Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of John
Chapter 5: Rise, Take Up Your Bed
By a pool called Bethesda lies a man who has been an invalid for thirty-eight years, waiting for a healing that never comes. Jesus asks a strange question, do you want to be made well?, then speaks the word that raises him: rise, take up your bed and walk. Because it happened on the Sabbath, the healing sparks a confrontation, and Jesus reveals His unity with the Father and His authority to give life and to judge. John 5 shows the life-giving power of Christ and points to the Scriptures that testify of Him.
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of John chapter 5. For each section you will find the KJV text, word studies that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. Jesus heals on the Sabbath and unfolds His authority to give life. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
Setting the Stage
Bethesda
At the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem lay a multitude of sick people. Among them was a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years, whom Jesus singled out to heal.
Whole at His Word
Jesus heals the man with a word, "Rise, take up your bed and walk," and the man is immediately made whole, on the Sabbath, sparking controversy.
The Son Gives Life
Confronted for healing on the Sabbath, Jesus reveals His unity with the Father, His authority to give life and to judge, and the witnesses that testify to Him.
Life in the Son
Jesus does not merely heal a body; He gives everlasting life to those who hear His word and believe. The Scriptures themselves testify of Him.
Rise, Take Up Your Bed (John 5:8-9)
Jesus heals a man whose need had outlasted all his hope.
Immediately He Was Made Well
"After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath. The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk. Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk? And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place. Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole. And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day. But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him."
Greek Study
When Jesus defends healing on the Sabbath -- "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" -- the Jews understand Him exactly: He "said... that God was his Father, making himself equal with God" (ison to theo). Everyone knew that life did not pause on the sabbath -- children were still born and men still died -- so God plainly never ceased His work of upholding the world and giving life, sabbath or no. By claiming that same unbroken divine working, Jesus claims to do what only God does. His hearers were not confused; they grasped that He was asserting full equality with God -- and sought to kill Him for it.
Explanation
At the pool of Bethesda Jesus heals a man crippled thirty-eight years with a word -- "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk" -- and does it on the Sabbath, deliberately provoking the question of His authority. His defense is not to soften the claim but to raise it: as the Father continually works to sustain and give life, so does the Son. The whole discourse that follows unfolds this: the Son does nothing of Himself but only what He sees the Father do, because the Father and the Son act as one. To attack the Son's Sabbath work is to fail to see that God Himself is working through the Man before them.
Gospel Focus
The man had been sick thirty-eight years, and Jesus asked him, "Wilt thou be made whole?" (verse 6). The question exposes the heart; some grow so used to their condition that they no longer truly want deliverance. When the man voiced his helplessness, Jesus did not send him to the pool but spoke the word: "Rise, take up your bed and walk." And "immediately the man was made well." No struggle, no waiting for the water; the word of Christ accomplished in an instant what thirty-eight years could not. This is the power of the Lord's word: it creates the ability to obey the command it gives. Jesus told a man who could not walk to rise and walk, and in obeying he found himself healed. When Christ commands, His word carries the power to fulfill it. Do you want to be made well? Rise at His word.
The chapter does not stop at the miracle. When the Jews sought to slay Him because He "said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God" (verse 18), Jesus did not deny the charge; He pressed it further, declaring "That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father" (verse 23), and warning that "he that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him." No mere man, no angel, no lesser being may claim the honour due to God alone. Yet the Son claims exactly that honour. This is possible only because the Son is the one God manifest in flesh; the Jews rightly grasped that He was making Himself equal with God, and He confirmed it rather than softening it. To honour Jesus is to honour God, for in Him the one God has come.
He Has Passed from Death into Life (John 5:24)
Jesus lifts the healing to a greater theme: the gift of everlasting life.
Has Everlasting Life
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth. But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved. He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not."
Greek Study
"He that heareth my word... is passed from death unto life" -- the verb metabebeken is perfect tense: a completed crossing with abiding result, a decisive migration from the realm of death into life. Eternal life is not only future; the believer "hath" (present) it now and "shall not come into condemnation." John stacks present-tense possession against future judgment to show that faith settles the verdict in advance. The one who hears and believes has already crossed the frontier that the resurrection will merely make visible.
Explanation
Jesus makes claims no mere man could make: to hear His word and believe the Father who sent Him is to have everlasting life now and to have already crossed from death to life. He declares that the Father "hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father" -- the Son is to receive the very honor due to God. Then He promises that the dead will hear His voice and live, for He has "life in himself" as the Father does. These are divine prerogatives -- giving life, raising the dead, judging the world -- claimed openly by Jesus and grounded in His oneness with the Father.
Gospel Focus
The healing of a lame man points to a greater work: raising the spiritually dead. Jesus promises that "he who hears My word and believes... has everlasting life," a present possession, "and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life." To hear Christ's word with a believing, obedient heart is to cross over, now, from death to life. This is the authority Jesus claims: the Son gives life just as the Father does (verse 21), for the Father "hath given him authority to execute judgment... because he is the Son of man" (verse 27). The One who raised the man's body has power to raise the dead soul and, one day, the dead body. The greatest miracle in this chapter is not the healing at the pool but the passage from death to life that comes to all who hear and believe. Have you passed from death into life?
The Scriptures Testify (John 5:39-40)
Jesus points the Scripture-searching leaders to the One the Scriptures are about.
They Testify of Me
"Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. I receive not honour from men. But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?"
Greek Study
"Search the scriptures" -- eraunate can be read as command or statement: you diligently search, ransack, examine the Scriptures "for in them ye think ye have eternal life." But the tragedy follows: "they are they which testify of me: and ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." The Scriptures are a witness pointing to Christ, yet the searchers stopped at the signpost and refused the destination. Bible knowledge that does not lead to the living Christ misses the very life it studies.
Explanation
Jesus lists a chain of witnesses to His identity -- John the Baptist, His own works, the Father's voice, and the Scriptures -- and rebukes the leaders for treasuring the Scriptures while refusing the One they proclaim. "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life": the fatal problem is not ignorance but unwillingness. Moses himself, in whom they trusted, "wrote of me," so their unbelief in Christ is really unbelief in Moses. The whole Old Testament is a portrait of Jesus, and to study it without coming to Him is to hold the map and refuse the country.
Gospel Focus
The religious leaders searched the Scriptures diligently, yet missed their whole point. Jesus tells them, "these are they which testify of Me." The Scriptures are not an end in themselves; they point to Christ. It is possible to study the Bible carefully and still miss the Savior it reveals, to have the words and not the life. The leaders had the Scriptures but were "not willing to come to Me that you may have life." Bible knowledge is not the same as coming to Christ; the goal of all Scripture is to lead us to Him. As Jesus later told the disciples on the Emmaus road, all the Scriptures speak of Him (Luke 24:27). Let us read the Bible as it is meant to be read, not to accumulate information, but to come to the living Christ of whom it testifies and find life in Him.
Chapter 5 in Review
John 5 begins with a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years, healed by the word of Jesus at the pool of Bethesda: "Rise, take up your bed and walk." Because it was the Sabbath, the healing sparked opposition, and Jesus responded by revealing His authority: the Son gives life just as the Father does, and He who hears Christ's word and believes has everlasting life and has passed from death into life. Jesus then points His accusers to the very Scriptures they searched, which testify of Him, though they were unwilling to come to Him for life.
For the Apostolic reader, this chapter magnifies the life-giving authority of Christ. His word carries the power to accomplish what it commands, whether raising a lame body or a dead soul. To hear His word and believe is to pass, now, from death into life. And all of Scripture is meant to lead us to Him; we can have the Book yet miss the Savior. The One who healed the man at Bethesda still speaks His life-giving word: rise, believe, and come to Him for life.
- Christ's word carries the power to accomplish what it commands: "Rise... and walk."
- To hear His word and believe is to pass, now, from death into life (John 5:24).
- The Son gives life just as the Father does; His authority is the Father's own.
- All Scripture testifies of Christ; we can have the Book yet miss the Savior (Luke 24:27).
Questions for Reflection
- Jesus asked, "Wilt thou be made whole?" Is there an area where you have grown too comfortable to seek His deliverance?
- Have you "passed from death into life" by hearing Christ's word and believing?
- Do you read the Scriptures to come to Christ, or only to gain knowledge about Him?
References & Sources
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (KJV). Supporting passages are listed so every claim can be verified in its own setting. If anything here does not look right, a verse, a reference, or a wording, please tell us at info@FruitBearers.net. Thank you for helping us keep Bible Learning error free.
- The healing at the pool of Bethesda: John 5:1-9.
- The Son giving life as the Father does: John 5:19-23.
- Hearing, believing, and passing from death to life: John 5:24-29.
- The Scriptures testifying of Christ: John 5:39-40; Luke 24:27, 44.
- The witnesses to Jesus: John 5:31-38.