John 14 - CSB Ancient Faith Study Bible

14:6 Hilary of Poitiers: Except through [Jesus] there is no approach to the Father. But there is also no approach to him unless the Father draws us. Understanding him to be the Son of God, we recognize in him the true nature of the Father. And so, when we learn to know the Son, God the Father calls us. When we believe the Son, God the Father receives us. For our recognition and knowledge of the Father is in the Son who shows us in himself God the Father. The Father draws us by his fatherly love, if we are devout, into a mutual bond with his Son. On the Trinity 11.33.

14:10 Gregory of Nyssa: The Lord speaks the truth who says, “I am in the Father and the Father in me”—plainly, the one in his entirety is in the other in his entirety. The Father does not have an overwhelming presence in the Son. The Son is not deficient in the Father. And the Lord also says that the Son should be honored. And, “The one who has seen me has seen the Father,” and, “No one fully knows the Father except the Son” [Lk 10:22]. In all of this, there is no hint . . . of any variation in glory or of essence or anything else between the Father and the Son. Against Eunomius 2.4.

14:16 Didymus the Blind: [T]he Holy Spirit was another Comforter differing not in nature but in operation. For whereas our Savior, in his office of mediator, and of messenger and as high priest, made supplication for our sins, the Holy Spirit is a Comforter in another sense, that is, as consoling our griefs. But do not infer from the different operations of the Son and the Spirit a difference of nature. For in other places we find the Holy Spirit performing the office of intercessor with the Father, as when “the Spirit himself intercedes for us” [Rm 8:26]. . . . And the Savior . . . pours consolation into those hearts that need it, as in Maccabees, he strengthened those of the people who were brought low. On the Holy Spirit 27–28.

14:19 Cyril of Alexandria: Those who love evil in the world will go down to Hades and be banished from the presence of Christ. However, the lovers of virtue who have kept inviolate the earnest of the Spirit will be with him and dwell with him. And being with him surely they shall also behold his divine beauty without any hindrance. For he says, “the Lord shall be your eternal light and God shall be your glory” [Is 60:19]. Commentary on the Gospel of John 9.1.

14:22-23 Gregory the Great: Consider, dearly beloved, how great this solemnity is that commemorates the coming of God as a guest in our hearts. If some rich and powerful friend were to enter your home, you would quickly clean the entire house for fear something there might offend your friend’s eyes when he entered. Let anyone then who is preparing his inner house for God cleanse away the dirt of his evil deeds. . . . He does indeed enter the hearts of some but does not make his home there because through repentance they acquire respect for God, but during a time of temptation they forget that they have repented and so return to committing sins as if they had never wept over them at all. The Lord comes into the heart and makes his home in one who truly loves God and observes his commandments, since the love of his divine nature so penetrates him that he does not turn away from it during times of temptation. That person loves truly whose heart does not consent to be overcome by wicked pleasures. Forty Gospel Homilies 30.2.

14:25-27 Chrysostom: [T]o calm their grief, he says that as long as he remains with them the Spirit won’t come, which means they wouldn’t come to know the greater or more sublime things to come. [Christ] wanted them, in other words, to see his departure as a blessing. Notice how he often calls [the Spirit] Comforter, because of the troubles they had to deal with. And since they were still troubled, even after hearing all this, because of their sadness, the struggles and his departure, he calms them again by saying, “Peace I leave you.” . . . And because he brings up the subject of leaving again, which is enough in itself to trouble them, he again says, “Do not let your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Homilies on the Gospel of John 75.3.

14:30 Ambrosiaster: The rulers of this age are not to be understood as merely people of the Jews and Romans but also those princes and powers . . . to whom this saying pertains and against whom is our struggle. . . . The rulers of this age crucified the Lord of majesty through their ignorance. For how can the rulers of this age be understood as the rulers of the Jews who were subject to the Roman Empire? Commentary on 1 Corinthians 2.8.1–2.