John 7:18

18. Proof almost in the form of a syllogism that He does not speak of Himself. It applies to Christ alone. Human teachers who seek God’s glory are not thereby secured from erroneous teaching. These verses (16–18) remind us, and might remind some of His hearers, of an earlier discourse delivered in Jerusalem some seven months before: comp. John 5:19; John 5:30; John 5:37; John 5:44.

οὗτος�. Emphatic retrospective pronoun; see on John 3:32. Any one who speaks from himself seeks his own glory: but an ambassador who speaks from himself is not only vain-glorious but false; he claims his master’s message as his own. The ambassador who seeks his master’s glory is true.

ἀδικία. Unrighteousness is not in him. S. John does not say ‘falsehood’ as we might expect, but uses a wider word which points out the moral root of the falsehood. Comp. John 8:46. Throughout S. John’s writings the connexion between truth and righteousness, falsehood and unrighteousness, is often brought before us. Hence his peculiar phrases ‘to do the truth’ (1 John 1:6), ‘to do a lie’ (Revelation 21:27; Revelation 22:15).

There is no need to suppose that anything is omitted between 18 and 19, though the transition is abrupt. Christ has answered them and now takes the offensive. He exposes the real meaning of their cavillings; they seek His life.