Christ's Doctrine of Faith: A Study of "Believing" in John's Gospel (John 7:5)

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The thirty-eighth occurrence of the idea of belief in John’s Gospel is John 7:5. The text reads: “For neither did his brethren believe in him” (KJV). As always, or at least almost always, we will first consider the context of this passage as well as facts about faith in Christ we can learn from the passage.

First, the context. Right after Peter affirms, on behalf of the Twelve, that they believe and are sure that He is the Messiah, the Son of God, Jesus responds by asking them if He has not chosen them and one of them is a devil. The text comments here that He spoke about Judas, the son of Simon, who was the one from the Twelve who would betray Him. Then, afterward, we find Jesus walking in Galilee. The text then informs us why: because the (unbelieving) Jews sought to kill Him, He would not walk in Judea. [1] We are then told that, at this point, the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles is at hand. Jesus’s (blood) brothers therefore tell Him to leave and go into Judea so that His disciples will also see the works He is doing since, when one seeks to be well-known, he does not work in secret. They tell Him to show Himself to the world, and then the text, again acting as commentary on the narrative, informs us why they are telling Him this: because His own brothers did not believe on Him. This is the context of John 7:5!

Second, the facts about faith. First, we learn that saving faith in Christ is not merely believing Christ to be a miracle-worker. [2] Nicodemus and other superficial believers believed Jesus to be that, but they were not born again (John 2:23-3:3). Second, close and personal interaction with Jesus does not necessarily mean that one believes on Him. Think about it: these were His brothers! They shared a family life with the God-Man Himself for who knows how many years and yet they were still blind to His glory (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). Even Judas, who lived with the Lord alongside the other disciples, did not trust in Christ despite all that personal exposure to Him. The third and final thing I’ll bring up is something John Piper proposes in the sermon I referenced. According to him, Jesus’s brothers were among those who desired honor from men rather than (at least, more than) honor from God. And His brothers certainly fall into this category, since John 7:5 plainly states that they do not believe in Him and John 5:44 just as plainly implies that motivation for unbelief is choosing glory from men over glory from God. In fact, it is that point that Piper brings up to show how, despite Jesus’ brothers believing in Him as a miracle-worker and telling Him to perform miracles in public, they are unbelievers (more than that, Piper points out how this demand from the brothers is actually a SIGN of their unbelief, not merely something they do in spite of their unbelief). These are some things we can learn about faith in Christ from John 7:5!

[1] https://biblehub.com/interlinear/john/7-1.htm [2] I get this insight about John 7:5 from this John Piper sermon (not an endorsement of everything John Piper says): https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/he-knew-what-was-in-man