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.
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.
- BSB 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.
- 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 12:49For I spoke not from myself, but the Father who sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
- John 14:10Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father who lives in me does his works.
- John 17:8for the words which you have given me I have given to them, and they received them, and knew for sure that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.
- John 17:25Righteous Father, the world hasn’t known you, but I knew you; and these knew that you sent me.
- John 15:23–24He who hates me, hates my Father also.
- Mal 1:6“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, then where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? Says Yahweh of Armies to you, priests, who despise my name. You say, ‘How have we despised your name?’
- John 1:14The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
- 1 Jn 5:1–2Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Whoever loves the Father also loves the child who is born of him.
- 1 Jn 4:14We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world.
- John 5:43I have come in my Father’s name, and you don’t receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.
- 1 Cor 16:22If any man doesn’t love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. Come, Lord!
- John 7:28–29Jesus therefore cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, “You both know me, and know where I am from. I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you don’t know.
- John 3:17For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.
- John 5:23that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent him.
- 1 Jn 4:9–10By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world 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 22:1He showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb,
- Gal 4:4But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to 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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