Practical Observations.

1. This discourse embodies Christ's teaching concerning himself in the following points: (1) He is the light, the moral and spiritual illuminator of the world; (2) He is superhuman in his origin (verse 23); (3) The manifestation of the Father (verse 29); (4) The freer of those who obey his words (verses 31–36); (5) Sinless (verse 46); (6) The life-giver to those who obey him (verse 51); (7) The great I AM (verse 58).—Barnes.

2. To become his disciples we must abide in his words. We must not only receive them, but obey them and continue to live in them. No one is his disciple who continues in disobedience.

3. To secure life we must keep his words. There is no promise to any but those who seek to do his will. To those who make it their meat to do his will, the death of the body is only the opening of the portals of the eternal home.

4. There are two households, two armies, two churches; one of Satan, and the other of God. He who does the will of Satan is of the first; he who does God's will as revealed by Christ, is of the second. It is easy for each one to determine where he belongs.

5. All true Christians are brothers and sisters of Christ, and heirs with him of God his father. His riches are their riches; his joys, their joys; his character, their character; his home, their home.

6. I AM.—The word “I am” in Hebrew is equivalent in meaning to Jehovah, and differs from it very slightly in form. This is much obscured by our substitution of Lord for Jehovah. The name, which Moses was thus commissioned to use, was at once new and old: old in its connection with previous revelations; new in its full interpretation and in its bearing upon the covenant of which Moses was the destined mediator.—Cook. And here we cannot but be reminded 148of the remarkable words of our Savior (John 8:58), “Before Abraham was, I am.” The expression is so strikingly parallel that we know not how to resist the conclusion that there was a real, though mysterious identity in the essential nature of the two speakers; so that whatever was meant by Jehovah in saying to Moses, “I am hath sent me to you,” the same was meant by the saying of Jesus, “Before Abraham was, I am.”—Bush.148