Wallace Benn has given us a warm commentary on John 13-17, Jesus’ teaching to his disciples in the Upper Room on the night of his betrayal. Benn takes us through the teaching of Christ, section by section, dwelling on one or two aspects – such as the work of the Holy Spirit – to broaden the teaching beyond the actual content of the Saviour’s discourse which is under consideration. It’s a careful and thoughtful exposition of the passage and he brings out some, for me at least, original insights which I appreciated. If you’ve never really studied this important part of John’s Gospel, this would provide a good introduction and may leave you wanting to delve deeper, which would be no bad thing.
I sense the book is the literary version of a series of sermons, and occasionally they would be better heard than read, to be honest. There are at least two illustrations which are repeated in the book, something that is perhaps more obvious in the book than in the sermon, but that aside I would warmly commend this little, easy to read, devotional commentary.
For the purpose of review, I received a complimentary copy of the book from the Publishers. I was under no obligation to write a positive review.
Christian Focus; Revised edition (20 Jan. 2012) Review written in 2012