Whoever does not love Me does not keep My words. The word that you hear is not My own, but it is from the Father who sent Me.
Parallel translations
- WEB He who doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words. The word which you hear isn’t mine, but the Father’s who sent me.
- KJV He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.
- NKJV He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.
- NASB The one who does not love Me does not follow My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.
- NLT Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me.
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
Failure to keep Jesus' words reveals an absence of love for Him, and His words are the Father's. To reject Jesus' teaching is to reject the Father who sent Him.
Overview
The negative counterpart to verse 23 clarifies that disobedience exposes a heart that does not truly love Christ. Jesus stresses that His message is not His own invention but the word of the Father who sent Him. This underscores His full authority and the unity of the Son with the Father: to hear and obey Jesus is to hear and obey God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- John 7:16“My teaching is not My own,” Jesus replied. “It comes from Him who sent Me.
- John 14:10Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you, I do not speak on My own. Instead, it is the Father dwelling in Me, performing His works.
- John 8:42Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on My own, but He sent Me.
- John 3:34For the One whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.
- John 5:19So Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does.
- John 14:21–23Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.”
- 1 Jn 3:16–20By this we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
- John 14:15If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
- John 5:38nor does His word abide in you, because you do not believe the One He sent.
- Matt 25:41–46Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
- John 8:38I speak of what I have seen in the presence of the Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
- John 8:28So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing on My own, but speak exactly what the Father has taught Me.
- John 8:26“I have much to say about you and much to judge. But the One who sent Me is truthful, and what I have heard from Him, I tell the world.”
- John 7:28Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “You know Me, and you know where I am from. I have not come of My own accord, but He who sent Me is true. You do not know Him,
- John 12:44–50Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in Me does not believe in Me alone, but in the One who sent Me.
- 2 Cor 8:8–9I am not making a demand, but I am testing the sincerity of your love in comparison to the earnestness of others.
- Matt 19:21Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”
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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 14:24 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
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