John 14:22-31
God Showing Himself
22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?"
23 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
28 “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30 I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, 31 but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
“Come now; let us leave.
I think Jesus' disciple Judas asks a very good question...Why doesn't God show Himself to the rest of the world...Judas knows the Twelve are getting to know Him and see Him everyday, and are learning more about Him...But why don't He just show Himself to the world, and explain these things -let everyone know more about Himself...It appears here there maybe some insight in God showing Himself, in the way Jesus answers...God has to initiate the move to show Himself to the world...If God never wanted to show Himself to the world, we would never see or feel Him, or know anything about Himself...
God is God...He has certain attributes, such as He is love...He is humble...He is forgiving...He is comforting...He is peaceful, in perfect peace, and His peace is not of this world...He knows everything...These are some of His attributes... These attributes are what God is like, but the attributes are not Him...We have learned these things about God since the ancient days...These attributes and thoughts of any author about God and in trying to describe God are from a man's mind...Man's mind is finite, and God is infinite...The finite cannot describe, let alone understand the infinite...Man cannot explain or understand God to any great degree...We can know some things about Him, but as a finite man, we will never know Him completely...We can only know and write about a few things about what we know about Him...We only know a part of Him, or a slice of Him...And we would not even know this slice of Him, without the Bible, Moses, the Prophets, Jesus, and His disciples...God had to show Himself, for us to get the Bible, and learn this slice about Him...And even after He has show Himself (as Jesus did), we are finite and limited and just know what we can with the brain, that our LORD has given us...Does God want us to know a lot of knowledge about Him?...
But Judas still asked the great question, to Jesus...He was the Perfect One to answer, what all men, or at least most men, want to know...Why don't You show Yourself, and even more to all the world?...And better yet, why don't You explain Yourself to man, in such a way that man understands more about You, or at least a much bigger slice of what we know about You?...Why not let everybody see who You are?...Everyone will love You...
But Jesus answers the question in His way, a way relating to obeying His teachings...If we follow His teachings God, His Father will love us...And these words are His Father's, so this is how God wanted Him to answer the question on "why not show Yourself to the whole world?"...God gives us freewill to do what we want to do, in making choices to follow Him and obey Him...And He certainly does what He does in a perfect way...He did not want to show Himself to the world as questioned by His disciple here...Showing something isn't always seeing...Seeing is just seeing...Showing to Jesus may mean obeying His teachings first...It seems to fit His answer...It doesn't seem like it is as important to God for us to know more and more things about Him...What is important to man, does not always mean that it is important to God...It is not as important to God, (as it is to us), for Him to show Himself -than maybe us seeing Him...The Father who sent Jesus this answer seems to be more interested in us following His Son and His teachings...God wants us to follow Jesus...And when we follow Jesus, He will LOVE us...If we follow Jesus and His teachings and His Father loves us, then we are closer to Him...We then will have a relationship with Him, and He will then come and make a home with us...And He will do this through the Holy Spirit...He wants a Father and Son, loving relationship with us...We will know God better, and know more about Him, when we see Him as our Father as Jesus does...I will know Him better when I am obeying His Son's teachings...Then I can and will be another loving son...
But let us be sure of how Jesus answered the question of Judas...And the question was "But, LORD, why do you intend to show Yourself to us and not to the world?"...Jesus doesn't answer the question is a tangible way in the sense that we see things and how we see with our eyes...Jesus replied, "If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching...My Father will LOVE Him, and we will come to Him and make our home with Him...Anyone who does not LOVE Me will not obey my teaching...These words you hear are not My own; they belong to the Father who sent Me."...