Jesus 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.
Parallel translations
- WEB Therefore Jesus said to them, “If God were your father, you would love me, for I came out and have come from God. For I haven’t come of myself, but he sent me.
- KJV Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
- ESV Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.
- NKJV Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.
- NASB Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I came forth from God and am here; for I have not even come on My own, but He sent Me.
- NLT Jesus told them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, because I have come to you from God. I am not here on my own, but he sent me.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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 reasons that if God were truly their Father they would love him, since he came from God. Love for Christ is the test of belonging to God.
Overview
Jesus offers a clear logic: those who belong to God recognize and love the Son God sent. He affirms again that he did not come on his own but was sent by the Father. Rejecting Christ therefore disproves any claim to know God, making love for Jesus the decisive evidence of true relationship with the Father.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- John 12:49I have not spoken on My own, but the Father who sent Me has commanded Me what to say and how to say it.
- 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 17:8For I have given them the words You gave Me, and they have received them. They knew with certainty that I came from You, and they believed that You sent Me.
- John 17:25Righteous Father, although the world has not known You, I know You, and they know that You sent Me.
- John 15:23–24Whoever hates Me hates My Father as well.
- Mal 1:6“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of Me?” says the LORD of Hosts to you priests who despise My name. “But you ask, ‘How have we despised Your name?’
- John 1:14The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
- 1 Jn 5:1–2Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves those born of Him.
- 1 Jn 4:14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.
- John 5:43I have come in My Father’s name, and you have not received Me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will receive him.
- 1 Cor 16:22If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be under a curse. Come, O Lord!
- John 7:28–29Then 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 3:17For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.
- John 5:23so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.
- 1 Jn 4:9–10This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.
- John 16:27–28For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from God.
- Rev 22:1Then the angel showed me a river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb
- Gal 4:4But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
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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 8:42 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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