Mid-century illustration of an oil lamp and an open scroll on a table, disciples talking by the sea of Galilee

John 5:20 · World English Bible

John 5:20 Meaning For the Father Has Affection

For the Father has affection for the Son, and shows him all things that he himself does. He will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel.

What does John 5:20 mean?

The bond between the Source and the mind is love, and love hides nothing. The Father shows the Son all that he does, which means the awakened mind is not kept in ignorance or held at a distance but is welcomed fully into what love is and does.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

John 5:20 through 2 lenses

The same verse, read by 2 traditions.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

The bond between the Source and the mind is love, and love hides nothing. The Father shows the Son all that he does, which means the awakened mind is not kept in ignorance or held at a distance but is welcomed fully into what love is and does. There is no secret withheld, no favor to be earned; the whole of creation is simply shown to the one who is ready to look.

And greater works are promised, not as a reward but as a natural unfolding, for a mind that keeps choosing love sees more and more of what love can do. The marvel is not that power is granted but that the mind discovers how much was always meant to be shared with it.

Father: the loving Source that conceals nothing from the mind, but opens all of its own working to be seen and joined. Son: the mind that love holds close and teaches, shown ever more of creation as it keeps choosing to look with love.

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ESOTERIC

Esoteric

The Father and the Son are 2 levels of one being, the deep source of life within and the awakened awareness it raises up out of itself. That source withholds nothing from the consciousness it fathers: every operation running in the hidden depths is opened to the higher self that learns to watch it. The love spoken of is this total showing, the inner life turned toward its own awakened part and concealing no work from it. Greater works are the powers that unfold as awareness matures, capacities of body and mind not yet reached, so that the maturing self meets in wonder the fuller range of what it already carries in seed.

Christian Psychology lens

Live John 5:20 today

  1. Spend five minutes today with no screen and no goal. Let the room, the window, the sound of the street be as interesting as it actually is, with nothing hidden from you.
  2. Ask one person a question you have never asked them, about their childhood, their worries, what they actually wanted. Then stay quiet long enough for the real answer.
  3. In a meeting or a hard conversation, assume there is more being shown to you than you have taken in. Listen as though something is being offered rather than defended.

What has been in plain view all week that I have not let myself see?

The same truth in other traditions

Sufism · Rumi

What you are seeking is already looking for you, and it keeps nothing back. The veil is not over the sun. It is over your eyes.

Upanishads

The truth is not stored somewhere far off, waiting to be won. It is nearer than breath, and to know it is simply to stop looking past it.

Zen

A student asks for the secret teaching. The teacher says, have you eaten? Then wash your bowl. Nothing was withheld, and nothing ever was.

Mid-century illustration of Jesus teaching the crowd on a hillside above the sea

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