7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. 8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? 10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. (John 14:7-11 KJV)
William Burkitt’s Commentary
Observe here, 1. What a gross conception the apostles had, and St. Philip in particular, of the divine nature and being, as if God the Father could be seen with mortal eyes. Shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. It is not easy to determine what degrees of ignorance may consist with saving grace; doubtless, as the degrees of revelation and means of knowledge are more or less, so a person’s ignorance is more or less excusable before God.
Observe, 2. How meekly our Saviour reproves their ignorance, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? and then proceeds to instruct them in, and farther acquaint them with, the oneness of himself with the Father, and the personal union of the divine and human nature in himself.
Learn hence, That the Father being invisible in his essence, to know or see him with mortal, bodily eyes is impossible; but he was seen in his Son, who is the express image of the Father, being one in essence with him, and one in operation also: He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father.