John 5:14
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Afterward, Jesus found the man at the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.”
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
findeth him in the temple--saying, perhaps, "I will go into Thy house with burnt offerings, I will pay my vows which my lips have uttered and my mouth hath spoken when I was in trouble" (Psa 66:13-14). Jesus, there Himself for His own ends, "findeth him there"--not all accidentally, be assured. sin no more, &c.--a glimpse this of the reckless life he had probably led before his thirty-eight years' infirmity had come upon him, and which not improbably had brought on, in the just judgment of God, his chronic complaint. Fearful illustration this of "the severity of God," but glorious manifestation of our Lord's insight into "what was in man."
Open source ↗We have in the gospels a faithful record of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, Act 1:1. These two are interwoven, because what he taught explained what he did, and what he did confirmed what he taught. Accordingly, we have in this chapter a miracle and a sermon. I. The miracle was the cure of an impotent man that had been diseased thirty-eight years, with the circumstances of that cure (v. 1-16). II. The sermon was Christ's vindication of himself before the sanhedrim, when he was prosecuted as a criminal for healing the man on the sabbath day, in which, 1. He asserts his authority as Messiah, and Mediator between God and man (Joh 5:17-29). 2. He proves it by the testimony of his Father, of John Baptist, of his miracles, and of the scriptures of the Old Testament, and condemns the Jews for their unbelief (v. 30-47).
Open source ↗5:14 stop sinning: Though the man had been healed physically, he still needed to learn obedience to the Lord. The man’s next action (5:15) might indicate that he didn’t listen.
Open source ↗Cross-references
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“No one, Lord,” she answered. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Now go and sin no more.”
The LORD disciplined me severely, but He has not given me over to death.
But as soon as they had rest, they again did evil in Your sight. So You abandoned them to the hands of their enemies, who had dominion over them. When they cried out to You again, You heard from heaven, and You delivered them many times in Your compassion.
Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and dwell there; and the final plight of that man is worse than the first. So will it be with this wicked generation.”
The LORD will save me; we will play songs on stringed instruments all the days of our lives in the house of the LORD.
Then my head will be held high above my enemies around me. At His tabernacle I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the LORD.
When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
But if in spite of all this you do not obey Me, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me,
In the time of his distress, King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the LORD.
One man there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.