Section 121--Part IV, Show Us the Father (John 14:7-11)

"If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” 

"Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”  John 14:7-8

TSK cross reference picks up on all the nuances of "show"--the idea of God displaying his glory to Moses, that of us seeking His face, in Revelation, the reiteration of seeing him face-to-face, the idea of seeing only in a glass darkly now (1 Corinthians).  The desire for us to be with God without barrier, fully known and fully knowing, is a cavernous universal need. The Pulpit Commentary concludes that "To see and know the Father, to have irresistible evidence that the Eternal Power is one who has begotten us from himself, and both knows and loves us, is the highest and most sacred yearning of the human heart. The desire is implanted by God himself."

What was Philip after here?  Jesus told Thomas that "from now on" they do know God and have seen God.

"The yearning of the heart of man was truly set forth by Philip in his request to see the Father; but never before had it dawned upon human intelligence that the divine can find its supreme revelation in the simplicities and commonplaces of human existence." -Meyer

"The answer of Jesus tenderly rebukes Philip. The excellency of God is not physical, but spiritual. Righteousness, truth, love, holiness, etc. are all spiritual. A physical revelation of God, if such a [661] thing had been practicable or even possible, would have been of little or no benefit to the apostles. All the physical demonstrations at Mt. Sinai did not prevent the manufacture and worship of the golden calf." -Fourfold Gospel

"'How sayest thou?' reveals that sense of failure which Christ experienced when he sought to realize in the poor material of our human nature his own ideal." -Pulpit

"It is easy to observe it in the conversation of Christians, how soon a discourse of what is plain and edifying is dropped, and no more is said of it; the subject is exhausted; while matter of doubtful disputation runs into an endless strife of words." -M. Henry

"And the Father abiding in me, doeth his works. These works of mine are all signs of my relation to the Father. They are indications to Philip of the nature, and quality, and character, and feeling towards him of the Father himself." -Pulpit

"Surely this passage is the true justification of prayer to Christ himself, as identically one with the Father." -Pulpit

"Christ tells his disciples that they were not so ignorant as they seemed to be; for, though little children, yet they had known the Father, 1Jn_2:13. Note, Many of the disciples of Christ have more knowledge and more grace than they think they have, and Christ takes notice of, and is well pleased with, that good in them which they themselves are not aware of; for those that know God do not all at once know that they know him, 1Jn_2:3." M Henry