because He first loved us" (1 Jn 4:19).
Here, then, is the effective cause of our love: we were loved first. Certainly, to love God is a gift of God. He gave the grace that He should be loved, He who loved while He was not yet loved.
When we were displeasing, we were loved, so that there might be revealed in us what could be pleasing. We could not have loved the Son unless we had also loved the Father.
The Father loves us because we love the Son. Yet from the Father and the Son we have received the power to love both the Father and the Son. "The love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit" (Rom 5:5), the Spirit of Both.
By this Spirit we love the Father, the Son, and the Spirit Himself, whom we love with the Father and the Son. Therefore God created in us that pious love by which we honor God. He saw that it was good, and therefore He loved what He had created.
But He would not have created in us what He would love, unless He had first loved us.
So what then? Does He love because we love, or rather do we love because He loves us? Let this same evangelist answer us in his epistle: "We love, because He first loved us" (1 Jn 4:19).
Thus it follows that we love because He loved us. In a word, to love God is the gift of God. He Himself bestowed the grace that He should be loved, He who loved us before He was loved.
Even when we displeased Him, He loved us, so that there might arise in us that by which we would become dear to Him. For we would not have loved the Son if we did not love the Father.
The Father loves us because we love the Son, since from the Father and the Son we have received the gift of loving the Father and the Son. For the Spirit of Both has poured love into our hearts (cf. Rom 5:5).
Through this Spirit we love both the Father and the Son. Together with the Father and the Son, we also love the Spirit.
Therefore God created our pious love, by which we honor God. He saw that it was good, and so He Himself loved what He created. But He would not have created in us what He loves, unless, before creating it, He had loved us.
"And you have believed," He says, "that I came forth from God. I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father." Certainly we have believed. Therefore it must not seem unworthy of belief that, having come into the world, [...]
If a man courageously and for a long time carries the divine battles through to the end, according to practical philosophy, he comes into the world from the Father through fulfilling the commandments. He keeps His Word within himself.
When he has shown himself victorious over the passions and demons, he ceases from the struggle with them that takes place during spiritual labor. Through contemplation he passes over to noetic philosophy. Then God the Word permits him to leave the world and go to the Father.
Therefore the Lord says to the disciples: "You have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from God. I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father."
Perhaps the Lord here calls "the world" the hard labor of the virtues during spiritual labor. By "the Father" He means the state of the mind beyond the world, free from every material thought. According to this state, the Word of God is born in us, putting an end to the warfare against the passions and demons.
Until now they had asked the Father for nothing in Christ’s name. Then they will ask and receive everything.
Then He will not speak about the Father in a hidden way, as until now, but will plainly declare everything about the Father to them.
He did not even say that He Himself would ask the Father for them. They may be confident in the Father’s love for them and may turn to Him in prayer in Christ’s name.
“I came forth from the Father,” the Lord concluded, “and have come into the world; again, I leave the world and go to the Father.”
"In that day," that is, after Jesus Christ has gone to the Father, when they are filled with the Holy Spirit, they will first possess a fully satisfying knowledge of the truth.
Second, whatever they ask the Father in His name will be fulfilled. Until now they had not invoked Jesus Christ in their prayers as God. But then they will know Him as the God-man, and they must pray in His name.
Third, until now, because of the disciples' incapacity, Jesus Christ communicated His divine teaching to them in parables. In general, He adapted its form to their way of understanding spiritual things.
But the time is coming when the Holy Spirit will descend upon them. Through Him, Jesus Christ will communicate to them an inward and immediate instruction.
Fourth, finally, the fruit of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples will be this: God the Father Himself will love them for their faith and love toward Jesus Christ. They will love Him as the Son of God, sent down from the Father and going to the Father.
To strengthen them more firmly in this faith, the Lord again affirms that He came forth from the Father and came into the world. Now He leaves the world and goes to the Father.
"I have spoken to you in parables, but the time is coming when I shall tell you plainly of the Father. Until now I have prayed to the Father for you. But then you yourselves will ask in My name, and you will receive. For the Father loves you because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from God. Yes, I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father."
Whether the Apostles understood that Jesus Christ, when He spoke of His departure from them and of seeing them again soon afterward, meant His death and His appearance to them after His Resurrection, is unknown. It is more likely that they did not understand.
As for His words about coming forth from the Father, these words were apparently understood by their hearts and received with joy. For they immediately said to Him: "See, now You speak plainly. Therefore we believe that You came forth from God."
“And have believed that I came forth from God,” as the One sent from the Father into the world (Jn 16:13 and parallels). That is, they believed that I am the promised Messiah who came into the world.
In this faith in the Lord as Messiah lies the content of the whole Christian faith, cf. Jn 20:31.
Then the Lord Jesus Christ, without waiting for their question, explained more fully His words about death and resurrection. "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is in travail, she has sorrow, because her hour has come. But when she has borne the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a man has been born into the world. So you have sorrow now. But I will see you again after the Resurrection, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you" (vv. 20-22).
Then Christ showed that, through His Resurrection and victory over death, believers would be near to God. The dividing wall, the barrier of sin that separated men from God, would be destroyed. Then believers would understand the mystery of God's ineffable love for them. Then there would be no need to speak to them of the mystery of man's salvation in parables, as now. Then they would approach God the Father boldly in prayer, and their prayers would be heard.
"In that day you will ask in My name. I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you, for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from God. I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father" (vv. 26-28).
"Perfect faith in the Son has no need of intercession before the Father. It believes that He came forth from God, and it loves and confesses that the Son was begotten of God and sent. Therefore, of itself, it deserves to be heard." So wrote St. Hilary.
On the other hand, the name of the Lord Jesus is so great and so weighty before the heavenly Father, that for love of this name the heavenly Father is ready to do all things for believers.
Living faith in the Lord Jesus is heard by the heavenly Father because, before Him, the great name of the Redeemer of the world, the Son of God, intercedes. The name of the Son of God draws the heavenly Father's love toward believers because living faith is in them, a faith that loves the Lord Jesus.
Thus the Savior's intercessory ministry, of which the Apostles so often speak (Jn 2:1, 12; Heb 7:25; Heb 8:6; Heb 9:24; Rom 8:34), is not excluded by the Savior's words. It is confirmed when He speaks of the importance of love for the Savior of the world.
The Lord reveals to the disciples that they should not think prayer offered to God in His name passes to God through His mediation. Rather, prayer ascends to God, with whom He, dwelling for a time in the flesh, is one.
Christians pray to the one God in the name of Christ, in the name of the love and mercy of God, who took upon Himself frail human flesh. Prayer is received because God is love.
As knowledge of the unity of God the Father and God the Son is revealed, acting in men through the Holy Spirit, the disciples' prayer becomes ever more exalted, pure, and full of faith.
The knowledge of the Lord's unity with God the Father now removes from them the thought that the Lord, apart from the flesh, will pray to the Father for them. In the flesh, the God-man, as man, prays to God the Father for believers (cf. Jn 17:20 and the whole chapter). For He was man in soul and body, and as such "fulfilled all human righteousness" (Mt 3:15). Yet as God He will receive prayer.
Being one with the Father, He Himself fulfills their prayer spoken in His name. He thereby points to the distinct honoring of the Hypostases, and also unites Them in the fulfillment of human prayer. This is the prayer which, as we said above, is inspired in us by the Holy Spirit, "interceding in us with groanings too deep for words" (Rom 8:26).
God, manifested to humanity within the limits of space and time, the second Hypostasis of the Holy Trinity, who reveals the invisible and incomprehensible God, requires nothing from man except faith and love.
A few simple men, yet chosen by God, loved the incarnate God with their souls and gave Him their souls. This love and faith of mortal creatures toward the immortal God incarnate is rewarded with joyful immortality. The Holy Spirit shows no partiality, says Cyril of Jerusalem, for He seeks not rank, but reverence of soul.
The Lord explains to the disciples: "For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from God." Therefore everyone who believes and loves the Lord Jesus is loved by God, for the Lord Jesus Himself is God.
"I came forth from the Father," says the Lord, "and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father."
The world is one of the glorious manifestations of the will of God, and the laws God established for it are firm and unchangeable. But the material world, with its organic and animal life, is not complete without man. In man, the soul, as a share of divinity granted to him, is the bond of man and of the whole world with God.
This human soul, with its free will, could depart and did depart from the moral laws. It had to be removed from God, the source of all righteousness, as unworthy of God, unless God Himself came to redeem this soul.
He came to make it worthy to be received into communion with the Godhead, "that God may be all in all" (1 Cor 12:6; 15:28; cf. Eph 1:23), by the mercy and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus, the pre-eternal Word of God, says: "I came forth from the Father and have come into the world." The world is not part of the Godhead, but only a part of infinity and eternity held in the hands of God.
Therefore God, entering the world, takes upon Himself the limitation of time and space. And when He says, "Again, I leave the world and go to the Father," He indicates that He loosens these bonds when, within them, He has fulfilled the dread Sacrifice before the righteousness of God.
Yet the very coming of God into the world illumined the world with radiance. As a human being is illumined by the Holy Spirit, "as when the bright shining of a lamp gives him light" (Lk 11:36), so also the world, by being visited by God in the flesh, received the Holy Spirit. From then and forever, He illumines all human actions.
Let us not be troubled when we see that in some places on earth the light grows dim in souls that surrender themselves to the corruption of unbelief. It shines more brightly in other places, where there is no self-deification of man, that supremely satanic sin.
Let us remember what the Lord said of His Church: "The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" (Mt 16:18).
We shall end this section on the unity of God the Father and the Lord Jesus, who came into the world and ascends from the world to the Father. With the words of Athanasius the Great: "The distinctive mark of faith in Christ is that the Son of God, the true Word of God (Jn 1:1), the true wisdom and power of the Father (1 Cor 1:24), at the end of the ages became man for our salvation."
"He is true man and, together with this, God, now at the right hand of the Father, being in the Father, and the Father in Him always."
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 18 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS