The Father Himself Loves You

John 16:25–28 (ESV) “I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. 26 In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; 27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”

John records Jesus having used several illustrations and analogies in just these last passages from chapters 13–17, not to mention the many parables and other imagery as recorded in the other gospels. For instance, he literally washed the disciples’ feet, but then he used that as a word picture to describe how believers were to radically serve one another. He also told them that he would not leave them as orphans. That was not a strictly literal use of the term. In the immediately preceding verses, he spoke of the analogy of a woman giving birth and not remembering her anguish once the baby had been born. He used this as an analogy of their grief in the moments before and immediately following his crucifixion and burial, but that later they would rejoice while the rest of the world mourned. 

But when is this hour coming when he would no longer speak to them in figures of speech but would tell them plainly about the Father? Jesus seems to be speaking of the time following the resurrection and perhaps of the age of the church after his ascension. The time when he would tell them plainly about the Father could apply to the days of his appearing after the resurrection, but the next line appears to clearly focus on the time beyond that when Jesus says, “in that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf.” This describes the way that we now pray, in Jesus’s name directly to the Father. 

Jesus does not say here when he says “I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf,” that he will not intercede for them or us, because other passages reveal that he does. Rather, he’s making the point that we can pray directly to the Father because, “the Father himself loves you.” They would have needed this reassurance. So do we. Jesus knew they were convinced of his love. He had demonstrated this to them tangibly. But they were about to enter the circumstance in which we live, living by faith when we cannot see the Father, so they and we need this assurance, “the Father himself loves you.” 

Jesus makes the point here that will be fully understood later that his death on the cross would open the way into the holy of hollies for prayer. But the phrase that “the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God” is curious. But after looking at this for two days, I think he makes the point here that God loves the world of course, for God so loved the world that he gave . . . But here he reveals the unique family, belonging kind of love accomplished by the work of Christ on the cross. In that moment, this was true as Jesus spoke to them. They had entered a right relationship with God because they had begun and were continuing to love Jesus and trusted that he came from God. 

From this passage the Holy Spirit calls me to apply the truth:

Deeply internalizing the love of God, the love of Christ, and the love of the Holy Spirit works as the lever to move us to spiritual well being.

In response, this is my prayer of commitment for today. 

May this truth, that the Father himself loves us, move us to greater faithfulness in prayer. 

Feedback question:

How can you more deeply internalize the love of God? Praying the lines following is one way. 

Doxology (a concluding act of praise to God): 

I praise you because you have prompted us to pray that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith—that we, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and that we may know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. So now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. A prayer based on Ephesians 3:17–21.