John 14:15

Christ not only proposes such things to them as were the matter of their comfort, but here promises to send the Spirit, whose office it should be to be their Comforter, to impress these things upon them.

I. He premises to this a memento of duty (Joh 14:15): If you love me, keep my commandments. Keeping the commandments of Christ is here put for the practice of godliness in general, and for the faithful and diligent discharge of their office as apostles in particular. Now observe, 1. When Christ is comforting them, he bids them keep his commandments; for we must not expect comfort but in the way of duty. The same word (parakaleō) signifies both to exhort and to comfort. 2. When they were in care what they should do, now that their Master was leaving them, and what would become of them now, he bids them keep his commandments, and then nothing could come amiss to them. In difficult times our care concerning the events of the day should be swallowed up in a care concerning the duty of the day. 3. When they were showing their love to Christ by their grieving to think of his departure, and the sorrow which filled their hearts upon the foresight of that, he bids them, if they would show their love to him, do it, not by these weak and feminine passions, but by their conscientious care to perform their trust, and by a universal obedience to his commands; this is better than sacrifice, better than tears. Lovest thou me? Feed my lambs. 4. When Christ has given them precious promises, of the answer of their prayers and the coming of the Comforter, he lays down this as a limitation of the promises, "Provided you keep my commandments, from a principle of love to me." Christ will not be an advocate for any but those that will be ruled and advised by him as their counsel. Follow the conduct of the Spirit, and you shall have the comfort of the Spirit.

II. He promises this great and unspeakable blessing to them, Joh 14:16, Joh 14:17.

1. It is promised that they shall have another comforter. This is the great New Testament promise (Act 1:4), as that of the Messiah was of the Old Testament; a promise adapted to the present distress of the disciples, who were in sorrow, and needed a comforter. Observe here,

(1.) The blessing promised: allon paraklēton. The word is used only here in these discourses of Christ's, and Jo1 2:1, where we translate it an advocate. The Rhemists, and Dr. Hammond, are for retaining the Greek word Paraclete; we read, Act 9:31, of the paraklēsis tou hagiou pneumatos, the comfort of the Holy Ghost, including his whole office as a paraclete. [1.] You shall have another advocate. The office of the Spirit was to be Christ's advocate with them and others, to plead his cause, and take care of his concerns, on earth; to be vicarius Christi - Christ's Vicar, as one of the ancients call him; and to be their advocate with their opposers. When Christ was with them he spoke for them as there was occasion; but now that he is leaving them they shall not be run down, the Spirit of the Father shall speak in them, Mat 10:19, Mat 10:20. And the cause cannot miscarry that is pleaded by such an advocate. [2.] You shall have another master or teacher, another exhorter. While they had Christ with them he excited and exhorted them to their duty; but now that he is going he leaves one with them that shall do this as effectually, though silently. Jansenius thinks the most proper word to render it by is a patron, one that shall both instruct and protect you. [3.] Another comforter. Christ was expected as the consolation of Israel. One of the names of the Messiah among the Jews was Menahem - the Comforter. The Targum calls the days of the Messiah the years of consolation. Christ comforted his disciples when he was with them, and now that he was leaving them in their greatest need he promises them another.

(2.) The giver of this blessing: The Father shall give him, my Father and your Father; it includes both. The same that gave the Son to be our Saviour will give his Spirit to be our comforter, pursuant to the same design. The Son is said to send the Comforter (Joh 15:26), but the Father is the prime agent.

(3.) How this blessing is procured - by the intercession of the Lord Jesus: I will pray the Father. He said (Joh 14:14) I will do it; here he saith, I will pray for it, to show not only that he is both God and man, but that he is both king and priest. As priest he is ordained for men to make intercession, as king he is authorized by the Father to execute judgment. When Christ saith, I will pray the Father, it does not suppose that the Father is unwilling, or must be importuned to it, but only that the gift of the Spirit is a fruit of Christ's mediation, purchased by his merit, and taken out by his intercession.

(4.) The continuance of this blessing: That he may abide with you for ever. That is, [1.] "With you, as long as you live. You shall never know the want of a comforter, nor lament his departure, as you are now lamenting mine." Note, It should support us under the loss of those comforts which were designed us for a time that there are everlasting consolations provided for us. It was not expedient that Christ should be with them for ever, for they who were designed for public service, must not always live a college-life; they must disperse, and therefore a comforter that would be with them all, in all places alike, wheresoever dispersed and howsoever distressed, was alone fit to be with them for ever. [2.] "With your successors, when you are gone, to the end of time; your successors in Christianity, in the ministry." [3.] If we take for ever in its utmost extent, the promise will be accomplished in those consolations of God which will be the eternal joy of all the saints, pleasures for ever.

2. This comforter is the Spirit of truth, whom you know, Joh 14:16, Joh 14:17. They might think it impossible to have a comforter equivalent to him who is the Son of God: "Yea," saith Christ, "you shall have the Spirit of God, who is equal in power and glory with the Son."

(1.) The comforter promised is the Spirit, one who should do his work in a spiritual way and manner, inwardly and invisibly, by working on men's spirits.

(2.) "He is the Spirit of truth." He will be true to you, and to his undertaking for you, which he will perform to the utmost. He will teach you the truth, will enlighten your minds with the knowledge of it, will strengthen and confirm your belief of it, and will increase your love to it. The Gentiles by their idolatries, and the Jews by their traditions, were led into gross errors and mistakes; but the Spirit of truth shall not only lead you into all truth, but others by your ministry. Christ is the truth, and he is the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit that he was anointed with.

(3.) He is one whom the world cannot receive; but you know him. Therefore he abideth with you. [1.] The disciples of Christ are here distinguished from the world, for they are chosen and called out of the world that lies in wickedness; they are the children and heirs of another world, not of this. [2.] It is the misery of those that are invincibly devoted to the world that they cannot receive the Spirit of truth. The spirit of the world and of God are spoken of as directly contrary the one to the other (Co1 2:12); for where the spirit of the world has the ascendant, the Spirit of God is excluded. Even the princes of this world, though, as princes, they had advantages of knowledge, yet, as princes of this world, they laboured under invincible prejudices, so that they knew not the things of the Spirit of God, Co1 2:8. [3.] Therefore men cannot receive the Spirit of truth because they see him not, neither know him. The comforts of the Spirit are foolishness to them, as much as ever the cross of Christ was, and the great things of the gospel, like those of the law, are counted as a strange thing. These are judgments far above out of their sight. Speak to the children of this world of the operations of the Spirit, and you are as a barbarian to them. [4.] The best knowledge of the Spirit of truth is that which is got by experience: You know him, for he dwelleth with you. Christ had dwelt with them, and by their acquaintance with him they could not but know the Spirit of truth. They had themselves been endued with the Spirit in some measure. What enabled them to leave all to follow Christ, and to continue with him in his temptations? What enabled them to preach the gospel, and work miracles, but the Spirit dwelling in them? The experiences of the saints are the explications of the promises; paradoxes to others are axioms to them. [5.] Those that have an experimental acquaintance with the Spirit have a comfortable assurance of his continuance: He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you, for the blessed Spirit doth not use to shift his lodging. Those that know him know how to value him, invite him and bid him welcome; and therefore he shall be in them, as the light in the air, as the sap in the tree, as the soul in the body. Their communion with him shall be intimate, and their union with him inseparable. [6.] The gift of the Holy Ghost is a peculiar gift, bestowed upon the disciples of Christ in a distinguishing way - them, and not the world; it is to them hidden manna, and the white stone. No comforts comparable to those which make no show, make no noise. This is the favour God bears to his chosen; it is the heritage of those that fear his name.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Joh 14:15-17. If ye love me — As ye profess to do, keep my commandments — For that will be a surer test and more acceptable expression of your regard for me than all your trouble and concern at parting with me. Keeping Christ’s commandments is evidently here put for the practice of godliness in general, and for the faithful and diligent discharge of their office as apostles in particular. And I will pray the Father — Here we see, that he required a steady obedience to his commands, as the condition on which their prayers would be heard; (see Joh 15:7; 1Jn 3:22;) and assured them, on their complying with that condition, he would send them another comforter, advocate, monitor, encourager, or intercessor, as the word παρακλητος may be properly rendered; another — For Christ himself was one: that he may abide with you for ever —

With you and your followers in faith, unto the end of the world; to supply the want of my bodily presence. Even the Spirit of truth — Who has, reveals, testifies, and defends the truth, and whose office it is to guide my disciples into every branch of divine and sacred truth. Whom the world — Carnal and worldly people, who do not love or fear God; cannot receive — Except in the way of repentance and faith, in which way they will not be persuaded to walk; because it seeth him not — Having no spiritual senses, no internal eye, to discern the nature, necessity, or utility of his influences; nor consequently knoweth him. But ye know him — Namely, in some measure, even now, by his powerful operation in you and by you; for he dwelleth — Greek, μενει, abideth; with you — In part, helping your infirmities, awakening your minds to a sense of the certainty and importance of things spiritual and eternal, and exciting in you sincere and earnest desires to know and do the will of God; and shall be in you — By a much more ample communication, both of his gifts and graces: constituting you the temples of God, and a habitation of his holiness.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Christ’s sending the Comforter to supply his place, Joh_14:15-31.

Jesus now makes his starting point from Joh_14:12, where he had spoken of the great works to be done after his departure. He now introduces to their knowledge the divine Agent by whose power those works should be performed, in and through them and his Church.

15. If… love… keep my commandments—Preparatory to the reception of the Comforter, they were to come into full union with Christ by a love evinced by obedience. Hence this verse is not to be torn from its connection, but is to be viewed as conditional to the promise that follows.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES

Joh_14:15. Keep My commandment.—“Ask in My name. Keep My,” etc. These go together. We can only truly pray in His name when we keep, etc.

Joh_14:16. ἐγὼ ἐρωτήσω.—The pronoun is emphatic. The verb ἐρωτᾶν is that especially used by our Lord in reference to His prayers to the Father (Joh_16:26; Joh_17:9; Joh_15:20). It expresses perhaps a greater degree of nearness and familiarity of approach than αἰτέω, I ask. ἄλλον Παράκλητον, κ.τ.λ. another Comforter.—The classical meaning of the word is certainly advocate. It is used of our Lord Himself in this sense in 1Jn_2:1. “Its passive form by all analogous words will not justify here an active or transitive sense, but means ‘one called to the side of another,’ with the secondary sense of helping, consoling, counselling, or aiding him” (Dr. Reynolds). In this sense it was taken over in its legal, technical sense into Talmudic Hebrew (Watkins). But surely a term like this must be interpreted here in a large sense, and not confined to its strictly technical meaning. When He who is called to be the advocate of God’s people is Christ Himself or the Holy Spirit, His advocacy will have far-reaching consequences, subjective as well as objective. Therefore Bishop Wordsworth (Greek Testament) is justified in his contention that “The word is one of large acceptation. And it was probably chosen for that reason, as best signifying the manifold gifts and offices of the Holy Ghost (1Co_12:3-10), as the Sanctifier, Teacher, Comforter, Exhorter, Remembrancer, Inspirer, Enlightener, Counsellor, Guide, Helper, and Advocate of the Church.”

Joh_14:17. Shall be in you.—Not it in you (ἐν ὑμῖν ἐστί). The meaning is, He abides now, and shall continue to abide. The Spirit of Truth.—In that He prepares the heart to receive the truth (Joh_3:6-8), and then makes known first of all that most important truth, Christ, and the things of Christ. The world cannot receive Him because of the want of this special preparation. “Worldly hearts desire what is visible, and the world does not rise to the love of what is invisible; therefore the world cannot receive Him” (Augustine in Wordsworth’s Greek Testament). Not seen Him, etc.—Neither recognise the external nor the internal manifestations of His power.

Joh_14:18. ὀρφανοὺς.—יתָוֹם fatherless, orphans. He had spoken of them (Joh_13:33) as little children (τεκνία). I return to you … ye see Me.—This refers not only to His appearance in resurrection glory, but to His coming spiritually in sending the Paraclete, and the whole chain of His comings until the parousia, when “every eye shall see Him.”

Joh_14:19. For I live, and ye shall live (ὅτι ἐγὼ ζῶ, καὶ ὑμεῖς ζήσεσθε).—The future here simply points out the effect of Christ conquering death (Joh_11:25-26; also 1Jn_5:11-13).

Joh_14:22. Judas (Lebbæus, Thaddæus: Mat_10:3; Mar_3:18).—Luk_6:16; Act_1:13. Thus carefully distinguished from Judas Iscariot. The question of Judas is founded on the words in Joh_14:21, ἐμφανίσω κ.τ.λ., “I shall manifest Myself unto him.” Judas is surprised. Was not Messiah to manifest His glory to the world?

Joh_14:23. Jesus shows that this manifestation is spiritual; and the condition on which it rests is the prepared heart filled with love to Him. We will come unto Him, etc.—Rev_3:20.

Joh_14:27. Peace, etc.—This reminds us of the common Eastern greeting, שָׁלוֹם לָךְ—שָׁלוֹם לָכִם, Peace be with thee—you.

Joh_14:28. My Father is greater, etc.—In what sense are we to take these words? Surely, after the claim of the prologue (Joh_1:1-4), only in the sense of the voluntary humiliation of the Son—His emptying Himself, taking upon Him the form of a servant, etc. (Php_2:5-8). He subordinated Himself, became obedient unto death for the purposes of redemption. The words would be meaningless unless Jesus claimed to be God. “This has for its presupposition the essential divinity of the Son; for there would be no sense in speaking thus of a mere man” (Luthardt). Ye would rejoice that My humiliation is now well-nigh past, and that I am again to take My full glory, and to carry with Me the body of My humiliation into that glory, the pledge of your final glorification.

Joh_14:30. I will not continue to talk much with you.—The time for teaching was well-nigh past. A more awful duty and passion lay before Him. The prince of this world “was the regular rabbinic title for Satan, whom they regarded as the ruler of the Gentiles” (Watkins). See Eph_2:1-9 for the gospel view. But he is now to be conquered, for he can find nothing in Christ—no sin, no flaw, no weakness, etc.

Joh_14:31. Why then did our Lord submit so far as to die? “Death in Him was not the penalty of sin, but a gift of mercy to us, that He might free us from eternal death” (Augustine in Wordsworth). His action in submitting to the attack of the power of darkness for a time was entirely voluntary, and borne for the sake of men. But this voluntary obedience shows the world His love to the Father, who out of love to a perishing world sent Him to suffer and die. It is all the expression of eternal love. Arise, etc.—They prepared to take their way to the Mount of Olives.

Joh_14:8-21. The request of Philip and the response of Jesus.—Philip, catching at the word ἑωράκατε (seen), misapprehended its meaning, and thought of some theophany, some manifestation of the glory of God. This would suffice them, would remove their anxiety.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Joh_14:15-31

Joh_14:15-17. Love and obedience.—What is the ruling power in the lives of too many professed disciples? What always determines the will and quickens the hand in the way of life? Is it love to Christ? or is it not too often some form of self-love? If it is love to Christ, then it will prove itself to be so by the test Christ here gives—those who love Him will keep His commandments.

I. How reasonable it is for Christians to love Christ.—

1. We love our friends because of some excellency or beauty of character or disposition which they display, or for some reason of gratitude because of what they have done for us. Many have friends whom to know better is to love more, as the character opens out and displays new excellencies and traits—deep springs of affection, beautiful blossoms of simplicity and goodness—the ripe fruit of wisdom and experience, the silent ministries of love.

2. So too the disinterested patriot, the pure, brave, unselfish deliverer of his people, the self-sacrificing pioneer of life, light, liberty, etc., to oppressed and degraded tribes, win the esteem and affection of all good men, who gladly aid them in their noble endeavours.

3. Now how infinitely more should we love the Redeemer when we remember what He is and what He has done! Who can be compared to Him, the “chiefest among ten thousand and altogether lovely”? Where else shall be found such loftiness, beauty, and sweetness of character as in the life on earth of Christ Jesus?

4. Then think of what He has done for His people. Not only has He loaded them with many good and precious gifts, even when they had strayed from Him, but He Himself came to seek and save them, to suffer and die for them. Then remember all He is still doing for them from His heavenly throne, of the gifts He so freely bestows, etc., and then say, Ought not He to be loved with an undying affection?

II. The test of the reality of love to Christ is keeping His commandments.—

1. It may be said that loving Christ and keeping His commandments are co-extensive in their meaning. They should be, and will be perfectly so in the glorified Church. As Augustine has said: “Whoever loves God has in him that spirit which will lead him to keep God’s commandments; and when he obeys these commands he is simply carrying out into action the principle that animates his mind.”

2. Thus also when we consider Christ’s regal position—“He hath made Him to be head over all things to the Church”; His power—“all power is given Him in heaven and earth”; His wisdom—“In Him are hid all the fulness of wisdom and knowledge,”—it is seen to be reasonable and wise that we should keep these commands of His. But apart from this, love to Him will and must lead to a spontaneous observance of them. For it will at once be recognised that these commands, though sometimes apparently hard for flesh and blood to bear, are yet for the soul’s health.

3. Love will give a full and joyful obedience: not like the obedience of a slave to his harsh owner; nor like that of one who serves with “eye service,” and will escape when it is possible; nor like that of one who will be glad to obey in great things, but neglects and despises lesser commands, minor duties. The love of Christ will dominate all; and His rule—Himself—will be the guide of all our life and all its activity. “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” Thus speaks the true disciple.

III. How shall the disciples be fitted for this loving obedience?—

1. Human nature at its best is weak; and however good may be the resolutions which even Christian men and women make, yet how liable are they to fall from them in some onset of temptation! So it was, e.g., with Peter.

2. They need therefore a diviner strength than their own, which can inspire them and on which they can fall back in moments of weakness. So it was with the disciples. Hitherto Jesus had been with His disciples, cheering, strengthening, etc. But now He was to depart to go to the Father. True, they were to realise that He would still be near them to comfort and sustain, but they needed also the actual presence of One who would guide and direct them directly in the place of the ascended Redeemer.

3. Hence this promise of another Comforter. All that Jesus had been would this Paraclete be. And He would lead them in the way of obedience, for He is the Spirit of truth. And the way of Christ’s commandments is simply the way of truth, for Christ is the truth.

4. Nor were they even then without a dim knowledge of the presence of this Comforter, for He was with and in Christ. The world cannot know Him; its spiritual sense is too much dulled and blunted, so that higher and finer influences cannot touch it. But He dwells in blessed influence with believers in the Church, and in each faithful, loving, obedient disciple.

Lessons.—

1. The necessity of ever warmer love to Christ in view of all He is and has done.

2. The evidence of love to Christ should be unmistakable.

3. The need true disciples have of the Comforter to show them more of Christ, so that they may love Him more fervently and obey Him ever more spontaneously.

Joh_14:16-17. The promise of the Paraclete.—Why did not our Lord remain on earth after the conflict was past and the victory won? Why not after His resurrection take His great power and reign, and as a conqueror over sin and death rule with benign influence over our fallen race until all the earth acknowledged His sway? At first glance it might seem as if this had been best. The full reason why it was not so is hid in the mystery of the divine counsels. But one reason which seems probable from man’s point of view may be ventured reverently. God compels no man to believe by external force. Now the kingly glory of Jesus on earth would have been such a force. No room would apparently have been left for faith, or even for free choice, on the part of men. But salvation is not a state that can be produced by external force—human nature is not like some plastic substance that may be moulded by external pressure. Salvation is brought about not against but with the sinner’s will. The guilt of sin is removed by Christ’s death; but the power of sin is subdued by spiritual and moral influences appealing to mind and heart. It is in this way that the Spirit works within man, touches the inner being by His gracious influences, penetrating it with subtle though unseen power, quickening the new spiritual life, strengthening, comforting, guiding, aiding, etc. Jesus had hitherto been the Paraclete of the disciples; but now that He must depart He gives this blessed promise of another Paraclete who would dwell with them for ever.

I. The promised Paraclete is a divine person.—

1. The scriptural testimony to this truth is abundant and clear. From the period when we read of Him as brooding over the waters of the chaotic universe, till the time when in apocalyptic vision He issues with the Bride the invitation to men to take of the water of life (Rev_22:17), He is represented as an intelligent agent.

2. He works in and through the moral and intellectual nature of man, irradiating the darkness of the carnal mind, working conviction in sinners, inspiring with strength to lead a heavenly life. All through the New Testament actions and functions are ascribed to Him that can only be applied to a person, e.g. in this very passage. He is spoken of as “willing,”—“distributing to every man severally as He wills” (1Co_12:11); making intercession (Rom_8:26); selecting agents for work (Act_13:2), etc., etc.

3. Divine actions and attributes which can be ascribed to God only are applied to Him. The Spirit descended in visible form on Christ at baptism, and the Lord offered Himself … through the eternal Spirit (Heb_9:14). These and other references point to the personality of the Holy Spirit. He is not a divine influence merely—a vague, indefinite, impersonal something whose true nature escapes observation.

4. This is the only conception of the nature of the Paraclete that will agree with this promise of Jesus. A spiritual influence could hardly be called a teacher, e.g. who could take of the things of Christ and show them to the disciples. All Scripture and Christ’s words show that the Spirit is a divine person, performing acts God alone can perform, and thus able to speak with divine authority and guide with unerring wisdom. Otherwise our Lord would surely not have said, “The Father shall give you another Paraclete.” etc.

II. The Holy Spirit is the Paraclete of God’s people.—

1. This term (vide Notes, Joh_14:16) is pregnant with meaning. It not only implies the meaning of the term Comforter; it also includes the ideas of helper and advocate. It was, indeed, just an advocate and helper that the apostles needed in going forth to their arduous work—an advocate to be to them “a mouth and wisdom” in presence of their adversaries, and a helper in times of danger and trial. Thus in every way He would be a comforter.

2. To whom was this promise given? To a body of humble men, not infallible in any sense of that word. They were drawn together by a common bond of love to Christ, yet they were so weak that in their Master’s hour of trial they forsook Him, etc. Even after the Resurrection we find them gathering together timorously in secret “for fear of the Jews” (Joh_20:19). How differently they comported themselves after the descent of the Spirit at Pentecost! They preached Christ boldly in face of threatenings, stripes, imprisonment, death (Acts 3; Acts 4; Acts 12, etc.), declaring, when commanded to desist, they must obey God, etc. (Act_5:29). See them as they stand before kings and rulers, speaking “not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth,” etc. (1Co_2:4). Scattered by the sword of persecution, and impelled by the gentle impulses of the Spirit (Act_8:4; Act_10:19, etc.), they went everywhere preaching the gospel. Is it necessary to point to the long roll of martyrs and heroic champions of the truth who have endured and suffered loss since that time in the Lord’s service—the man of substance losing all, and with the slave fleeing into exile, or suffering death for the truth; women, timorous and gentle in ordinary life, snapping asunder ties of affection, enduring untold hardships, standing firm in the hour of final trial to witness for the faith? It was no mere spirit of enthusiasm that inspired them; their hearts were touched with a heavenly affection, their enlightened spiritual vision looked beyond the gloom of the present, their minds and hearts were sustained by the Spirit’s comforting power.

III. Only Christ’s people can receive the Paraclete.—

1. The world cannot receive Him, i.e. men of the world cannot receive Him to dwell intimately with them. Their hearts have no shrine for Him, that they should become temples of the Holy Ghost (1Co_6:10); they are filled with idols, their affections are set on things on the earth. The heart must be prepared for the reception of the Spirit; the unclean spirit must go forth (Mat_12:43) ere the Spirit of Christ can take up His abode there. This is what Christ means when He prefaces this blessed promise with the words, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments,” and follows it with the same truth amplified (Joh_14:21). The Spirit cannot dwell in the heart where there is no love to Christ.

2. But into such prepared hearts the Spirit comes and finds an entrance for the truth. “The Spirit’s teaching … makes divine truth enter the soul, gives it entire reality within us, and makes it the truth to us. This is undoubtedly the meaning of the expression ‘the Spirit of truth’ ” (Godet). He thus casts out all error, showing us plainly the truth in Christ, witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God (Rom_8:16).

3. Thus believers see Him and know Him; they see the manifestations of His working, and realise His presence in their own souls. The world, because of its spiritual blindness, cannot see and know these spiritual facts. The manifestations of His working are to them mere enthusiasm, madness, as men said when Chalmers began to preach with spiritual power; “Come and hear mad Tom Chalmers.”

4. “He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” He had been striving with them, as He does with all men; but now He was to assume a closer, nearer relationship. He was to be in them. At Pentecost a deeper, fuller, richer manifestation of Him was to be given, which would be permanent. He abides with the disciples for ever—a perpetual Paraclete.

IV. The blessedness of this indwelling.—

1. In hours of trial He upholds the fainting heart. As with our Lord, He is with the believer, teaching Him to oppose an “It is written” to the subtlest temptation of the adversary. In the hour of death He sustains the passing soul, recalls the divine promises, gives peace.

2. It is by making men “partakers of the divine nature” (2Pe_1:4) that He becomes our Paraclete, not by temporary accessions of power, but by making men new creatures, giving power to the faint, etc. So that as believers go forth on their way the spiritual eye sees ever more clearly, the spiritual armour sits more closely the more it is “proved,” the sword of the Spirit is wielded with greater power. Trials and cares that would once have weighed the Christian down he is now able to bear; doubts and difficulties clear away; and in the brunt of temptations, before which he would have fallen once, he passes on “invulnerable.” God grant to all of us “to be strengthened,” etc. (Eph_3:16-17; Eph_3:19).

Joh_14:18. “I will not leave you orphans.”—The experience of the disciples as Jesus spoke of His speedy departure was like that which children feel as they stand at the bedside of a dying parent. What had Christ not been to them during their three years’ intercourse? How they had learned to look to Him, to lean on Him, to follow Him! How joyful had been their intercourse! Each new day some further revelation of Christ’s power, wisdom, or love had dawned upon them, until He had become all in all to them. The months and years had fled on swift wings by His side. And now the end drew near, as He told them. Yet a brief space and they would be left alone, orphaned spiritual children in an unsympathetic and hostile world. But to their troubled minds came these words of comfort and promise, “I will not leave you orphans,” etc.

I. The disciples were not orphans, for they could rejoice in the heavenly Father’s care.—

1. All that the Lord had spoken should have filled the disciples with the assurance of the Father’s love and care. In the Father’s house a place was to be prepared for them, and prayer in Jesus’ name would bring down gifts from His full storehouse, in especial one highest gift, the Comforter, to guide and counsel, etc.

2. In view then of this they were not to be left orphans. But more than this, they had in Christ the assurance of the heavenly Father’s love. The sorrow in the lot of the fatherless is the deprivation of a father’s love and care. But the disciples were to lack neither.

II. They were not orphans, because Christ Himself would come to them.—

1. The disciples thought that Jesus was henceforth to be entirely separated from them, that they would not again see Him until death or the time of judgment.

2. But said our Lord, “Ye see Me.” The world could not see Him, for darkness had overtaken the world. The disciples would see Him in His resurrection glory, so that they could greet one another with the words, “The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared,” etc. (Luk_24:34-35).

3. But the presence and care of a loving father and friend may be vividly realised though they are not visibly present. The boy at school and the youth going out into life, children of Christian parents, experience this care. They see it in the gifts provided, in the loving letters; they know it follows in earnest prayer. So was it with the disciples. Thus Pentecost, the after-guidance of the Spirit, the inspiration and help in time of need, the power of doing mighty works in Christ’s name, were all tokens of His presence.

4. More than this, they would be conscious of the possession of that same life which was in Christ, would realise that they were bound up with Him by the indissoluble bond of a common spiritual life. “Because I live,” etc. His presence then was no imagination, no dream of fancy, but a great spiritual reality.

5. And this in turn leads to a clearer realisation of the disciples’ unity and fellowship with the Father in Christ as they go forward in the way of His commandments. And thus more and more Christ is manifested to them in the experiences of the Christian life, until that day when “they shall be like Him, seeing Him as He is.” Those who could appropriate such promises were not orphans.

III. The same promises remain to us.—

1. Only those who by faith live because Christ lives can appropriate these promises. They who cannot are orphans, with no promise of a place in the Father’s house, no hope because no capacity for receiving the Father’s spiritual gifts, no assurance because no desire for the Saviour’s blessed presence.

2. But when in living union with Christ they receive of His Spirit, then the sense of orphanhood passes for ever away, as they attain to the conception of their divine sonship and cry, “Abba, Father” (Gal_4:6).

Joh_14:22-28. The promise of divine manifestation to loving, obedient disciples.—These blessed words of promise were spoken in answer to an inquiry by Judas, not Iscariot, as to how Christ was to manifest Himself to the disciples, and yet not to the world. How could the world see Him no more, whilst they were to see Him? The simple-minded disciple was still wandering among materialities. He was thinking of visible appearances, which indeed, in a limited sense, did take place after the Resurrection. But Judas had no true conception of the spiritual manifestation which Christ more especially referred to. Our Lord proceeded to enlighten the disciple. Not that the latter would even then clearly understand; but when the Spirit was given, Christ’s words would become plain. Jesus pointed out that the prerequisite for this manifestation of Himself is love in the believer’s heart, that love which evidences itself in the keeping of His commandments. To those who thus obey Him He manifests Himself in glorious fashion.

I. In the consciousness of the Father’s love.—

1. What men have desired in all ages has been shelter from the wrath of the Deity, and for the manifestation of His mercy and favour. For these ends they raised their shrines and multiplied their sacrifices, etc.

2. But only in Christ and through fellowship with Him in His atoning work has this even been possible. Here Christ promises a higher blessedness. Through love to Him and being loved by Him disciples are bound by a close tie of affection to the Father, who loves those whom Christ loves.

3. And in this love all fear and terror of God and the future pass away, etc.

II. In the divine indwelling.—

1. With the manifestation of Christ to His disciples will be conjoined the indwelling of the Father and the Son; both will come and make their abode in the loving heart.

2. Think of what this means. How highly favoured do even the rich and noble esteem themselves to be when a great monarch or prince visits them, and sojourns with them perhaps but for a night in passing! How proudly, even in after-centuries, are the rooms where those great ones slept pointed out by the descendants as the king’s, the queen’s, the prince’s, etc., room! But here God the Father, says our Lord, will come with Him, and they will make their abode in the hearts of true disciples.

3. And this indwelling is not that common and universal presence of God, as He who rules over all and is everywhere present; who “comes near in judgment” to those who outrage His laws, and in the stings of an accusing conscience makes His presence felt; who comes to obstinate contemners of His commands, like Pharaoh (Exo_4:21; Exo_8:15), and in this very coming hardens or leads them to harden their hearts.

4. The indwelling of Father and Son here promised is the indwelling of love. To those who listen to and keep Christ’s words, His promise to the Laodicean Church endures (Rev_3:20). And where He comes the Father will come.

III. Christ manifests Himself in the indwelling Comforter.—

1. All the fulness of the Godhead, indeed, is represented in this indwelling. Christ and the Father come and make their abode with the true disciple in the uniting Spirit of truth.

2. When the Spirit comes, sent from the Father in Christ’s name, He will teach all things, etc. The Comforter is the revelation of Christ and the Father. And by His indwelling the divine presence will become ever more manifest. He will bring to remembrance the words of Jesus, so that the heart will be led to love Him more perfectly the more He is known. And in loving Him and keeping His word, His presence will become a blessed reality.

3. The proof of this indwelling will be evident to all around. Taught and guided by the Spirit and words of Jesus, and showing an obedient walk in love toward the brethren, the true disciple will be conspicuous as one who has been with Jesus, one with whom God abides.

IV. The indwelling Christ gives peace.—

1. Not as on Sinai, with sound of trumpet and thunder-roll, nor in the earthquake or the fire, but in still and gentle breathings, a still small voice, the Spirit comes to dwell with Christ’s chosen.

2. And the divine abiding leads to peace. Where Christ comes living and loved, He brings His peace, a peace resulting from restful, undisturbed reliance on the Father. So will it be with those into whose hearts the Lord has come. They rest implicitly on the Father’s will.

3. He gives not as the world, for the world will often take more than it gives. He who takes the world into his heart takes also with it the world’s unrest, its gnawing, carking care, its strife of tongues, its angry passions, its jars and bitter enmities. But those who have opened their hearts to Christ, whose hearts have become temples of the Holy Ghost, shall be at rest, even though the storms beat around them.

4. And they may be fearless; for the citadel is safe with Christ within.

Is God abiding with us?—

1. In order to fit us for this close fellowship Jesus came to earth, died, rose again, and poured forth the Pentecostal gifts on the waiting Church. 2. The Church needs to send up earnest prayer for the continued renewal of these gifts. “Lift up your heads, O ye gates,” etc. (Psalms 24). Let God in all His fulness of blessing come and dwell with and in you, that He may be your God, that you may be His people.

Joh_14:23. Christ and His words.—

I. The connection between Christ and His words.—

1. Christ and His words are both very fully made known to us. This is not always the case with those whose names have gone far and wide among men as teachers of the race.

2. We may have great and noble words from a man, but we may know little of his personality. But in Christ both the personality and the words have been brought out into the clearest and fullest illumination.

3. And with the words God has been pleased to give us the life, as never a life was given, by these four [Gospels], each different, yet each the same, a separate mirror to take in the side presented to it, but all disclosing in lifelike harmony the one grand person, each so absorbed in his theme that he himself is forgotten, his personality lost in the object—all eye, all ear, all heart, for Christ alone.

4. As they are made known to us there is a perfect harmony between Christ and His words. A man should always be more than his expression. This is pre-eminently true of the Lord Jesus Christ.

II. The connection between loving Christ and keeping His words.—

1. The way in which our Lord states this brings before us the central truth of Christian doctrine, viz. that in some way there must be a change of heart before there is a change of life. We must begin to love Christ before we can keep His words. But here comes in a view which admits this, which dwells upon it very strongly and beautifully, and which has done much to bring out the value of the personality of Christ in its bearing on our service. It shows how He creates a new power in the soul, not by His example merely, but by His whole being—not simply by teaching us and moving before us, but by in a manner transfusing Himself into us.

2. The connection between loving Christ and keeping His words brings before us the Christian philosophy of morality. As Christians we believe that the morality of Christianity is superior to any other, in the kind of duties it gives prominence to, and the light in which it presents them; and candid men who profess to stand outside generally admit this. There would be a fatal objection to this if Christ were either less than He is, or if He had done less for man than He has done. There are only three conceivable ways in which morality can be thought of as springing up in man.

(1) The first is by something like an instinct, and that this does exist in man we are far from denying. If it were perfect in all its parts on any such principle, morality by instinct would be morality mechanical.

(2) The second way is by reason; and that reason can do much for morality must also be admitted; but it can never furnish it with sufficient motive power.

(3) The third and last way is an appeal to love, and love going forth to a person. It is this way that Christianity has chosen. It sets before men the person of Jesus Christ, noblest and most beautiful in itself, and infinitely attractive in its self-sacrifice for them. To love Him is an impulse of the heart, and this impulse is the spring of all morality. If, then, we would be partakers of this noble Christian morality, the true way, the only way, is to come closer to the person of Christ as set before us in God’s word, looking on Him and learning to love Him.—Dr. John Ker.

Joh_14:23-31. To what does the Holy Spirit lead believers?—The indwelling of the triune God in the believing and loving soul—the work of the Holy Spirit in those who desire to be Christ’s disciples, Christ’s peace—the conflict of Jesus with the prince of this world, and the certainty of victory in this conflict to which Jesus submitted in loving obedience to the Father,—these are the chief points in the passage.

Introduction.—“In Christ was life” (Joh_1:4); and the high purpose of the whole work of Christ is to impart His life to sin-sick humanity. The manner in which this life comes from God and becomes incarnate is unfolded in the Christmas story; the manner in which it overcomes death is shown in the resurrection festival; and the manner in which, through the Holy Spirit, it flows into our hearts, in the Christian community, and among the nations, is the object of the Pentecostal commemorative festival. Nature reawakened is an image of the stream of life, which surges in every branch and through every twig. The Holy Spirit as a wind of divine life penetrates the hearts of men, rests on them like cloven tongues of fire, and changes the unlearned apostles into eloquent preachers. He divides the multitudes, and leads a great number to believe. In those crowds should we also be included; and may the Holy Ghost come to-day into our hearts to fill them with faith and love. The Holy Spirit leads us to:—

I. Union with God.—

1. He shows forth to us the love of Jesus in God’s word, and thereby stirs us up to answering love, which manifests itself in our keeping the word of Jesus.

2. Thereby the Spirit brings us into a condition with which the Father is well pleased, so that He comes with the Son to rejoice and bless our hearts with the presence of His grace.

II. Comprehension of the words of Jesus.—

1. Although we search and examine the Scriptures, our own reflections lead us to no true understanding of this or that passage. But all at Once, in answer to prayer, the Holy Spirit will bring the meaning of such passages home to our souls with striking clearness. We may read over many sentences of deep meaning again and again; their connection with the whole, however, is not clear to us, until the Holy Spirit makes our glance more keen, so that it penetrates into the deeps of the thought, and is able also to survey the whole. Thus He teaches.

2. He also calls to remembrance. He impresses the words of Jesus not only on the understanding, but on the heart. At the proper moment He brings back to our remembrance those passages which are just fitted for the special conditions in which we find ourselves, and which are the most comforting and salutary in the circumstances. He brings it about that we inwardly experience the truth of the word, so that we may be satisfied with it.

III. The peace of sonship.—

1. Our heart finds no tranquillity either in itself or in the world; it is restless, fearful, despondent.

2. The Holy Spirit awakes in the soul a desire after the peace of Jesus; through repentance, to which He impels our hearts, He prepares us for the reception of this peace. He assures us of forgiveness of sins and our divine sonship. Thereby He stills our unrest and satisfies our hearts, so that we want for no gift, and experience only blessedness.

IV. Victory in tribulation.—

1. We do not see Jesus with the bodily eye, and hence doubts arise in the heart as to whether He is near. But the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus as the exalted one, who is ever near those who love Him till the end of the world.

2. Satan brings tribulation to us, because in our sins he finds a vantage-ground. But the Holy Spirit drives us to Jesus, beneath whose shield the arrows of the wicked one cannot harm us. He presses into our hand the word of God as the sword of the Spirit, with which we can rout the enemy.

3. Oftentimes we obey God’s will reluctantly and dejectedly; but the Holy Spirit shows us God’s leadings in such a glorious light that in all our ways we realise God’s goodness. He then awakes us to a joyful obedience, which we thenceforth show forth in reference to God’s commands and gracious leadings.—J. L. Sommer.

Joh_14:25-26. The Holy Ghost the teacher and Paraclete of believers.—Jesus had to depart, but He promised to send His Spirit in place of His own immediate presence. “I will not leave you orphans,” He had said (Joh_14:18). You shall not be left without a comforter to encounter what lies before you. Ye who have companied with Me through evil and good report, in dangers, toil, and weariness, who have brought Me the burden of your cares, confided to Me your difficulties, turned to Me in all your sorrows till My presence has become indispensable to you—ye shall not want a counsellor, a guide, an advocate. The Paraclete, which is the Holy Ghost, shall come and lead you to higher attainments than those you have yet reached, etc. He shall not only call to remembrance all things which I have spoken unto you, but shall teach you all things, lead you to understand what has been revealed. Therefore have My peace, etc.

I. We shall think especially of that part of the Spirit’s work to which the text refers. He is the teacher of the faithful. He is the divine teacher of the Church. “He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance,” etc. Those to whom the words were first spoken needed such a promise. For nigh three years they had been in the company of Christ, i.e. they had been learning of Him “in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col_2:3). They had had a training such as no university now can give to ministers of the word. And how had they profited by this training? Alas! not as they should or might have done. Had not the Lord after His resurrection to speak of some of them as fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken, etc. (Luk_24:25)? And did they not show on the very eve of His ascension how far they were from fully apprehending His teaching (Act_1:6-8)? But see the same men after the Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit. A mighty change had taken place in them. A flood of light seemed to have been poured on the sacred page and the sayings of Jesus. What was dark and mysterious before was now bright as noonday. Before, the lowly life, shameful cross, etc., had been stumbling-blocks to them. But after Pentecost the true meaning of that humiliation—humbled that men might be exalted—was clearly seen. The cross, instead of being a portent of shame, was seen to be a symbol of Christ’s glory, etc. And the result of this divine teaching was, as Christ foretold, a mouth and wisdom in the day of trial, which all their adversaries could not gainsay, etc. (Luk_21:15).

II. The Spirit still exercises the same enlightening influence in the hearts of believers.—Those not taught of Him, and who therefore cannot “discern” divine truth, see no beauty in the gospel, are not influenced by its promises or threatenings. And although they may admire the Saviour as a great moral teacher, etc., will see no beauty in Him as the Redeemer of men, etc. They do not, cannot understand spiritual religion; its source and manifestations seem to them too vague and uncertain to merit their deepest regard. How different the aspect those things wear to those who have been taught of the Spirit, etc.! Invisible and spiritual things become to them the highest realities. Their lives are thenceforth not governed by the seen and temporal, but by the unseen and eternal. This divine Teacher “makes even the simple wise” by revealing to them the will of Heaven. The simple and unlearned, knowing only the Scriptures, but taught in them by this heavenly Teacher, will be able to confute and confound those who, although wise in their own eyes, are fools in the sight of Heaven. And the possession of this heavenly learning brings with it a spirit of contentment, gladness, peace, such as those wise only in regard to earthly things never possess.

III. One other truth must be simply noted in regard to this aspect of the Holy Spirit’s work: He was to teach and bring to the remembrance of the disciples all things which Jesus had spoken to them. They had not fully understood all Christ’s teaching. Sometimes it seemed to them He spoke in enigmas. But after His resurrection and the descent of the Spirit sayings that had appeared dark and obscure became luminous (Luk_24:8; Joh_2:22; Joh_12:16; Act_11:16). The heavenly Sower had scattered the seeds of divine truth into hearts prepared to receive it; but there was needed the outpouring of the Spirit, with heavenly influence, the dews and rains of grace, to awaken it to life, to cause it to spring forth and bloom into fuller fruitfulness. And a test of any teaching professing to be divine will be its accordance or non-accordance with the great principles of truth revealed in the teaching of Christ and amplified in the apostolic writings. Any Church or religious body that claims that its symbols (doctrinal) and decisions (ecclesiastical) have the same authority as Holy Writ, and should be as binding on the faithful, can only claim such authority for them by showing that they stand the test of the Holy Spirit’s teaching in Scripture. It must be the final court of appeal in matters of faith and doctrine. We are not told that the Spirit was to teach the apostles any new truth. He was to instruct in and call to remembrance what the Master Himself had taught.

IV. This experience of the Holy Spirit’s power as a teacher is not confined to the past.—It is a present reality. It is known in some measure by every one progressing in the narrow way. Not all at once does the full day of the Spirit’s enlightening power illuminate the soul. Here, as in all God’s works, there is a wise progression. The plants of grace are not ephemeral gourds, but palms and cedars. At the beginning of their course believers feel that to know God’s will and to serve Him aright is a task beyond their own powers. They feel the need of the Spirit’s help and teaching. But day by day as they look more earnestly into the divine oracles, and use with diligence the means of grace, what was dark will become light, “the crooked straight, and the rough places plain.”

Joh_14:27. A heavenly legacy.—Peace now reigned undisturbed in the upper chamber. Judas had gone out into the night to do the work for which he had received the wages of iniquity. The withdrawal of his presence removed a feeling of restraint perhaps. The Saviour’s discourse now flowed along a stream of blessing, which not only refreshed and cheered the disciples on that memorable night, but which has brought joy and comfort to many in every age since then. These are words of farewell, but also of hope. In all this history in St. John’s Gospel we cannot fail to notice a calmness and repose which are marvellous, when we think of the circumstances in which these words were uttered. The unutterable agony, the shameful trial, the bitter cross, lay before Jesus. Yet it was not of Himself He thought, but of His disciples. His mind was calm and tranquil Here the Redeemer showed the same lofty repose of spirit that characterised all His life on earth,

I. In unfolding the central thought of this verse, consider first that this gift of peace which Jesus bestows is what all men need, even when they know it not.—These words are not merely words of farewell. Luther says: “They are the parting words of One who is about to bid farewell to His friends, and gives them His good-night and His blessing.” True, the words might also bear this interpretation. The common Hebrew salutation has some resemblance to these words. How often do we meet such words as לֵךְ לְשָׁלזם, “Go in peace”; and also in the closing salutations in letters (1Pe_5:14), and as a greeting to reassure those in fear (Gen_43:23)! And viewed in this light, they are not like the world’s farewell greetings, often insincere, mere words signifying nothing. Not so the words of Jesus; they are heartfelt and real. But this is more than a mere leave-taking. The words themselves show that. “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give unto you.” It is the Lord’s legacy to His disciples, something real which He bestows on them, more precious than gold or jewels. It is what all men have been seeking since the Fall, and have never of themselves found. In their restless striving after satisfaction in pleasure, etc., they were in reality seeking peace, which cannot be found in the possessions of earth. It is sought for in vain apart from God. It may be described as a state of the spiritual nature of man resulting from a right relation between man and God. And this is brought about not by any change on the part of God—He is unchangeable—but by a renewing of man’s nature after the divine image.

II. How is this change brought about?—By God Himself, the author and giver of peace. When the new-created world arose at His command, no jarring element marred the unison of all things. Peace reigned in earth as in heaven. Nor was it God who banished peace from earth. It was sin. Sin came like a flood, covering all things with its noisome waters; and peace, like Noah’s dove, could find no resting-place. And as men sinned they lost peace (Jas_4:1). But God yearned over men in pity and love. He Himself sent the Son of His love to bring peace to men. “He is our peace.” And He was peculiarly fitted to undertake this work; for He is the “Prince of peace” (Isa_9:6). One of the chief blessings of His advent was proclaimed to be “peace on earth.” And it comes to men through His cross (Eph_2:15-16; Rom_5:1). Through faith in Him men become “new creatures,” made anew in the divine image; and thus harmony between the Creator and the creature is again restored. God is the author of peace.

III. The characteristics of this peace.—

1. It is Christ’s own peace.—“My peace.” Contemplate the story of the Redeemer’s life on earth. He was at peace alike when He was praying on the mountain top; or when, awakened from sleep in the sinking fisher-boat, He arose and said, “Peace, be still,” and the storm ceased to rage; when He taught the multitudes by the seashore, or was dragged to the brow of the hill above Nazareth; when He sat with the disciples in the upper chamber, or heard the crowds shout, “Crucify Him,” or prayed for His murderers on the cross. And the key to this characteristic of our Lord’s life on earth is to be found in the dose and intimate communion He had with the Father, and His unreserved submission to the Father’s will. Such communion and submission could exist only when there was complete harmony between the Father and the Son. But He was “one with the Father.” The rule of His life of humiliation was, “not My will, O Father, but Thine be done.” Here again we come in sight of the way of peace. We must, through Christ, enter into the same relation of submissive trust in God. The more we can attain to this spirit, the nearer shall we be to perfect peace.

2. This peace it not dependent on outward circumstances, whatever these may be.—The man of the world is most miserable when circumstances are adverse. Who so miserable when the props that upheld his happiness have fallen? It is not so with the man who has entered into fellowship with God through Jesus Christ. Trouble and sorrow indeed drive him nearer to God, and lead him, like the prophet, to say, “Although the fig tree shall not blossom,” etc. (Habakkuk 3). In the case of true disciples of our Master and Lord, the direst calamities have not been able to shake the firmness of their trust or overturn the foundations of their peace. It is an inner heritage; and no external circumstances, however untoward or unhappy, can deprive them of it or drive them to despair.

3. It is an abiding peace.—This follows from what has been said. It comes from trust in God, not in ourselves; and it is this that makes it abiding and eternal. It is in the eternal Jehovah that the believer’s hope lies. What need he fear who is one with Christ and thus with the Father? As the Rock of Ages stands firm and sure, so believers shall never be moved. In view of this well might the disciples be exhorted to be trustful and courageous! And to disciples now the realisation of this blessed truth should lead to the same steadfastness. “Let not your heart be troubled” when difficulties and trials meet you. Christ knows them all, and the way out of them. Be not over-anxious about the morrow. “God will provide.” “Neither let your heart be afraid.” All that is really opposed to you who are in Christ is opposed to Him; and therefore can even the gates of Hades prevail? Your life in Him should be a joyful service, and its latter end—peace.

Joh_14:29-31. Comfort for trial.—Our Lord knew the weakness of the disciples’ hearts, and what was needed to strengthen their faith, so that they might not utterly fail in trials just before them. He therefore repeated with wider reference what He had already said (Joh_13:19) as to His knowledge of what lay before Him. They were to learn that no blind fate, but a directing Providence, was overruling the events about to happen. Our Lord here showed—

I. His divine prescience.—

1. All through His public ministry He had shown His omniscient prevision regarding the course of events that should group themselves round His person and work, e.g. the action of the traitor, the manner of His death, etc.

2. This would prepare the disciples, in part at least, for what was to happen, and would tend to assure them of the certainty of His promise, “I will not leave you orphans.” Further, by this prediction—

II. Our Lord strengthened the disciples to endure.—

1. He called attention to the fact that the prince of this world was beginning his final onslaught. But He added, “and hath nothing in Me.”

2. The conflict was in reality already over. The will of Christ was one with the Father’s will; and thus in face of the coming foe He arose to meet and vanquish him as He said, “Arise, let us go hence.”

3. Therefore might the disciples realise that with Christ and the Father abiding with them they too would be secure.

III. The same truth remains for our comfort and strength.—

1. One part of what our Lord foretold has come to pass. Shall this not lead to faith that what remains shall likewise be fulfilled? The Father hath put all things under His feet: “He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet.” As He conquered before, so His people believe He will conquer in the end.

3. In later days the Church will again enter into conflict with the prince and forces of evil (2 Thessalonians 2, etc.). But those with whom the Father and Son abide, to whom the Comforter has come with enlightening and guiding power, need not fear. As in the past, the prince of this world shall have no real power over the people of God. With the Captain of salvation within, and the walls of salvation around, there is safety. No device of the enemy, no engine however cunning and strong, no weapon however vaunted, no fiery darts, can avail to move the heart in which God dwells.

HOMILETIC NOTES

Joh_14:23. Keeping Christ’s words.—His words mean all that is commanded and promised in them. Thus one who loves Jesus will not only possess or hear but will keep His words, in remembrance, in faith, in the midst of sorrow.

No fear when God dwells in the heart.—If the emperor could say to the boatman, Fear not, for Cæsar is in the vessel, why should I not say to my soul, Fear not, God is with thee?

The manner of the divine indwelling.—God will not dwell with us merely as a guest in an inn, who comes to-day and goes to-morrow; He will come as the Father of the family into His house, and will never forsake us.

Joh_14:24. The Christian’s love to God shown in his deeds.—It is a fatal self-deception when any one boasts of having love to God, and yet proves the contrary by his deeds (Tit_1:16; 1Jn_2:3-4).

In the offering of obedient service to God three things must be observed.—Obey God willingly (Psa_110:3); obey God all through life (Luk_1:74-75); obey God before all else (Act_5:29).

Figure of a loveless Christian.—A Christian without love is like a painted image; or a corpse wrapped in beautiful garments and covered with flowers; or, after the apostle’s similitude, like sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal (1Co_13:1).

Joh_14:26. He who teaches all things must know all things.—God alone knows all things. For this reason the Holy Spirit is appointed to be Doctor Doctorum; so that those who are set to teach others should first learn of Him.

Joh_14:27. What Christ’s peace comprehends.—It contains this assurance, that God is well pleased with us in Him.

The world’s peace.—The world often speaks peace with the lips, and cherishes discord in the heart; just as Joab spoke quietly with Abner (2Sa_3:27), and immediately stabbed him with the sword. Without peace with God men have no true peace on earth.

A peace-loving heart is a dwelling of the triune Jehovah, for the Father is the God of peace; the Son is the Prince of peace; the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of peace.

Joh_14:29. Experience is a powerful confirmation and assurance of our faith.

Joh_14:30. The prince of this world.—The devil is a prince of this world in conformity with—

1. His vain-glory.

2. His tyrannical rule.

3. The willing subjection of the impious.

4. The heathen idolatries.

Joh_14:31. The Christian’s pilgrimage.—What is the pilgrimage of a true Christian? A continual departing hence, and a continual going to the Father.

Genuine love exceeds words.—Love to God must not be merely an expression of the lips. To love in word only is the way of hypocrites. If we would be more than these, then we must love in deed.

Love perfects obedience.—Without love obedience is slavish, and cannot endure; but a loving obedience is in no way contrary to our freedom—on the contrary, it makes us joyful and blessed.—Translated from a collection by Weigel.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Joh_14:15. The proof of our love to Christ.—Christ promiseth His disciples—that is, such as believe in Him—that He will give them whatsoever they make petition for or desire; yea, if they love Him. For faith without love is dead, and hath no strength. Where there is faith in man, there followeth love. Many of us say, We believe in Christ, and we love Him, yet we keep not His commandments. Such men ought well to note the words that Christ here speaketh, “Whoso loveth Me keepeth My commandments” (Joh_14:15-24). The disciples thought that they loved Christ right because they were sorry for His departing; but Christ teacheth us that love consisteth in the keeping of His commandments. If we will declare our love toward God, it must not be done only with word and tongue, but with keeping of His precepts. “The eyes of the Lord behold the righteous, and His ears consider their prayers.” God will not that we, whom He through His grace hath admitted for His own children, and purified through faith, should go idle. Faith which God giveth us in our hearts standeth not idle; we have for this purpose received it, even to keep His commandments. Now is it His commandment that we deny and mortify ourselves, hate and despise the world, take up our cross upon us and follow Him, stoutly and manfully confessing and acknowledging Him before the wicked world, loving one another as He hath loved us, innocently and godly leading our lives, whereby we may daily receive the more gifts at His hand. For if we keep not His grace that He giveth us, if we do not continually and daily reform ourselves, and with all diligence fashion our lives after His life, it is but right that we lose again what we have received.—Bishop Coverdale.

Joh_14:27. Christian peace and unity.—“How good and pleasant it is,” as David saith, “for brethren” (and so we are all, at least by nature) “to live together in unity.” How that, as Solomon saith, “Better is a dry morsel and quietness therewith, than a house full of sacrifices and strife.” How delicious that conversation is which is accompanied with a mutual confidence, freedom, courtesy, and complacence: how calm the mind, how composed the affections, how serene the countenance, how melodious the voice, how sweet the sleep, how contented the whole life is of him that neither deviseth mischief against others nor suspects any to be contrived against himself; and contrariwise, how ingrateful and loathsome a thing it is to abide in a state of enmity, wrath, dissension; having the thoughts distracted with solicitous care, anxious suspicion, envious regret; the heart boiling with choler, the face overclouded with discontent, the tongue jarring and out of tune, the ears filled with discordant noises of contradiction, clamour, and reproach; the whole frame of body and soul distempered and disturbed with the worst of passions. How much more comfortable it is to walk in smooth and even paths than to wander in rugged ways overgrown with briers, obstructed with rubs, and beset with snares; to sail steadily in a quiet than to be tossed in a tempestuous sea; to behold the lovely face of heaven smiling with a cheerful serenity than to see it frowning with clouds or raging with storms; to hear harmonious consents than dissonant janglings; to see objects correspondent in graceful symmetry than lying disorderly in confused heaps; to be in health, and have the natural humours consent in moderate temper, than (as it happens in diseases) agitated with tumultuous commotions: how all senses and faculties of men unanimously rejoice in these emblems of peace, order, harmony, and proportion; yea, how nature universally delights in a quiet stability or undisturbed progress of motion; the beauty, strength, and vigour of everything requires a concurrence of force, co-operation, and contribution of help; all things thrive and flourish by communicating reciprocal aid, and the world consists by a friendly conspiracy of its parts; and especially that political society of men chiefly aims at peace as its end, depends on it as its cause, relies on it as its support. How much a peaceful state resembles heaven, into which neither “complaint, pain, nor clamour” (as it is in the Apocalypse) do ever enter, but blessed souls converse together in perfect love and in perpetual concord; and how a condition of enmity represents the state of hell.… How like a paradise the world would be, flourishing in joy and rest, if men would cheerfully conspire in affection and helpfully contribute to each other’s content; and how like a savage wilderness now it is, when, like wild beasts, they vex and persecute, worry, and devour each other. How not only philosophy hath placed the supreme pitch of happiness in a calmness of mind and tranquillity of life, void of care and trouble, of irregular passions and perturbations, but that Holy Scripture itself in that one term of “peace” most usually comprehends all joy and content, all felicity and prosperity; so that the heavenly consort of angels, when they agree most highly to bless and to wish the greatest happiness to mankind, could not better express their sense than by saying, “Be peace on earth,” etc.—Isaac Barrow.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

John

LOVE AND OBEDIENCE

Joh 14:15.

As we have seen in former sermons, the keyword of the preceding context is ‘Believe!’ and that word passes now into ‘Love.’ The order here is the order of experience. There is first the believing gaze upon the Christ as He is revealed-the image of the invisible God. That kindles love, and prompts to obedience.

There is another very beautiful and subtle link of connection between these words and the preceding. Our Lord has just been saying, ‘Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do.’ Is the parallel wholly accidental or fanciful between the Lord who does as the servant asks and the servant who is to do as the Lord commands? On both sides there is love delighting to be set in motion by a message from the other side. On the one part there is love supreme which commands and delights to be asked, on the other part there is love dependent, which asks and delights to be commanded; and though the gulf between the two is great, and the difference between Christ’s law and our petitions is infinite, yet there is an analogy.

I pause on these words, though they are introduced here only as the basis of the great promise which follows, because they open out into such wide fields. They contain the all-sufficient law of Christian conduct. They contain the one motive adequate to bring that law into realisation. They disclose the very roots of Christian morality, and part of the secret of Christ’s unique power and influence amongst men. They come with a message of encouragement to all souls despairing of being able to do that which they would, and of freedom to all men burdened with a crowd of minute and external regulations. ‘If ye love Me, keep My commandments’-there are three points to be dwelt upon here-namely, the all-sufficient ideal or guide of life, the all-powerful motive which Christ brings to bear, and the all-subduing gaze of faith by which that motive is brought into action.

I. We have here the all-sufficient ideal or guide for life.

Jesus Christ is not speaking merely to that little handful of men in the upper chamber, but to all generations and to all lands, to the end of time and round the world. The authoritative tone which He assumes here is very noteworthy. He speaks as Jehovah spoke from Sinai, and quotes the very words of the old law when He speaks of ‘keeping My commandments.’ There are distinctly involved in this quite incidental utterance of Christ’s two startling things-one the assumption of His right to impose His will upon every human being, and the other His assumption that His will contains the all-sufficient directory for human conduct.

What, then, are His commandments? Those which He spoke are plain and simple; and people who wish to pick holes in the greatness of Christ’s work in the world tell us that you can match almost all His precepts up and down amongst moralists and philosophers, and they crow very loud if, scratching amongst Rabbinical dust-heaps, they find something that looks like anything that He once said. Be it so! What does that matter? Christ’s ‘commandments’ are Christ Himself. This is the originality and uniqueness of Christ as a moral Teacher, that He says, not ‘Do this, that, and the other thing,’ but ‘Copy Me.’ ‘Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.’ His commandments are Himself; and the sum of them all is this-a character perfectly self-oblivious, and wholly penetrated and saturated with joyful, filial submission to the Father, and uttermost and entire giving Himself away to His brethren. That is Christ’s commandment which He bids us keep, and His law is to be found in His life.

And then, if that be so, what a change passes on the aspect of law, when we take Christ as being our living embodiment of it! Everything that was hard, repellent, far-off, cold, vanishes. We have no longer ‘tables of stone,’ but ‘fleshy tables of the heart’; and the Law stands before us, a Being to be loved, to be clung to, to be trusted, and whom it is blessedness to know and perfection to resemble. The rails upon which the train travels may be rigid, but they mean safety, and they carry men smoothly into otherwise inaccessible lands. So the life of Jesus Christ brought to us is the firm and plain track along which we are to travel; and all that was difficult and hard in the cold thought of duty becomes changed into the attraction of a living Pattern and Example. This living and breathing and loving commandment is all-sufficient for every detail and complexity of human life. It is so by the confession of believers and of unbelievers, by the joyful confession of the one, and by the frank acknowledgment of many of the others. Listen to one of them. ‘Whatever else may be taken away from us by rational criticism, Christ is still left, a unique Figure, not more unlike all His predecessors than all His followers . . . . Religion cannot be said to have made a bad choice in selecting this Man as the ideal Representative and Guide of humanity; nor even now would it be easy, even for an unbeliever, to find a better translation of the rule of virtue from the abstract into the concrete than to endeavour so to live that Christ would approve our life.’

It is enough for conduct, it is enough for character, it is enough in all perplexities of conflicting duties, that we listen to and obey the voice that says, ‘Keep My commandments.’

II. Now note, secondly, the all-powerful motive.

Probably my text is best understood as the Revised Version understands it, which reads, ‘If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments,’ making it an assurance and not an injunction. Christ speaks with the calm confidence that love to Him will have power enough to sway the life. His utterance here is not the addition of another commandment to the list, but rather the pointing out of how they may all be kept.

The principle that underlies these words, then, is this, that love is the foundation of obedience, and obedience is the sure outcome and result of love. That is true in regard to those lower forms of love, which may teach us something of the operation of the higher. We all know that love which is real, and not simply passion and selfishness with a mask on, delights most chiefly in knowing and conforming to the will of the beloved, and that there is nothing sweeter than to be commanded by the dear voice and to obey for dear love’s sake. And you have only to take that which is the experience of every true heart, in a thousand sweet ways in daily life, and to lift it into the higher region, and to transfer it to the bond that unites us with Jesus Christ, to see that He has invoked no illusory, but an omnipotent power when He has rested the whole force of His transforming and sanctifying energy upon this one principle, ‘If ye love Me, the Lawgiver, ye will keep the commandments of My Law.’

That is exactly what distinguishes and lifts the morality of the Gospel above all other systems. The worst man in the world knows a great deal more of his duty than the best man does. It is not for want of knowledge that men go to the devil, but it is for want of power or will to live their knowledge. And what morality fails to do, with its clearest utterances of human duty, Christ comes and does. The one law is like the useless proclamations posted up in some rebellious district, where there is no army to back them, and the king’s authority from whom they come is flouted. The other law gets itself obeyed. Such is the difference between the powerless morality of the world and the commandment of Jesus Christ. Here is the road plain and straight. What matters that, if there is no force to draw the cart along it? There might as well be no road at all. Here stand all your looms, polished and in perfect order, but there is no steam in the boilers; and so there is no motion, and nothing is woven. What we want is not law, but power, and what the Gospel gives us, and stands alone in giving us, is not merely the knowledge of the will of God, and the clear revelation of what we ought to be, but the power to become it.

Love does that, and love alone. That strong force brought into action in our hearts will drive out from thence all rivals, all false and low things. The true way to cleanse the Augean stables, as the old myth has it, was to turn the river into them. It would have been endless work to wheel out the filth in wheelbarrows loaded by spades: turn the stream in, and it will sweep away all the foulness. When the Ark comes into the Temple, Dagon lies, a mutilated stump, upon the threshold. When Christ comes into my heart, then all the obscene and twilight-loving shapes that lurked there, and defiled it, will vanish like ghosts at cock-crowing before His calm and pure Presence. He, and He alone, entering my heart by the portals of my love, will coerce my evil and stimulate my good. And if I love Him, I shall keep His commandments.

Now, brethren, here is a plain test and a double-barrelled one, which tries both our love and our obedience with a sharp touchstone. ‘If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments.’ That implies, first, that there is no love worth calling so which does not keep the commandment. All the emotional and the mystic, and the so-called higher parts of Christian experience, have to be content to submit to this plain test-do they help us to live as Christ would have us, and that because He would have us? Love to Him that does not keep His commandments is either spurious or dangerously feeble. The true sign of its presence in the heart and the noblest of its operations is not to be found in high-pitched expressions of fervid emotion, nor even in the sacred joys of solitary communion, but in its making us, while in the rough struggle of daily life, and surrounded by trivial tasks, live near Him, and by Him, and for Him, and like Him. If I live so, I love Him; if not, not. Not that I mean to say that in regard to each individual action of a Christian man’s life there must be the conscious presence of reference to the supreme love, but that each individual action of the life ought to come from a character of which that reference to the supreme love is the very formative principle and foundation. The colouring matter put in at the fountain will dye every drop of the stream; and they whose inmost hearts are tinged and tinctured with the sweet love of Jesus Christ, from their hearts will go forth issues of life all coloured and moulded thereby. Test your Christian love by your practical obedience.

And, on the other hand, there is no obedience worth calling so which is not the child of love; and all the multitude of right things which Christians do without that motive are made short work of by that consideration. Obedience which is formal, mechanical, matter-of-course, without the presence in it of a loving submission of the will; obedience which is reluctant, calculated, forced upon us by dread, imitated from others-all that is nothing; and Jesus Christ does not count it as obedience at all. This is a sieve with very small meshes, and there will be a great deal of rubbish left in it after the shaking. ‘If ye love Me, keep My commandments.’ The ‘keeping of My commandments’ which has not ‘love to Me’ underlying it is no keeping at all.

III. And so, lastly, notice the all-subduing gaze.

That is not included in my text, but it is necessary in order to complete the view of the forces to which Jesus Christ here entrusts the hallowing of life and the sanctifying of our nature; and we are led to refer to it by what I have already pointed out; the connection between the ‘love’ of my text and the ‘believe’ of the preceding verses. I can fancy a man saying, ‘Keep His commandments? Woe is me! How am I to keep?’ The answer is ‘Love.’ And I can fancy him saying ‘Love?’ Yes! ‘And how am I to love? I cannot get up love at the word of command, or by any voluntary effort.’ And the answer comes again, ‘Believe!’ Trust Christ, and you will love Him. Love Him and you will do His will. And then the question comes again, ‘Believe what?’ And the answer comes, ‘Believe that He is the Son of God who died for you.’

Nothing else will kindle a man’s love than the faithful contemplation and grasp of Christ in that character and aspect. Only the redeeming Christ affords a reasonable ground for our love to Him. Here is a dead man, dead for nineteen centuries, expecting you and me to have towards Him a vivid personal affection which will influence our conduct and our character. What right has He to expect that? There is only one reasonable ground upon which I may be called to love Jesus Christ, and that is that He died for me, and such a love towards such a Christ is the only thing which will wield power sufficient to guide, to coerce, to restrain, to constrain, and to sustain my weak, wayward, rebellious, and sluggish will. All other emotions of so-called admiration and worship and reverence and affection for Jesus Christ are apt to be tepid; but this one has power and warmth in it.

Here is a unique fact in the history of the world, that not only did He make this astounding claim upon all subsequent generations; but that all subsequent generations have responded to it, and that to-day there are millions of men who love Jesus Christ with a love warm, personal, deep, powerful-the spring of all their goodness and the Lord of their lives. Why do they? For one reason only. Because they believe that He died for them individually, and that He lives an ascended yet ever-present Helper and Lover of their souls.

My brethren, that conviction, and that conviction only, as I venture to affirm, has power to send a glow of love into the heart which will move all the limbs in swift and happy obedience. That conviction, and that conviction alone, will melt the thick-ribbed ice of our spirits and will make it flow down in sweet waters. The love that has looked upon the Cross will be the fulfilling of the law of Him that speaks from the Throne. When our faith has grasped Him, as enduring that cross for us, then our love will be awakened to hear and to do His commandments.

‘We love Him because He first loved us,’ and such love will flower and fruit in obedience. I shall keep His commandments when I love Him. I shall love Him with a love that makes my will plastic and my life a glad service, when by faith I grasp Him as the Incarnate Lord, ‘who loved me and gave Himself for me.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14:15 If you love me: Because Jesus loves the Father, he is obedient to what God directs him to say and do (12:49). If we love him, we will obey him too (14:21, 23; 15:10, 14; see 1 Jn 2:3-4; 5:2).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Joh 14:15. Ἐὰν ἀγαπᾶτέ με, if ye love Me) Immediately after faith, He exhorts them to love [Joh 14:21].

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh_14:15. A new exhortationto keep His commandments in proof of their love to Himin order, Joh_14:14, to attach a new promise thereto. But exhortation and promise are thus necessarily connected, as in Joh_14:11-12 ff. Hence the latter not without the former. Comp. Joh_14:21.

Note the emphatic τὰς ἐμάς: which you have from me; they are not those of the O. T., but the completion of these. Comp. on Joh_13:34.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 14:15-17 . The second encouragement: the promise of another Paraclete .

Joh 14:15 . ἐὰν … τηρήσατε . The fulfilment of the promise He is about to give depends upon their condition of heart and life. This therefore He announces as the preamble to the promise. On their side there would be a constant endeavour to carry out His instructions: on His side κἀγὼ ἐρωτήσω … During His ministry Jesus has said little of the Spirit. Now on the eve of His departure He directs attention to this “alter ego”. He designates Him ἄλλον παράκλητον , implying that Jesus Himself was a Paraclete. See 1Jn 2:1 . παράκλητος is literally advocatus , called to one’s aid, especially in a court of justice. [ Cf. παραστάτης in Arist., Thesm. , 369; Ecclesiastes , 9 .] See especially Hatch, Essays in Bibl. Greek , p. 82, and Westcott’s “Additional Note”. “Comforter” in A.V [88] is used in its original sense of “strengthener” (con, fortis); as in Wiclift’s version of Phi 4:13 , “I may all thingis in him that comfortith me” (see Wright’s Bible Word-Book ). This, Paraclete should remain with them for ever, and He is specifically designated (Joh 14:17 ) τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας , cf. Joh 16:13-14 ; He would enable them to understand the new truths which were battling with their old conceptions, and to readjust their beliefs round a new centre He would explain the departure of Christ, and the principles of the new economy under which they were henceforth to live. This spirit was to be peculiarly theirs, ὃ ὁ κόσμος οὐ δύναται λαβεῖν , the characteristically worldly cannot receive that which can only be apprehended by spiritually prepared persons. It has been proposed to render λαβεῖν , “seize” or “apprehend,” as if a contrast to the world’s apprehension and dismissal of Jesus were intended. But λαμβάνειν τὸ πνεῦμα is regularly used in N.T. to express “receiving the Spirit,” Gal 3:2 ; 1Co 2:12 . The world cannot receive the Spirit ὅτι οὐ θεωρεῖ αὐτὸ , … Outward sense cannot apprehend the invisible Spirit; and the world has no personal experience of His presence and power; but ye, ὑμεῖς , have this experimental knowledge, “because He is even now abiding with you (has already begun His ministry; or, rather, has this for His characteristic that He remains with you, making you the object of His work), and shall be within you”. With the entire statement cf. 1Co 2:8-14 .

[88] Authorised Version.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Vv. 15-24.

1. The meaning of the word παράκλητος has been much discussed. It is evidently founded upon the verb παρακαλεῖν as a verbal adjective, and the fundamental sense of the word is called to one’s side, or aid.That it has, in the classical usage, the special sense of advocate —that is, of a person called to one’s aid in this particular line—is to be admitted. This is also the meaning of the word in 1Jn 2:1. But there is nothing in the word itself which necessarily limits it to this signification. Certainly, the offices of the Spirit as they are set forth in these chapters must be considered in determining the idea of Jesus as He used the word. Bishop Lightfoot, in his essay on the Revision of the English Version of the New Testament, claims that the word advocate answers to these offices. It seems to the writer of this note, on the other hand, that this is the one idea which is not presented in these chapters. Jesus is set forth by John in the first Epistle (Joh 2:1) as the advocate, acting for the believer. But while the relation of the Spirit as a helper, a teacher, even a comforter, is brought out by the different statements of these chapters, that of advocate does not seem to be set forth. The designation, Spirit of truth, Joh 14:16, the words “He shall teach you all things,” Joh 14:26, the statement that He is to bear witness of Christ, Joh 15:26, are descriptive of a teacher, not of a legal advocate. The declaration that He shall convince or convict the world, Joh 16:7, is not of such convincing as specially belongs to an advocate, but the figure is rather of one who is carrying on a discussion with another, and who in the discussion convinces the other of the error of his view and the correctness of his own. Lightfoot claims that Paul has the same idea in Rom 8:16; Rom 8:26; but it would seem that, when the Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God, He is fulfilling another function than that of an advocate; and even when He is spoken of as helping us in our infirmities by making intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, it is questionable whether the idea of advocate includes all that is meant. The Spirit, Jesus says, would teach them, would lead them into the knowledge of the truth, would declare to them things which were to come, would take of the things of Christ and make them known to the disciples, would aid them in their work of bearing witness to the truth, would so take the place which He had Himself filled as to manifest to them His love and the Father’s love, and, in this way, keep them from a state of orphanage, would give them an abiding joy. But all this is the work of a teacher, or a comforter and strengthener. The word Helper belongs to the fundamental meaning of the word, and includes the different ideas which are suggested in the several verses of chs. 14-16. It may be observed, also, that the discourse which Jesus is here giving is one of consolation with reference to His approaching departure from them. The Spirit is to fill for them the place which He had been filling. He was to be ἄλλος παράκλητος . But the place which Jesus had specially filled thus far was that of helping, teaching, comforting, strengthening, rather than that of the advocate.

2. The word ἔρχομαι, in Joh 14:18, from its immediate connection with what is said of the Spirit, as well as from the following context, must be regarded as referring to the coming of Christ to the disciples in and through the coming of the Spirit. There can be but little doubt that this passage, and the verses of the sixteenth chapter, which follow the statements respecting the Spirit (Joh 16:16 ff.), have the same reference, and are to be explained in connection with each other. These passages are inconsistent with the idea of the return for the period of the forty days following the resurrection of Jesus, because of the permanency of His abiding with the disciples which they suggest. They are also inconsistent with the idea of the second coming, because the indications both of ch. 14 and ch. 16 are that Christ is not to be personally with the disciples during the period here alluded to. This latter reason also bears against the reference to the forty days.—The sense of the verb ἔρχομαι in this verse is thus peculiar, differing from any use of the verb which we find elsewhere. As it is contrasted with the idea of orphanage or bereavement, the suggestion of the word seems to be connected with the figure of the departing friend which has been spoken of as lying at the basis of the entire discourse. In this view of the matter, the peculiar use of ἔρχομαι in this verse may serve to show that the explanation suggested with regard to its meaning in Joh 14:3 may be the correct one.

3. The evidence that the μικρόν of Joh 14:19 and the corresponding passage in ch. 16 refer forward to the time of the coming of the Spirit is as follows:—(a) that it is described as a time when the world will not see Christ, and when the disciples alone will behold Him, and they apparently with a spiritual sight, not with the bodily eye (Joh 14:19 b, 20); (b) that the manifestation made to the disciples will be a manifestation of love and an abiding of God and Christ with the disciples, not of the disciples with God and Christ (Joh 14:21-24); (c) that the new sight is connected with the fact of Jesus’ departure to the Father (Joh 16:17); (d) that it is to be a state of permanent joy, as contrasted with what was temporary, like the forty days (Joh 16:20-22); (e) that it is apparently described as a period of communion with the Divine Being through prayer, as distinguished from personal intercourse with Jesus; (f) these evidences are to be considered in connection with the fact that, in both chapters, the whole passage immediately follows the promise of the coming of the Spirit.

Vv. 15-17. “If you love me, keep my commandments. 16. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another support, that he may abide with you eternally, 17. the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not neither knows him;but you know him, because he abides with you; and he shall be in you.”

Here is the supreme gift, because it is the source of all the rest, through the prayers which it inspires in the believer. And first, Joh 14:15, the moral condition necessary to the end that this gift should be granted to man. A preparation is needed: “Love me! Fulfil my will!” Joh 14:17 will justify this moral condition. The commandments of which Jesus speaks are the charges which He has given them while He has been with them, and particularly the instructions which He has given them on this last evening (Joh 13:14-15; Joh 13:34, Joh 14:1). The T. R., with almost all the Mjj., the Itala and the Peschito, reads the imperative τηρήσατε, keep, while B L read τηρήσετε, you will keep. The first is a direct summons to obedience in the name of the love which they have for Him. The second contains a reflection on the necessary relation between the two things. It seems to me that there is no reason to hesitate between these two readings. The second probably arises from the following future: and I will pray.

To the moral condition Jesus adds the objective condition, or the efficient cause of the divine gift, His own intercession. This intercession will have for its object the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The words of Joh 16:26, where it is said: “I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you,” refers to the time which follows after this gift.

The term παράκλητος, literally, called towards, was taken by Origen and Chrysostom in the active sense: comforter παρακλήτωρ (Job 16:2 in the LXX). It was under the influence of the Vulgate that this false sense passed into our French versions. It is acknowledged at the present day that the word παράκλητος, of the passive form, must have a passive sense: he who is called as a sustaining help, as a support; it is precisely the meaning of the Latin term advocatus, and of our word advocate: the defender of the accused before the tribunal. Perhaps the term used by Jesus was Goel, champion, defender. The Greek term has this meaning also in profane Greek, as in Demosthenes, Diogenes Laertius, Philo. John himself gives it this meaning in his first Epistle Joh 2:1, “We have a paraclete (advocate) with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.” The meaning teacher (Theodore of Mopsuestia, Ernesti, Hofmann, Luthardt) has no foundation philologically, and the expression the Spirit of truth(Joh 14:17) is not sufficient to justify it.

What Jesus will ask of the Father on their behalf is, therefore, another supporter, ever within their reach, ever ready to come to their aid, at the first call, in their conflict with the world. From this fundamental signification the following applications easily proceed: support in moments of weakness; counsellor in the difficulties of life; consoler in suffering. Thereby He will do for them what the beloved Master, who was now leaving them, had done during these last years. By saying another, Jesus implicitly gives Himself the title of Paraclete; it is an error, therefore, to find here a difference of idea from that in the first Epistle (Joh 2:1). This gift which the Father will make to them, will come not only at the request of Jesus, but, as He says in Joh 15:26, through His mediation: “The Paraclete whom I will send to you from my Father.” As it is He who asks for Him on our part, so also it is He who sends on God’s part. And He will not come, soon to withdraw Himself, as Jesus does; but His dwelling in them will be eternal. Meyer understands εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα : “even to the coming age.” But the word αἰών, in the N. T. as in the classics (ἐξ αἰῶνος, δἰ αἰῶνος, εἰς αἰῶνα) denotes an indefinite duration, and, with the article, eternity.

The Holy Spirit, a divine being, sent from the Father, to take the place of a mere man—supposing that Jesus were only this—is this conceivable?

The appositional words, the Spirit of truth (Joh 14:17), serve to explain the term Paraclete, which was still obscure to the disciples. This expression can neither signify who is the truth—it is Jesus who is the truth, nor whopossesses the truth,—this would be useless. The teaching of the Spirit is here contrasted with that of the word, as in Joh 16:25. The teaching by means of the word can never give anything more than a confused idea of divine things; however skilfully this means may be used, it can only produce in the soul of the hearer an image of the truth; so Jesus compares it to a parable (Joh 16:25). The teaching of the Spirit, on the contrary, causes the divine truth to enter into the soul; it gives to it a full reality within us by making us have experience of it; it alone makes the word a truth for us.

But, as Jesus has already intimated in Joh 14:15, in order to be fitted to receive this divine teacher, a moral preparation is necessary. The soul in which He comes to dwell must be already withdrawn from the profane sphere. This is the reason why Jesus says: Keep my instructions; and the reason why He here adds: whom the world cannot receive. It was not owing to any arbitrary action that, on the morning of the day of Pentecost, the Spirit descended on one hundred and twenty persons only, and not on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: the former only had undergone the indispensable preparation. Jesus explains wherein this preparation which is wanting in the world consists: it is necessary to have seen and known the Spirit, in order to receive Him. The Spirit identifies Himself too intimately with our personal life to allow the possibility of His being imposed upon us; that He may come to us, He must be desired and called, and for this end we must already have, in some manner, formed acquaintance with Him. But how can this be, if one has not yet received him?

The example of the disciples teaches us. During the years which they had passed in the society of Jesus, His word, His acts, constant emanations of the Spirit, had furnished them the means of beholding this divine agent in His most perfect manifestation and of knowing what was most holy and exalted in Him, and their hearts had rendered homage to the perfection of this inspiration from above which constantly animated their Master. This had not been done by the world, the Jews, who, on hearing Jesus speak, said: “He has a demon,” and who, on seeing His miracles, ascribed them to Beelzebub. They thus remained strangers to the action of the Spirit, they even became hostile to it; this is the reason why they were not in a condition to receive Him. It is impossible for me to understand what meaningWeiss can give to the two verbs: to see and to know, outside of this explanation and without falling into the petitio principii: in order to receive the Spirit, it is necessary to see Him; and in order to see Him, it is necessary to have Him. If a reply is made by saying that these two present tenses: to see and to know, are presents of anticipation, which refer to the time when the disciples will have received the Spirit, the fact is forgotten that the question here is of the moral conditions for receiving Him.

The preparatory action of the Spirit on the disciples is expressed by the words: He dwells with you; and the more intimate relation which He will form with them from the day of Pentecost by the words: “He shall be in you.” We must not, therefore, read either, in the first clause, μενεῖ (in the future), shall dwell, with the Vulgate, nor, in the second, ἐστί, is, with the Vatican and Cambridge MSS. The whole meaning of the sentence lies precisely in the antithesis between the present dwells (comp. μένων, Joh 14:25) and the future shall be. This contrast of time is completed by that of the two limiting words: with you (comp. παῤ ὑμῖν of Joh 14:25) and in you.

To make the last clause: And he shall be in you, depend on the ὅτι, because, which precedes, leads to no reasonable meaning: You know Him now because He will be in you! This last phrase expresses, on the contrary, a new fact, an advance of the highest importance: “And thus, in virtue of the knowledge which you have gained of Him by beholding Him in my person, He will be able to come into you.” This distinction between the preparatory action of the Spirit on man (by means of His historical manifestations in Christ, and then in the Church) and His real dwelling in the individual, is, as it were, at the present day effaced in the consciousness of Christianity, and the confounding of two such different positions involves incalculable consequences.—“Until now Jesus, living with them, had been their support; now they will have the support in their own hearts” (Gess); and this support will be the Holy Spirit, that is to say again, Jesus Himself in another form; it is this last idea so delightful to the hearts of the disciples which the following words, Joh 14:18-23, develop.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He loveth Christ aright, which obeyeth his commandments: and because the same is accompanied with an infinite sort of miseries, although he be absent in body, yet doth he comfort his with the present virtue of the holy Ghost, whom the world despiseth, because it knoweth him not.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, &c.--This connection seems designed to teach that the proper temple for the indwelling Spirit of Jesus is a heart filled with that love to Him which lives actively for Him, and so this was the fitting preparation for the promised gift.

he shall give you another Comforter--a word used only by John; in his Gospel with reference to the Holy Spirit, in his First Epistle (Jo1 2:1), with reference to Christ Himself. Its proper sense is an "advocate," "patron," "helper." In this sense it is plainly meant of Christ (Jo1 2:1), and in this sense it comprehends all the comfort as well as aid of the Spirit's work. The Spirit is here promised as One who would supply Christ's own place in His absence.

that he may abide with you for ever--never go away, as Jesus was going to do in the body.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 15. If ye love me, keep my commandments.] Do not be afflicted at the thought of my being separated from you: the most solid proof ye can give of your attachment to and affection for me is to keep my commandments. This I shall receive as a greater proof of your affection than your tears.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

15. If you love me. The love with which the disciples loved Christ was true and sincere, and yet there was some superstition mixed with it, as is frequently the case with ourselves; for it was very foolish in them to wish to keep him in the world. To correct this fault, he bids them direct their love to another end; and that is, to employ themselves in keeping the commandments which he had given them. This is undoubtedly a useful doctrine, for of those who think that they love Christ, there are very few who honor him as they ought to do; but, on the contrary, after having performed small and trivial services, they give themselves no farther concern. The true love of Christ, on the other hand, is regulated by the observation of his doctrine as the only rule. But we are likewise reminded how sinful our affections are, since even the love which we bear to Christ is not without fault, if it be not directed to a pure obedience.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(15) If ye love me, keep my commandments.—Comp. Notes on Joh_14:17; Joh_13:34; Joh_15:10. The connection here is through the condition “in My name,” which includes willing obedience to His commands. The word “My” is emphatic—“The commandments which ye have received from Me.” Those of this last discourse are perhaps prominent in the thought.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. If ye love me] The connexion with what precedes is again not quite clear. Some would see it in the condition ‘in My name,’ which includes willing obedience to His commands. Perhaps it is rather to be referred to the opening and general drift of the chapter. ‘Let not your heart be troubled at My going away. You will still be Mine, I shall still be yours, and we shall still be caring for one another. I go to prepare a place for you, you remain to continue and surpass My work on earth. And though you can no longer minister to Me in the flesh, you can prove your love for Me even more perfectly by keeping My commandments when I am gone.’ ‘My’ is emphatic; not those of the Law but of the Gospel.

keep] The better reading is ye will keep. Only in these last discourses does Christ speak of His commandments: comp. Joh_14:21, Joh_13:34, Joh_15:10; Joh_15:12. See on Joh_14:27.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If ye love me,.... Not that Christ doubted of the love of his disciples to him; but he argues from it to their observance of his precepts, seeing ye do love me; as all do who are born again, who have had any spiritual sight of him, of his glory, suitableness, and fulness; who believe in him, and have received from him; who have had his love shed abroad in their hearts, having enjoyed communion with him, and know the relation he stands in to them; these love him above all others, and all of him, and that belong to him, unfeignedly, and in the sincerity of their souls, as did the disciples; and since they professed to love, and did love him, as they ought to do, he exhorts them, saying,

keep my commandments: Christ is Lord over his people, as he is the Creator and Redeemer of them, and as he is an head and husband to them, and as such he has a right to issue out his commands, and enjoin a regard unto them; and these are peculiarly "his", as distinct from, though not in opposition to, or to the exclusion of, his Father's commands; such as the new commandment of loving one another, and the ordinances of baptism, and the Lord's supper, which are to be observed and kept as Christ has ordered them, constantly, in faith, and with a view to his glory.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Ver. 15. If ye love me, keep my commandments] No better way to seal up love than by being obedient. "How canst thou love me," said she, "when thy heart is not with me?" Jdg 16:15. Hushai, to show his love to David, set upon that difficult and dangerous service for him, of insinuating into Absalom’s counsels, and defeating them.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If ye love me - Do not show your love by grief at my departure merely; or by profession, but by obedience.

Keep my commandments - This is the only proper evidence of love to Jesus, for mere profession is no proof of love; but that love for him which leads us to do all his will, to love each other, to deny ourselves, to take up our cross, and to follow him through evil report and through good report, is true attachment. The evidence which we have that a child loves its parents is when that child is willing, without hesitation, gainsaying, or complaining, to do all that the parent requires him to do. So the disciples of Christ are required to show that they are attached to him supremely by yielding to all his requirements, and by patiently doing his will in the face of ridicule and opposition, 1Jo 5:2-3.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Instead of afflicting yourselves at our separation, and my going to the Father, you ought, if you truly love me, to testify your affection, by a faithful observance of my commandments. Behold, this is the best proof you can give me of your attachment: better far than any exterior sign of grief and tenderness. (St. John Chrysostom)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Do not show your love to me in mourning, and being troubled for my going from you; but show it by your obedience to what I have commanded you. True love must not evaporate in compliment, but discover itself in a strict observance of the commandments of God.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

If ye love me, keepmy commandments. This great saying is enlarged on in the subsequent section the relation of love to obedience, obedience producing love, and love suggesting obedience and supplying it with motive. Tav , "the commandments which are peculiarly mine", (see Westcott on Joh_15:9) "as either adopted and reuttered by me, or as originating in my new relation to you." "Guard them as a sacred deposit, obey them as the only reasonable response you can make to authoritative command." It is somewhat startling to find the great promise that follows conditioned by loving obedience, seeing that love and obedience in any sinful man, love to Christ itself, are elsewhere made the work of the Holy Spirit. But we here come across that which often perplexes the student, viz. the contrast between the general idea of the constant and continuous work of grace in human hearts, and the special manifestation in personal glory and Divine activity of the Holy Ghost on Pentecost.

Ver. 15. Love, the Christian motive to obedience.

In these simple words our Lord revealed the great principle which was to be the life and salvation of the world. That love to him, in response to his love to them, was to be the motive by which their future conduct was to be inspired and governed; such was the revelation the Divine Jesus made to his most intimate and sympathetic friends. And however indistinctly they might apprehend the importance of this principle, these disciples, by acting upon it themselves and by urging it upon others, were to be the agents in impressing upon the Church that was to be, a doctrine which was to be fruitful in spiritual blessing to the new humanity. For of that humanity the law is obedience, and the motive is love.

I IT IS ASSUMED BY CHRIST THAT OBEDIENCE TO HIMSELF IS ACKNOWLEDGED AS THE LAW OF HIS PEOPLE"S CONDUCT.

1. Obedience had been the very watchword of the older dispensation. The Law was given by Moses. The public and private life of the Israelites was governed by Divine statute. The government of Israel was a theocracy, and Jehovah was an absolute and a righteous Sovereign.

2. The religion which Jesus founded was none the less practical and authoritative. He came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it. He was not only a Savior; he was a Lawgiver and a Lord. His precepts, counsels, and admonitions are binding upon all the subjects of his kingdom. And he is Lord of all.

3. Christ"s commandments are distinguished from others by their spirituality, their moral authority, their universal application. They are fitted for all nations and for every age.

II IT IS ASSUMED BY CHRIST THAT HIS PEOPLE OFTEN FIND IT HARD TO OBEY HIS WILL. It is sometimes difficult for every man to obey. It is very often difficult for the self-confident and willful; and not for them only, but also for the indolent and the frivolous. Boys find it hard to bend their will to a father or a master. Men find it hard to give up their own will, and accept that of another as their law. Yet there are motives which constrain obedience. The soldier or sailor who is impressed into the service may obey the officer from compulsion; the slave may obey the driver from fear of the lash; the well-paid official may obey from a motive of interest; the workman may obey for the sake of daily bread; the miner, the diver, may obey with the prospect of reward; a subject may obey with the hope of favor from his king. Many motives may enable a man to master himself and to bend his will.

III IT IS ASSUMED BY CHRIST THAT HIS PEOPLE CHERISH FERVENT LOVE TO HIMSELF.

1. Our Lord"s character, conduct, and sacrifice are such as may well excite Our love. His perfect goodness, his pity and kindness, his sufferings and death, all appeal, as nothing else can do, to the human heart, and claim its best affection. His love passeth knowledge.

2. As a matter of fact, the love of Christ to mankind does elicit the response he desires. Hard natures are softened, masculine characters are rendered gentle, even rough and naturally unemotional persons are melted by the wonderful power of the cross of Christ. The spirit of Christianity is a spirit of love, and has effected a blessed change in the moral condition of humanity. Without disparaging the sterner virtues, our religion has exalted those which are more tender. Jesus has been, and is, loved as none other in the history of mankind.

IV IT IS ASSERTED BY CHRIST THAT HIS LOVE IS THE ONE GREAT MOTIVE TO OBEDIENCE.

1. Willing and cheerful obedience is the only obedience which is acceptable to our Divine Lord. Earthly governors say nothing concerning the temper in which obedience is rendered; all they ask is compliance with their edicts and laws. Observing the threats and penalties attached to disobedience, we may well conclude that the spirit of the Lawgiver is, "If ye fear me, keep my commandments." It is not so with the Lord Christ. He values the spiritual consent, which expresses itself in outward acts of service.

2. Love is a powerful, because a personal, motive to obey. He who is capable of affection can feel the force of the appeal made by the father, the superior, whom he both reveres and loves. They who deny a personal God sacrifice this motive. They do not believe, as the Christian does, that obedience gives satisfaction and pleasure to the supreme Power of the universe. They simply yield to unconscious and unapproving law.

3. As love is sincere, its expression will be practical. To profess love to Christ, and at the same time to disregard his will and to defy his authority, is hypocrisy. We are exhorted to prove the sincerity of our love.

4. Law and love, as blended in Christ, are the revelation of the highest morality. They are not to be set over against each other, for they are in perfect harmony. It is the highest righteousness to love Christ; it is the purest love to obey him; for his will and his heart are alike Divine.

V THE PRACTICAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THIS PRINCIPLE BY CHRIST"S APOSTLES WAS THE EARNEST OF ITS UNIVERSAL PREVALENCE. The Lord did not rely in vain upon this new motive. It speedily proved its power to work unparalleled marvels. It enabled men to love one another, to labor for the welfare of their fellow-men, to welcome persecution when engaged in the effort to fulfill the commission they had received. And from their time it has been evident that Divine love is in the spiritual universe what gravitation is in the universe of matter. Christ is the central Sun, and the power of love causes every loyal soul to move as in even revolutions around him. And the purposes of Divine wisdom and compassion shall be completed when Christ"s friends shall be his subjects, each one fulfilling his appointed service, yet all in happy harmony with one another because in perfect obedience to him.

APPLICATION. These words of our Lord are a rebuke and an admonition:

1. To those who think they love, but do not obey.

2. To those who think they obey, but do not love.

3. To those who are conscious that they neither obey nor love the Savior. T.

Vers. 15-17. Love and obedience.

Notice

I OBEDIENCE TO CHRIST AS THE NATURAL CONSEQUENCE OF LOVE TO HIM. "If ye love me," etc. Where there is love to Christ, there is scarcely any need of a command to obey him; but it will follow as the stream from the fountain, or light and heat from the sun. Where there is love to Christ:

1. There is a recognition of his Divine authority. Where there is no authority, there is neither right nor power to command. There may be commands, but they are weak and powerless. Love to Christ recognizes his personal and administrative authority his authority over the heart, the will, the intellect, the conscience, and over all the physical and spiritual nature. His kingship is freely owned by love.

2. There is a recognition of a close and essential connection between him and his commandments. The king is in his laws. Christ is really in his commandments; they are expressions of his will; they are his will, spoken or written; they are parts of himself; they are, in fact, he himself acting upon and addressing man"s moral nature.

3. This recognition is ever practical. "If ye love me, ye will keep," etc. Genuine love ever manifests itself in genuine and practical forms. It does not begin and end in mere sentiment, in good wishes, in sighs and tears, but is essentially practical, and practical in the most pleasing way to its object, in the way requested. "Ye will keep," etc. Filial love ever manifests itself in filial obedience.

4. This recognition is most thorough and comprehensive. "Ye will keep my commandments." Not some of them, but all. The obedience is commensurate with the Master"s expressed will. Love is very careful to keep whatsoever is commanded, however apparently small and insignificant. It keeps a sharp look-out whether a command bears the Divine signature and the seal of Divine authority. It seeks not its own way of obedience, but is thoroughly satisfied with the one prescribed by the great Law giver. "What wilt thou have me to do?" is ever the question of love to the Master.

5. This recognition is devotional. "My commandments." They are kept from love to him, from respect for his authority, from sympathy with his nature and character kept because they are the recognized expressions of his will. Some of them are positive, the reasons for which are not stated; but love will obey them simply because they are his, and obey them for his sake. Jesus is now physically absent, but is ever present in his commands. Love to him finds its manifestation in ready and willing obedience to these. Personally he is now above practical hatred or love, but in his expressed will he is still the Object of both. Love is loyal to him behind his back, and ever true to the absent Savior; to it his laws are "more to be desired than gold, and sweeter than honey.

II LOVE TO CHRIST AS THE NECESSARY BASIS OF OBEDIENCE TO HIM. "If ye love me," etc. As obedience is the essential consequence of love, so love is the essential basis of obedience. It is essential:

1. To make obedience real. Obedience which does not proceed from genuine love to Christ has no reality in it; it is not the genuine offspring of the heart, the real act of the soul; it lacks the essential motive and inspiration of all Christian deeds. It is formal, mechanical, legal, and empty.

2. To make obedience easy and delightful. Obedience not arising from love is forced, burdensome, and even painful painful to the man himself and to others. Obedience which springs from fear, selfishness, legality, self-praise, or from mere custom, is insipid and wearisome; while the obedience of love is easy, natural, and pleasant. To such the words of our Lord are full of truth and significance: "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." The least duty, in the absence of love, is really heavy; while the heaviest, with it, is really light. Many have counted it joy to suffer, and even die, for Christ. They rejoiced in chains, and sang in flames. Theirs was the obedience of love, the offering of affection, and the tribute of a willing heart.

3. To make it spiritually and personally valuable. There is no spiritual value in unloving obedience. It may be acceptable with men, and pass as a genuine coin in human markets, but it is a counterfeit in the spiritual and Divine. It may benefit society, but will not spiritually benefit the man himself; and however extensive, minute, and ostentatious its performance may be, it will not score in heaven. It is found wanting in the balance of God, and even in that of the enlightened conscience. "Though I speak with the tongues of men," etc. Love alone can impart spiritual value into obedience, and fill it with life and Divinity.

III LOVING OBEDIENCE TO CHRIST ENSURING THE DIVINEST BLESSINGS. "If ye love me," etc.; "And I will pray the Father," etc. It brings into the soul the richest blessings, and in its interest the mightiest spiritual agencies.

1. The Holy Spirit.

(1) The Holy Spirit as the Fathers Gift to them. "And he shall give," etc. The Spirit is sometimes described as coming of himself, or sent by Christ, but here as the Gift of the Father. All these descriptions are true and highly significant, but not one of them more endearing and attractive than the Spirit as the Father"s Gift to his obedient and loving disciples.

(2) As his Gift to them in consequence of Christs prayer. "I will pray the Father, and he shall give," etc. There is an inseparable connection between the Father"s gifts and the Son"s prayers. When the Son prays the Father gives, and gives because he prays and what he prays for. What an inestimable blessing to the disciples is the intercession of the object of their love!

(3) As his additional Gift to them It is not that the Spirit is given instead of Christ, but is given in addition to him. It is another installment of Divine love. The Father gave the Son, and this, one would think, was as much as even infinite benevolence could afford to give. But this was only the beginning of his munificence. Here is "another," and there will be another and another still.

2. The Holy Spirit in some of his special characteristics.

(1) As a Comforter, an Advocate, or a Helper. It was some of the special functions of the Spirit to comfort, to intercede for and in, and help believers. And these were the special purposes of the precious Gift.

(2) As the Spirit of truth. Its Source and Essence, its very Spirit, and the Revealer of truth to the soul. Christ was "the Truth," its incarnation and outward expression. The Holy Spirit is its inward Revealer, and who can reveal and communicate truth to the Spirit of man as well as the Spirit of Truth himself?

(3) This was specially required by the disciples now, and required by disciples at all times; and one was already sick at the prospect of the Lord"s departure. They would immediately and through life meet with inward and outward troubles, and they required consolation and help. They would, through ignorance and weakness, be exposed to errors and mistakes, and they required inward guidance and light; and these are promised. "He shall give you another Comforter, even the Spirit," etc. There is a most fascinating correspondence between the Father"s Gift and the disciples" need.

3. The Spirit as known to them, but not so to the world. On the part of the world there was a terrible inability to receive him inability arising from spiritual blindness and agnosticism. The world only receives what it can see and handle. It walks by sight and sense, therefore cannot receive the "Spirit of truth." But it was not so with the disciples. The Spirit is promised to them:

(1) As a present Acquaintance. "Ye know him; for he abideth," etc. Not a stranger is introduced to them, but one at least partially known. The Spirit was known to and actually with them in Christ and his teaching. They were prepared to receive him, not as the world.

(2) In his closer fellowship. "And shall be in you." In the Person and life of Christ he was rather without them; but in his special advent he would be within them in the heart, will, conscience, and reason.

(3) In his permanent indwelling. "And shall be in you and with you for ever," as their ever-present Light, Help, and Comfort.

LESSONS.

1. Love is the great law of Christs kingdom. It is established on this. There is no compulsion, no carnal weapons; but he reigns through love, and he is the only King whose subjects, without an exception, love passionately.

2. Loving obedience to him is most spiritually enriching. It insures the richest blessings and the most powerful spiritual agencies; for the prayers of Christ and the gifts of the Father are not made at random, but made to loving and obedient souls.

3. The supreme importance of possessing love to Christ. Where this is present all besides will naturally and inevitably follow. "If ye love me," etc. B.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If ye love me, keep my commandments - Immediately after faith he exhorts to love and good works.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Of Love and Life.

The coming of the Comforter:

v. 15. If ye love Me, keep My commandments.

v. 16. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter that He may abide with you forever,

v. 17. even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him. But ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you.

The prerequisite and condition for the continuance of the loving relationship between Christ and His followers is this, that they show their love toward Him by keeping His commandments. Where there is no faith, there is no love; and where there is no love; there can be no real keeping of the Lord’s commandments. And the greatest commandment is this, that the Christians keep His Word, accept the Word of the Gospel in true faith, and cling to it with all their hearts. But if this condition obtains, then the Lord will pray the Father for a most unusual and wonderful gift for them. This gift is nothing less than another Comforter. Jesus Himself had been a Comforter to the disciples while He was with them. He had been their Friend, their Helper, and their Guide. But now His bodily presence would be removed from them, and they were as badly in need of a Strengthener and Comforter as ever. Jesus had been with them only a short period of time, but the other Comforter would abide with them always, would be the constant source and fountain of strength of all believers at all times. In the great work which is entrusted to the Christians and in the midst of all the trials and temptations of the world, they need someone upon whom they can depend absolutely for aid and comfort. This Comforter is the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, who never misleads nor deceives the disciples of Jesus. The truth which He teaches, wherewith He cheers and sustains the hearts of the believers, is the Gospel and its wonderful content: God in Christ. "Here we learn and note that He is called a Comforter, and that for our sakes. For in His Godhead He is with the Father and the Son in one undivided divine essence; but for us He is called a Comforter, so that this name is nothing less than a revelation of what we should think of the Holy Ghost, namely, that He is a Comforter. But ’Comforter’ no Moses or one that urges the Law is called, who terrifies with devil, death, and hell, but He that makes a sorrowful heart full of laughter and rejoicing toward God and bids thee be of good cheer, as one to whom his sins are forgiven, death strangled, heaven opened, and God Himself smiling upon thee. " This Spirit is the special strength and help of the disciples, by confirming them in the truth and enabling them to win victories through the truth of the Word. This Comforter, whom the believers will welcome so joyfully, the world cannot receive, cannot accept with His gifts. The unbelievers refuse to see and to know the Spirit and His Work. The enmity toward God which is found in their hearts robs them of all sensibility in spiritual, divine matters, 1Co 2:14. If they do make an attempt to fathom the mysteries of God from the standpoint of their enmity, they only increase their spiritual denseness. Only the believers know the Spirit, are on terms of intimate understanding with Him, for He remains in their heart by faith, and His testimony in their hearts produces an absolute conviction as to the certainty of their faith. As soon as a person receives faith and thus becomes a disciple, the Spirit takes possession of his heart and makes His abode with Him. And the knowledge and understanding of the Spirit and His work grows in the believer from day to day. Note that the three persons of the Godhead are spoken of in this section: the Son as praying to the Father, and the Father as sending the Comforter, the Holy Spirit.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In these words our Saviour implicitly reproves his disciples for their fond way of expressing their love to him, by doating upon his bodily presence, and sorrowing immoderately for his absence and he expressly warns them to evidence their love to him by their obedience to his commands; If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Where observe, Christ requires an obedient love, and loving obedience.

Love without obedience is but dissimulation: obedience without love is but drudgery and slavery. Such a love as produces obedience, must be a dutiful love; a love of reverence and honour to him as a commander, and an operative and working love, a labour of love, as the apostle calls it; Not waiters, but workers, are the best servants in Christ’s esteem.

And such an obedience as is the product of love, will be a willing, easy, and cheerful obedience a pleasing and an acceptable obedience, a constant and abiding obedience; all other motives without love are servile and base, and beget in us the drudgery of a slave, but not the duty of a son: He that fears God only, is afraid of smarting: but he that loves God, is afraid of offending.

Learn hence, That the best and surest evidence we can have of our love to the Lord Jesus Christ, is an humble, cheerful, universal, and perservering obedience, to his commands: Keep my commandments: that is, endeavour it without reserve; for though we cannot keep the commandments to a just satisfaction, yet we may perform them to a gracious acceptation.

And the word My, my commandments, is a sweetening and alleviating word. Moses’s law, an unsupportable load, but Christ’s law an easy burthen. The law from Sinai, dreadful; the law from Sion, gracious; it pardons weakness, and accepts sincerity.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. If ye love me, keep my commandments. Keeping the commandments will be the result if we love him. The Revision gives the true idea. Obedience is the fruit of love.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Comforter

This refers to the Holy Spirit.

Spirit of truth

This refers to the Holy Spirit who teaches people what is true about God.

The world cannot receive him

Here the "world" is a metonym that refers to the people who oppose God. AT: "The unbelieving people in this world will never welcome him" or "Those who oppose God will not accept him" (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

command

comfort

eternity

Holy Spirit

true

world

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

15. ἐὰν ἀγαπᾶτέ με. The connexion with what precedes is again not quite clear. Some would see it in the condition ‘in My name,’ which includes willing obedience to His commands. Perhaps it is rather to be referred to the opening and general drift of the chapter. ‘Let not your heart be troubled at My going away. You will still be Mine, I shall still be yours, and we shall still be caring for one another. I go to prepare a place for you, you remain to continue and surpass My work on earth. And though you can no longer minister to Me in the flesh, you can prove your love for Me even more perfectly by keeping My commandments when I am gone.’ ‘My’ is emphatic (see on Joh 8:31); not those of the Law but of the Gospel. Only in these last discourses does Christ speak of His commandments: Joh 14:21, Joh 15:10; Joh 15:12, Joh 13:34.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. ἐὰν ἀγαπᾶτέ με, τὰς ἐντολὰς τὰς ἐμὰς τηρήσετε (so אBL, which is to be preferred to τηρήσατε of ADΘ and the rec. text), “if you love me, you will keep my commandments,” as it is said again (v. 23), ἐάν τις ἀγαπᾷ με, τὸν λόγον μου τηρήσει. Love issues in obedience. The converse, “he who keeps my commandments loves me,” is found at v. 21 (the love then fulfilling itself in knowledge, 1Jn 2:3). For the verb ἀγαπᾶν, as used in Jn. of the love of His disciples for Jesus, see on 3:16.

The phrase τηρεῖν τὰς ἐντολάς is thoroughly Johannine (cf. 15:10, 1Jn 2:3, 1Jn 2:4, 1Jn 2:3:22, 1Jn 2:24, 1Jn 2:5:2, 1Jn 2:3). It is the phrase used for “keeping” the Ten Commandments (cf. Mat 19:17, 1Co 7:19); and that the precept “keep my commandments” should be placed in the mouth of Jesus is significant of His claim to be equal with God (cf. 13:34).

In Jn. τηρεῖν τὰς ἐντολάς μου is used interchangeably with τηρεῖν τὸν λόγον μου (8:51, 14:23, 24, 15:20, 1Jn 2:5).

15. ἐὰν ἀγαπᾶτέ με, τὰς ἐντολὰς τὰς ἐμὰς τηρήσετε (so אBL, which is to be preferred to τηρήσατε of ADΘ and the rec. text), “if you love me, you will keep my commandments,” as it is said again (v. 23), ἐάν τις ἀγαπᾷ με, τὸν λόγον μου τηρήσει. Love issues in obedience. The converse, “he who keeps my commandments loves me,” is found at v. 21 (the love then fulfilling itself in knowledge, 1Jn 2:3). For the verb ἀγαπᾶν, as used in Jn. of the love of His disciples for Jesus, see on 3:16.

The phrase τηρεῖν τὰς ἐντολάς is thoroughly Johannine (cf. 15:10, 1Jn 2:3, 1Jn 2:4, 1Jn 2:3:22, 1Jn 2:24, 1Jn 2:5:2, 1Jn 2:3). It is the phrase used for “keeping” the Ten Commandments (cf. Mat 19:17, 1Co 7:19); and that the precept “keep my commandments” should be placed in the mouth of Jesus is significant of His claim to be equal with God (cf. 13:34).

In Jn. τηρεῖν τὰς ἐντολάς μου is used interchangeably with τηρεῖν τὸν λόγον μου (8:51, 14:23, 24, 15:20, 1Jn 2:5).

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Keep [τηρησατε] . The best tests read thrhsete, ye will keep. Lay up in your hearts and preserve by careful watching. See on reserved, 1Pe 1:4.

My commandments [τας εντολας τας εμας] . Literally, the commandments which are mine. See on 10 27.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.