Neville Goddard on John 5:16-18 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read John 5 in context

Scripture Focus

16And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.

17But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.

18Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

John 5:16-18

Biblical Context

Jesus is persecuted for healing on the Sabbath and for saying God is his Father, claiming equality with God; he maintains that both the Father and he are at work.

Neville's Inner Vision

Viewed through the inner-vision of I AM, this scene is not about a historical conflict but a clash of states within consciousness. The crowd labels an act 'work' and calls for separation, yet Jesus answers from the truth of being: the Father is always at work, and so am I—revealing that God and I share the very movement of life. Persecution here is the resistance of an old self that fears being identified with God; Sabbath-keeping stands for a narrow mind that limits action to rules, not to the living presence. To see this in you, notice that you too have a Father at work within your mind, and you too can say, 'I work' as the I AM. When you affirm your unity with the divine source in you, you stop trying to earn favor and begin living from immediate inner knowing. The inner Son is not separate from the Father; they are one act of consciousness, now.

Practice This Now

Close your eyes and sit in quiet awareness. Silently claim, 'I AM, the Father within me, am at work now,' and imagine yourself performing the 'works' you desire in present tense, feeling the unity with God in every act.