Limitless Word
Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.
John 14:23 · New Living Translation
Parallel translations
  • WEB Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.
  • KJV Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
  • BSB Jesus replied, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
  • NKJV Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
  • NASB Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will follow My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

Jesus answers that anyone who loves Him will keep His word, and the Father and Son will come and make their home with him. God dwells with those who love and obey Christ.

Overview

Rather than a public display, Jesus describes an intimate indwelling: the Father and the Son taking up residence with the loving, obedient believer through the Spirit. This fulfills the Old Testament hope of God dwelling among His people, now realized inwardly. Love for Christ, expressed in obedience, is the appointed avenue for this abiding communion with the triune God.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 20

  • John 14:21One who has my commandments, and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.”
  • John 14:15If you love me, keep my commandments.
  • Rev 3:20–21Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me.
  • 1 Jn 4:15–16Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God.
  • 1 Jn 2:24Therefore, as for you, let that remain in you which you heard from the beginning. If that which you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son, and in the Father.
  • 1 Jn 4:4You are of God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.
  • 2 Cor 6:16What agreement has a temple of God with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
  • John 10:30I and the Father are one.”
  • Isa 57:15For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
  • Ps 91:1He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
  • John 6:56He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I in him.
  • John 5:17–19But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, so I am working, too.”
  • Rom 8:9–11But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.
  • John 14:17the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him, neither knows him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you.
  • Rev 7:15–17Therefore they are before the throne of God, they serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them.
  • Rev 21:22I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb, are its temple.
  • Gen 1:26God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
  • Gen 11:7Come, let’s go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
  • Ps 90:1A Prayer by Moses, the man of God. Lord, you have been our dwelling place for all generations.
  • Rev 22:3There will be no curse any more. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants serve him.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (6)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — John videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on John 14:23YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JohnMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.

How John 14:23 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.