Jesus
therefore answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone desires to do his will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is from God, or if I am speaking from myself. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. Didn’t Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill me?” The multitude answered, “You have a demon! Who seeks to kill you?”
John 7:16-20
John 7 [9.] Having said these things to them, he stayed in Galilee. But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly, but as it were in secret. The Jews therefore sought him at the feast, and said, “Where is he?” There was much murmuring among the multitudes concerning him. Some said, “He is a good man.” Others said, “Not so, but he leads the multitude astray.” Yet no one spoke openly of him for fear of the Jews. But when it was now the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How does this man know letters, having never been educated?”
John 7 [16.] Jesus therefore answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone desires to do his will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is from God, or if I am speaking from myself. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. Didn’t Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill me?”
John 7 [20.] The multitude answered, “You have a demon! Who seeks to kill you?”
John 7 [21.] Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel because of it. Moses has given you circumcision (not that it is of Moses, but of the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a boy. If a boy receives circumcision on the Sabbath, that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me, because I made a man completely healthy on the Sabbath? Don’t judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”
Meaning:
In the middle of the Feast of Booths Jesus was teaching in the temple, and the Jews marveled, “How does this man know letters, having never been educated?” (John 7:15). Jesus answers by naming the true source of his teaching, telling them how they can test it, and then exposing the contradiction in their own hearts. The crowd’s reply shows how little they understood what was happening around them.
- “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me”
Jesus had not learned from a famous rabbi, but his teaching had a far higher source: the Father. He says the same elsewhere: “For 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 12:49). Moses had promised, “Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from among you, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him” (Deuteronomy 18:15), and God added that he would put his own words in that prophet’s mouth. Jesus is more than a prophet, but he speaks exactly what the Father gives him.
- “If anyone desires to do his will, he will know about the teaching”
This is a remarkable test. Jesus does not say that understanding comes first and obedience follows. A person who truly wants to do God’s will is given the ability to recognise God’s voice in Jesus’ words. The problem with his critics was not a lack of education but a lack of willingness.
Paul writes in the same spirit: “Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2). Later in John, Jesus says, “He who is of God hears the words of God” (John 8:47).
- “He who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true”
Jesus gives a second test. A teacher who speaks from himself is looking for his own glory. One who seeks only the glory of the one who sent him is true, “and no unrighteousness is in him.” Jesus never used his gifts to promote himself. He had earlier asked, “How can you believe, who receive glory from one another, and you don’t seek the glory that comes from the only God?” (John 5:44).
- “Didn’t Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keeps the law?”
His opponents prided themselves on the Law of Moses and accused Jesus of breaking it by healing on the Sabbath (John 5:16). Yet the same Law said, “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13), and they were plotting to kill him. Paul asks a similar question: “You therefore who teach another, don’t you teach yourself?” (Romans 2:21).
- “You have a demon! Who seeks to kill you?”
The crowd at the feast was largely made up of pilgrims who did not know what the leaders in Jerusalem were planning, so they thought Jesus was imagining things. Their answer, “You have a demon!”, was a way of calling him deluded or mad. The scribes in Galilee had made a worse charge: “He has Beelzebul” (Mark 3:22). The accusation would come again (John 8:48). Yet Jesus was right: some in Jerusalem did seek his life, as the people of the city soon admitted (John 7:25).
The Significance of John 7:16-20
- Willingness opens understanding
Many questions about Jesus are really questions of the will. Those who come to Scripture ready to obey find that God makes his truth plain to them.
- Seeking God’s glory, not our own
Jesus’ test for a true teacher applies to every servant of God. “Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
- Honest about our own failures
It is easy to defend God’s law loudly while breaking it quietly. Jesus’ question calls us to examine our own lives before we condemn others.
Cross-References:
John 12:49: "For I spoke not from myself, but the Father who sent me, he gave me a commandment," The Father is the source of Jesus’ words.
John 7:15: "How does this man know letters, having never been educated?" The question Jesus answers.
Romans 12:2: "so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God." A renewed mind recognises God’s will.
Exodus 20:13: "You shall not murder." The law broken by those plotting against Jesus.
Conclusion: Jesus told the astonished crowd that his teaching came from the Father who sent him, and that anyone willing to do God’s will would recognise it. He showed that he sought only his Father’s glory, and exposed those who boasted in Moses’ law while planning murder. The crowd dismissed him as mad, but he spoke the truth. The passage invites us to come to Jesus’ words with a willing heart and to seek God’s glory rather than our own.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible