3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will receive you to myself; that where I am, you may be there also.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
And if I go away. The conditional term, if, ought to be interpreted as an adverb of time; as if it had been said, "After that I have gone away, I will return to you again." This return must not be understood as referring to the Holy Spirit, as if Christ had manifested to the disciples some new presence of himself by the Spirit. It is unquestionably true, that Christ dwells with us and in us by his Spirit; but here he speaks of the last day of judgment, when he will, at length, come to assemble his followers. And, indeed, if we consider the whole body of the Church, he every day prepares a place for us; whence it follows, that the proper time for our entrance into heaven is not yet come.
And if I go - And when I shall have gone and prepared a place for you - opened the kingdom of an eternal glory for your reception, and for the reception of all that shall die in the faith, I will come again, after my resurrection, and give you the fullest assurances of this state of blessedness; and confirm you in the faith, by my grace and the effusion of my Spirit. Dr. Lightfoot thinks, and with great probability too, that there is an allusion here to Numbers 10:33 : And the ark of the Lord went before them to search out a resting place for them.
(2) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will (c) come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, [there] ye may be also.
(2) Christ did not go away from us with the intent of forsaking us, but rather that he might eventually take us up with him into heaven.
(c) These words are to be understood as being said to the whole Church, and therefore the angels said to the disciples when they were astonished, "Why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This Jesus will so come as you saw him go up", (Acts 1:11). And in all places of the Scripture the full comfort of the Church is considered to be that day when God will be all in all, and is therefore called the day of redemption.
And if I go and prepare a place for you,.... Seeing I am going to prepare, and will prepare a place for you, of the truth of which you may be fully assured:
I will come again; either by death or in person a second time, here on earth:
and receive you unto myself; I will take you up with me to heaven; I will receive you into glory;
that where I am there you may be also: and behold my glory, and be for ever with me, and never part more.
I will come again and receive you unto myself--strictly, at His Personal appearing; but in a secondary and comforting sense, to each individually. Mark again the claim made:--to come again to receive His people to Himself, that where He is there they may be also. He thinks it ought to be enough to be assured that they shall be where He is and in His keeping.
I will come again, and receive you unto myself. The reference is not to Christ's return from the grave, but to a return from heaven, the second coming of the Lord, which is a part of the Christian faith. Compare 1-Thessalonians 4:17; Philippians 1:23.
*More commentary available at chapter level.