Jesus
therefore said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. The world can’t hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it, that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, because my time is not yet fulfilled.”
John 7:6-8
John 7 [1.] After these things, Jesus was walking in Galilee, for he wouldn’t walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him. Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was at hand. His brothers therefore said to him, “Depart from here, and go into Judea, that your disciples also may see your works which you do. For no one does anything in secret, and himself seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, reveal yourself to the world.” For even his brothers didn’t believe in him.
John 7 [6.] Jesus therefore said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. The world can’t hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it, that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, because my time is not yet fulfilled.”
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?”
Meaning:
The Feast of Booths was near, and Jesus’ brothers had urged him to go up to Judea and show his works openly: “If you do these things, reveal yourself to the world.” John adds, “For even his brothers didn’t believe in him” (John 7:5). Here Jesus answers them. He will not let others set the timetable of his mission, and he explains why his situation is so different from theirs.
- “My time has not yet come”
Throughout John’s Gospel Jesus lives by his Father’s timing. At Cana he told his mother, “My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4). Later in this chapter his enemies try to seize him, “but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come” (John 7:30). Only near the end does he say, “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23). That time was his death, resurrection and return to the Father.
Paul describes the same divine timing: “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son” (Galatians 4:4). Jesus would go to Jerusalem to be revealed, but in the way and at the moment his Father had appointed, not as a festival celebrity.
- “But your time is always ready”
His brothers could travel to the feast whenever they liked. They had no mission to complete and no enemies waiting for them. Their lives were not under threat, because they posed no challenge to anyone. Every time was the same to them.
- “The world can’t hate you, but it hates me”
In John’s Gospel “the world” often means humanity organised in opposition to God. The brothers, in their unbelief, still belonged to its way of thinking, so the world had no reason to hate them. Jesus, however, exposed it: “I testify about it, that its works are evil.” Earlier he had said, “This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil” (John 3:19).
This explains the danger in Judea, where “the Jews sought to kill him” (John 7:1-5). Jesus stood in the line of the prophets whose words were unwelcome. Jerusalem was the city that “kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her” (Matthew 23:37).
- “You go up to the feast. I am not yet going up to this feast”
The Feast of Booths was a joyful pilgrimage festival. For seven days families lived in shelters made of branches, so that every generation would know that God “made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 23:42-43).
Jesus sends his brothers ahead, but he does not go with the pilgrim caravan or on their terms. A few days later he goes up “not publicly, but as it were in secret” (John 7:10). His words are not a deception. He refused the public display his brothers wanted, then went privately when the Father’s moment came. (Some ancient manuscripts lack the word “yet” here, but the sense is the same: he would not go as they proposed.)
The Significance of John 7:6-8
- Living by God’s timing
Jesus was never rushed by pressure, even from his own family. Believers also face voices urging them to act now and make themselves known. “For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Patience is not inactivity; it is trusting God’s timing.
- Not seeking the world’s approval
The world does not hate those who agree with it. Following Jesus means accepting that faithful witness will sometimes bring opposition, and refusing to buy acceptance by silence.
- Hope for unbelieving families
The brothers who mocked Jesus later believed. After his resurrection they were praying with the apostles, “along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers” (Acts 1:14). Unbelief in a family need not be the end of the story.
Cross-References:
John 2:4: "My hour has not yet come." Jesus’ life is ruled by his Father’s appointed hour.
John 12:23: "The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified." The hour finally arrives.
Galatians 4:4: "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son," God’s perfect timing in sending his Son.
John 3:19: "the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil." Why the world hated Jesus.
Conclusion: Jesus answered his unbelieving brothers by explaining that his time was set by his Father, while theirs was always ready because the world had no quarrel with them. The world hated him because he testified that its works were evil. He would go to the feast, but not on their terms. The passage teaches us to trust God’s timing, to accept opposition for faithful witness, and to keep hoping for those who do not yet believe.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible