Friday, December 18

³¹When Judas had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. ³²If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him right away. ³³Children, I am still with you for a little while. You will look for me, and just as I said to the Jewish religious leaders, ‘Where I am going you cannot come,’ now I tell you the same.

³⁴“I give you a new commandment—to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. ³⁵Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples—if you have love for one another.”

³⁶Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow later.” ³⁷Peter said to him, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you!” ³⁸Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? I tell you the solemn truth, the rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times!

¹“Do not let your hearts be distressed. You believe in God; believe also in me. ²There are many dwelling places in my Father’s house. Otherwise, I would have told you, because I am going away to make ready a place for you. ³And if I go and make ready a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that where I am you may be too. ⁴And you know the way where I am going.”

⁵Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?” ⁶Jesus replied, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷If you have known me, you will know my Father too. And from now on you do know him and have seen him.”

⁸Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be content.” ⁹Jesus replied, “Have I been with you for so long and yet you have not known me, Philip? The person who has seen me has seen the Father! How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father residing in me performs his miraculous deeds. ¹¹Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, but if you do not believe me, believe because of the miraculous deeds themselves. ¹²I tell you the solemn truth, the person who believes in me will perform the miraculous deeds that I am doing, and will perform greater deeds than these because I am going to the Father. ¹³And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

¹⁵“If you love me, you will obey my commandments. ¹⁶Then I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever— ¹⁷the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept because it does not see him or know him. But you know him because he resides with you and will be in you.

¹⁸“I will not abandon you as orphans, I will come to you. ¹⁹In a little while the world will not see me any longer, but you will see me; because I live, you will live too. ²⁰You will know at that time that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you. ²¹The person who has my commandments and obeys them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.”

²²“Lord,” Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “what has happened that you are going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” ²³Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him. ²⁴The person who does not love me does not obey my words. And the word you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.