What Does John 12:26 Mean?

(26) **If any man serve me, let him follow me.**—The close connection of John 12:23-25 make it certain that the spiritual law of sacrifice is there applied to the life of our Lord Himself. This verse makes it equally certain that the law is applied to those who follow Him. The point of the whole teaching is missed unless we think of the Greeks as present. They had come as volunteer disciples. Did they know what the discipleship was? Were they prepared to follow Him in self-sacrifice, that through sacrifice they may obtain eternal life? It had been the condition of earlier discipleship. It is laid down for the new disciples, but in the presence of the older ones who in the dark days that have now come were to learn what sacrifice meant. The Greeks needed no less than the Hebrews to learn it; the men of a wider civilisation and more philosophic thought no less than the fishermen of Galilee and the scribes of Jerusalem. All self-seeking, whether in the coarser forms of pleasure and power or in the more refined forms of emotion and thought, is self-loving; all self-sacrifice, whether in the daily round of duty to man or in the devotion of the whole self to God, is self-saving. Self-seeking is always akin to, and ofttimes one with, hatred of others; and hatred is death. Self-sacrifice is akin to, and one with, love to others; and love is life. **And where I am, there shall also my servant be.**—This is an anticipation of the glory of the Son of man for which the hour had already come. (Comp. Note on John 17:24.) **If any man serve me, him will my Father honour.**—The condition is the same as in the first clause of the verse, the difference of that which follows upon the condition again bringing out in the fulness of its meaning the law of life through sacrifice: “If any man serve Me,” { “let him follow Me” . . . } “he that hateth his life in this world” “him will my Father honour” . . . } “shall keep it unto life eternal.” The honour of the servant after his work is done is in the same relation to that work as the glory of the Son of man is to His work. This honour will consist in his being where the Son of man is; and this will be the Father’s gift (John 17:24).