Bible Study series: John 14:15-31. This chapter is great. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” “The one loving me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.” “I leave my peace to you. I give you my peace. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled nor afraid.” You get the idea.
Friendly greetings and a warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together how to apply these truths to our lives.
I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click here:
For the Greek text, click here:
At that link, I provide a lot more commentary.
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: John 14:15-31
15 If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, so that he may be with you forever, 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not perceive him nor knows him. You know him because he dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while, the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I live you also will live. 20 In that day, you will know that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you. 21 The one having my commandments and keeping them—he it is who loves me. The one loving me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, what has happened that you are about to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” 23 In reply, Jesus said to him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and the Father will love him, and we will come to him and will make our dwelling place with him. 24 The one not loving me does not keep my words. And the word which you hear is not mine, but of the Father who sent me.
25 I have spoken these things to you while residing with you. 26 But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name—he will teach you all things and will remind you of everything which I have told you.”
27 I leave my peace to you. I give you my peace. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled nor afraid. 28 You have heard that I said, ‘I go and come to you.’ If you love me, you would be glad that I go to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have spoken to you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.
30 No longer do I talk much with you, for the ruler of the world comes, and he holds nothing in me. 31 But this has happened so that the world may know that I love the Father; and just as the Father commanded me, so I am doing.
Get up and let us go from here.” (John 14:15-31)
Comments:
15:
This verse is stark and clear. Love has to be walked out and worked out. It must have a focus. It is not affective / emotional (only). It is not studying theology or even the Bible (only). It is obedience to what Jesus commanded. This verse reminds me of the ones here:
24 Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and does them shall be like a prudent man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down and the flood came and the winds blew and beat upon that house. And it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26 And everyone hearing these teachings of mine and does not do them shall be like the foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain came down and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell. And great was its collapse! (Matt. 7:24-27)
Walking with Jesus and loving him demands obedience.
Why does Jesus say “commandments” (plural) here in v. 15, “word” (singular) in v. 23, and back to “words” (plural) in v. 24? Carson has an answer: Jesus does not offer simply an array of discreet ethical injunctions (he does that), but the entire, wholistic revelation from the Father (presumably that’s the singular). Nevertheless, the plural focusses on the individual components of Jesus’s requirements, while the singular logos (see comments on vv. 22-24) on the Christ-revelation as a whole. The principal ingredient in his teaching (holistic) and commands (individual units) is for Christ followers to love one another (13:34-35). John sees love for God’s children for God himself, and carrying out his commands—those are the ways to express devotion to God holistically (1 John 5:2).
“love”: Since this is a new commandment to love—not an optional suggestion—let’s look more closely at this verb love. It is the verb agapaō (pronounced ah-gah-pah-oh). BDAG says that the verb means, depending on the context: (1) “to have a warm regard for and interest in another, cherish, have affection for, love”; (2) “to have high esteem for or satisfaction with something, take pleasure in; (3) “to practice / express love, prove one’s love.” In most instances this kind love in Scripture is not gooey feelings, though it can be a heart-felt virtue and emotion, as we see in the first definition. Rather, mostly love is expressed by action. If you have no gooey feelings for your enemy, do something practical for him.
Both the noun agapē (pronounced ah-gah-pay) and the verb mean a total commitment. For example, God is totally committed to his church and to the salvation of humankind. Surprisingly, however, total commitment can be seen in an unusual verse. Men loved darkness rather than light (John 3:19), which just means they are totally committed to the dark path of life. Are we willing to be totally committed to God and to live in his light? Can we match an unbeliever’s commitment to bad things with our commitment to good things?
Agapē and agapaō are demonstrative. This love is not static or still. It moves and acts. We receive it, and then we show it with kind acts and good deeds. It is not an abstraction or a concept. It is real.
It is transferrable. God can pour and lavish it on us. And now we can transfer it to our fellow believers and people caught in the world.
16-17:
Jesus will ask the Father to send the Spirit. So it seems things are done in a sequence: death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and request to send the Spirit, gift of the Spirit. (The first four steps in the sequence are what John call “glory” or “glorification” of the Son). It is remarkable that Jesus says that he will request the Father to send the Spirit. It seems that the Father would send him without a request from the Son. However, this interaction between the Father and the Son reveals the intimacy and coordination and cooperation of the Trinity.
Next, let’s define the term “Paraclete.” It is related to the verb parakaleō (pronounced pah-rah-kah-leh-oh), which literally means “called” (-kaleō) and “alongside” (para). The verbal adjective Paraclete is used in vv. 16 and 26 and 15:26; 16:7. It is pronounced pah-rah-kleet or less formally, pair-uh-kleet. BDAG, whom many regard as the authoritative lexicon of the Greek NT, says that originally the verbal adjective means “someone who is called to someone’s aid.” It rarely means a “lawyer” or “attorney.” In the few places outside the NT, whether pre-Christian or extra-Christin contexts, it means in a general sense: “one who appears in another’s behalf, mediator, intercessor, helper.” Then the editors of BDAG leave it at that.
Novakovic refers to the linguists and translators Louw and Nida who say that the translation “Comforter” is too limited and “Helper” is highly generic (apparently meaning too vague). And “legal advocate” is too restrictive. Along with Novakovic, I chose “Paraclete” (pp. 126-28), but following BDAG, you may certainly translate it as “Mediator,” “Intercessor,” or “Helper.”
Jesus says, “another Paraclete,” implying that he was the first Paraclete, though the Fourth Gospel does not say this. However, 1 John 2:1 says that Jesus is the Paraclete. I notice that the NIV translates it as “advocate,” so you may not have to give up too quickly on the “lawyer” image.
John had already introduced the Spirit. Jesus was about to baptize in the Spirit, said John (1:32). Nicodemus and we must be born again of the Spirit (3:5-8). We must worship in Spirit (or spirit) (4:23-24). The Spirit gives life (6:63) The Spirit, however, had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified (7:39). Now, in the upper-room discourse we have five passages about the Spirit:
1.. 14:15-17
2.. 14:25-26
3.. 15:26-27
4.. 16:4b-11
5.. 16:12-15
We will unpack them when we get to them.
All of them present a consistent unity, not only in the Fourth Gospel, but also in the Synoptic Gospels. Jesus will baptize with the Spirit (Matt. 3:11-12; Mark 1:7-8; Luke 3:16-17). The Spirit will aid the disciples as they testify about Jesus and make their defence in court (Matt. 10:20; Mark 13:11). (HT: Bruce, comments on vv. 16-17).
Klink (p. 633), who argues for translating the term as Paraclete and not the restrictive terms “Helper” or “Advocate” or “Counselor” and so on, points out three roles of the Spirit anticipated in this verse and the other four passages. First, the Paraclete is still to come. He has been active because looking at Paul’s words in 1 Cor. 12:34, anyone who says Jesus is Lord by the Spirit shows the Spirit has been at work. But the Paraclete comes when Jesus departs, and the Paraclete begins the era of the New Covenant and new life in Christ. Second, The Paraclete has an active place in the hearts of the disciples. They will know the Paraclete just as they know the Father and Son. He will remain with them forever. Third, the Paraclete convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment (16:8).
However, as to the Spirit coming in the future, this is true. But I notice that John 14:17 also says that the Spirit dwells or lives (present tense), so maybe the disciples were being led by the Spirit at this early stage and may not have recognized it. For sure he will come in power at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4) and maybe in part in John 20:22.
18-19:
He will not leave them “orphaned” or “orphans” or “as orphans,” but he is coming to them. In what way is he coming to them? This must not refer to the Second Coming, because then it would imply that they really are orphans between the time when he departs at his crucifixion and ascension and when he comes back at the Parousia (Second Coming). We already observed in vv. 2-3 that this “coming” is not the Second Coming but a spiritual coming, which v. 23 will confirm. So it refers to Jesus coming to the disciples by the Paraclete. We will learn in the verses listed in vv. 16-17 that the Father and Son will come to the disciples by the Spirit.
The world will not see him again because after his death, burial, resurrection and ascension, he will not be here on earth. The world is a dark and dull place, with little to no wisdom. They do not even perceive who he is when he stood right in front of them. The disciples will see him by faith because when he lives through his resurrection and ascension, they will be united with the Living One. And he will appear to them when he rises from the dead. “Although the Spirit is not explicitly mentioned here, it is through him, as Lord and life-giver, that they will draw their life from the ever-living Christ” (Bruce, comments on vv. 18-19).
In v. 18, “the Spirit of truth”: the phrase “of truth” may be an objective genitive, so it may be translated as “the Spirit who communicates truth.”
20-21:
“that day” is the day of Jesus’s resurrection and ascension and when he requests the Father to send the Spirit.
By the infilling of the Spirit, the disciples too will finally understand the unity that the Father and Son enjoy, though our unity with the Father and Son through the Spirit will be weaker because of our personal weaknesses and sin nature. Yet the indwelling Spirit is a reality that is very profound and glorious. We can experience it right now. If you love the Father’s Son, the Father will love you back.
Bruce calls this Father-Son-disciple experience the threefold coinherence.
Mounce: “It is the high privilege of the one who loves the Son to experience in a unique way the reality of his presence and gain a fuller understanding of who he is. God reveals himself in the context of love. Apathy or disobedience makes it impossible to encounter God in any meaningful way … It has always been true that apart from love, the things most worth knowing can never be learned” (comment on v. 21).
Morris on v. 21:
The meaning appears to be to make the commandments one’s own, to take them into one’s inner being. Jesus speaks not only of ‘having’ the commandments but also of ‘keeping’ them. This means that it is more important to obey them in daily life than to have a firm intellectual grasp of their content. This does not mean that the Father’s love is merited by this obedience: in the first place, Jesus is saying that love for him is not only a matter of words; if it is real it is shown by deeds. The lover does what the loved one asks. In the second place he is saying that the Father is not indifferent to the attitude people take toward the Son. This does not mean that God hands out rewards on the basis of merit, but rather that love calls to love.
I mostly agree with that excerpt. However, the Father will hand out rewards based on merit (Matt. 25:14-30).
Borchert is excellent here:
The one who loves Jesus will also be loved by the Father. But this statement must not be interpreted to imply that a believer “earns” God’s love through obedience. Because love is a mark of the relationship of the Father to the Son (3:35, etc.), it also means that a loving relationship of the believer to the Son naturally implies a loving relationship of the believer with the Father. Similarly, as the Son served and obeyed the Father (5:19; 8:28–29, etc.), the disciple’s life is expected to be one of service and obedience to the Son, whose commands in turn are from the Father. (comment on v. 21)
Are There Degrees of Punishment, Rewards after Final Judgment?
22-24:
Judas’s (not Iscariot’s) question is indirectly or spiritually answered.
For who this Judas is, please see this link:
The Meaning of the Names of the Twelve Apostles
An expansion of Judas’s question: What has happened that the Lord will show himself or manifest himself to the disciples but not to the world? The answer is that, first, the disciple has to meet a certain condition before the Father and Son make their dwelling place or room in him. This dwelling place or room which they will make with the disciple is done by the Spirit, so the coming of Jesus and the Father does not refer to the doctrine of the Second Coming or Parousia. But what is the condition which the disciple has to meet? Here: The disciple must love Jesus, and then he will keep his word or message. So love for him will lead to keeping the word. Next, the Father will love the disciple because the disciple loves his Son. Yes, the Father loves the whole world in a general sense (John 3:16), but the revelation of his love directly is applied to a specific disciple only when he loves the Father’s Son.
In v. 24, the opposite logic is true. The one who does not love Jesus does not keep his words (plural) or complete message delivered at many times in the Fourth Gospel (and the Synoptics). How could the one who is indifferent to Jesus keep the finer points of the Lord’s message. The “non-lover” is disqualified from the very beginning; not to keep his message is to spurn the person of Jesus. If you permanently spurn or reject your spouse’s words, you really don’t love her. If you really don’t love her, you will ignore her message and who she is. She certainly won’t feel listened to. We are talking about a relationship of love here. Not loving someone is to refuse to listen to her.
This is why the world will not experience this profound fourfold coinherence. The world is unsurrendered to Jesus and is defiant and rejects him by not surrendering to him. Therefore, to answer Judas’s question clearly, this is why the Son does not reveal himself to the world in the same way as he does to his disciples. The world does not meet the condition.
Finally, in v. 24, Jesus repeats a statement which says that his message is not self-generated, as if he went away by himself and dreamed it up on his own, without the Father. No. Instead, he was in close communication with his Father and got his logos from the Father. It is wonderful to think that the Father and Son were in such close and intimate communication. It is also wonderful to believe—and experience—that the Father and the Son have come to us and made their room or dwelling place in us now, by the Spirit.
25-26:
This is the second teaching about the Paraclete or Holy Spirit. “This characteristic designation, found throughout the New Testament, does not draw attention to the power of the Spirit, his greatness or the like. For the first Christians the important thing was that he was holy. His character mattered most of all. This verse shows him to be closely related to both the Father and the Son. He is to be sent by the Son from the Father, but in the name of the Son” (Morris, comments on v. 26).
“name”: see vv. 13-14 for more comments. It is important to understand that the Spirit comes in Jesus’s name; he does not come in the mystery religions or the Isis cult of the surrounding pagan culture of the first-century. He does not come today in the spirit of the cultish New Age Movement or by the power of a man’s personality.
For the Spirit to teach and remind or bring to the memory of the disciples all things does not mean there is no need for teachers, but for these disciples who lived and walked with Jesus, the Spirit will bring them understanding. They will put two and two together and have the insights of his words and actions while he was with them on earth. For example, in John 2:22, after Jesus said that if the religious authorities of Jerusalem destroy this “temple,” he would raise it up in three days. John says that later his disciples remembered what he said and understood that the temple meant his body. In 12:26, immediately after Jesus’s triumphal entry, his disciples could not quite figure out what the donkey and the acclamation of the crowd fully signified. But after Jesus was glorified, they remembered those things and what had been written about him and had been done to him. They got understanding by the Spirit.
In v. 26, let’s discuss a little grammar. In ancient Greek, long before the NT was written, the Spirit was a neuter noun. (Greek has three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter.) But we must be careful about making the Spirit an “it.” It is true that in v. 26 the relative pronouns simply reflect the neuter gender by grammatical agreement, but then John through Jesus breaks free from standard grammar and says “he” or more literally “that one” (masculine pronoun). This emphasis is very revealing in the area of systematic theology. The Spirit, according to Jesus, is personal, not an impersonal force or an “it.”
Here are some of my posts on a more formal doctrine of the Spirit (systematic theology):
The Spirit’s Deity and Divine Attributes
The Spirit in the Life of Christ
The Spirit in the Church and Believers
27:
The first clause could be translated as “I leave my peace with you.” Jesus is bequeathing his disciples his peace, as he heads towards the cross. Then to be fully clear, he gives them his peace. It is stunning that while he realizes he is going to the cross, he gives peace to them. It seems he would be filled with such anxiety that he would not give any peace at all. It is true that in the Synoptics Gospels, he prays in distress in the Garden of Gethsemane (he was true man), but John’s Gospel compresses the time between his arrival to Gethsemane and his arrest. For now, Jesus offer his peace.
Morris rightly reminds us that the peace which Jesus bequeaths and gives is “the natural result of the presence within people of the Holy Spirit of whom Jesus has been speaking” (comment on v. 27). So Jesus’s peace does not come by sheer willpower, but by the Spirit, which is one of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22).
How does the world give peace? It promises peace but only with the absence of stress and with happy circumstances. But life is not built that way all the time. We can have peace during the tough times in Christ. Yes, as we will see next, wellbeing and absence of stress are positives, but let’s not depend on our circumstances for peace. The world can have peace only with political stability. Such stability is a blessing, but it is elusive.
It speaks of more than just the absence of war. It can mean prosperity and wellbeing. It can mean peace in your heart and peace with your neighbor. Best of all, it means peace with God, because he reconciled us to him.
This word in Hebrew is shalom and means wellbeing, both in the soul and in circumstances, and it means, yes, prosperity, because the farm in an agricultural society would experience wellbeing and harmony and growth. The crops would not fail and the livestock would reproduce. Society and the individual would live in peace and contentment and harmony. Deut. 28:1-14 describes the blessings for obedience, a man and his family and business enjoying divine goodness and benefits and material benefits. Peace is a major reality of the messianic kingdom anticipated in the OT (Num. 6:26; Ps. 29:11; Is. 9:6-7; 52:7; 54:13; 57:19; Ezek. 37:26; Hg. 2:9) and partly fulfilled or alluded to in the NT (Acts 10:36; Rom. 1:7; 5:1; 14:17).
With that background, let’s explore the Greek word, which overlaps with shalom. It is the noun eirēnē (pronounced ay-ray-nay, used 92 times, and we get the name Irene from it). One specialist defines it: “Peace is a state of being that lacks nothing and has no fear of being troubled in its tranquility; it is euphoria coupled with security. … This peace is God’s favor bestowed on his people.” (Mounce, p. 503).
Do I Really Know God? He Is the God of Peace
Don’t let our hearts be troubled or frightened or fearful or even cowardly—that’s the range of the Greek verb. During your time of worst distress, you can have deep peace.
This verse reminds me of these two verses in the Epistle to the Philippians.
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:6-7)
So how do we get and maintain peace? We pray.
What Is Biblical Intercession?
28:
Jesus first revealed that he would depart (13:33, 36), and this statement filled them with anxiety. Now he repeats the statement and tells them that if they loved him—which involved understanding the mission he had to carry out—they would be glad and rejoice because he goes to the Father. His departure means his going to the cross. His coming means that he will not leave them orphans, but he and the Father will come to them through the Spirit (v. 23).
The Father is greater than Jesus because the one who sends is greater than the one who is sent (John 13:16). They were also one (10:30). So in their role or function, the Son was subordinate to the Father, but in their essence they are equal or one. Jesus says this in his state of humiliation–his life on earth, as contrasted with his life in heaven before the Father sent him.
29:
He is telling them that he is going to the cross before it happens so that they may believe. We should also include the resurrection and ascension. It will take a while for the disciples to process the events, even during his post-resurrection visits. In any case, they must not be so discouraged at his crucifixion that they see Jesus as an imposter who was caught off guard. Messiahs don’t get crucified. Well, this one does. And he was the true one. He predicted his death; it happened; therefore, he was not a clueless and confused imposter.
This verse is similar to these:
31 Jesus took the twelve aside and said to them, “Consider! We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything written in the prophets about the Son of man shall be fulfilled. 32 He shall be handed over to the Gentiles and be mocked and arrogantly mistreated and spit on. 33 And after they flog him, they shall kill him, and on the third day he shall rise again.” 34 But they understood none of this, and this spoken message was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend what was spoken. (Luke 18:31-34)
The last verse is relevant. They understood none of it (or very little of it).
30:
The clause “No longer do I talk much with you” can be translated as “I will not speak with you much longer.” It is not the end of the discourse.
The ruler of the world—the devil, Satan—is about to meet his downfall (Bruce). Jesus said this a few days earlier (John 12:31). The crucifixion appears to Satan’s greatest triumph, but the evil spirit being did not calculate the resurrection and ascension. The Son, in his love for the Father, expressed in obedience, was going to be vindicated by the resurrection and ascension—this is his glory in John’s Gospel.
Paul wrote about this ignorance of human rulers in crucifying the Lord of glory:
7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (1 Cor. 2:7-8)
Satan also misjudged the plan of God. Jesus will discredit the ruler of the world (John 16:11). Jesus said he saw Satan fall from heaven (Luke 10:18); and Jesus said he was binding the strong man (Satan) (Matt. 12:29 // Mark 3:27 // Luke 8:21-22). The cross, seemingly expressing defeat, was actually the victory and vindication of the Son and the defeat of Satan.
Borchert ingeniously connects the White Witch killing Aslan (the Christ figure) in the child’s novel the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: “Or as C. S. Lewis aptly put it when the White Witch’s servants killed the Lion King, Aslan, they may have understood part of the mystery that they could kill the king, but they never understood the deeper mystery that this lion king would, in fact, conquer through his death” (comment on vv. 30-31).
I am also reminded of these verses in Paul’s letters:
He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Col. 2:13b-18, NIV)
Satan holds nothing over Jesus—or Satan has nothing on Jesus—because Jesus obeyed his Father. Recall James 4:7 (and go over there and look at the entire context): “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (Jas. 4:7).
Submission means that Satan cannot get a grip on your life. He can attack you, but the attacks are weak. Satan has a field day with the world because it does not surrender to the Father. Satan also has a field day with much of the church because individuals do not surrender to the Father.
31:
Love in this verse encompasses or includes obedience. The Son loves the Father by going to the cross, that is by obeying the Father’s commission or sending. The Father commanded or commissioned the Son—sent the Son into the world—and the Son does as he was commissioned. The Son obeys the mission. The world will recognize it eventually, particularly when individual members in the world, surrender to his exalted Lordship.
Remember v. 15? “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
In v. 31 also, Love = Obedience.
Now Jesus tells the men to arise and leave this place. Evidently it takes some time for them to leave the upper room because his teaching is still going on and it is profound. Or they could have stopped by the temple in the dark and listened to him teaching by firelight or torchlight. Another option: this expression marks another stage in the teaching (Morris, comment on v. 31, referring to Lightfoot).
GrowApp for John 14:15-31
1. You are filled with the Spirit on your repentance and surrender to the Father and Son. Do you recall a moment when this happened, or was it gradual? Tell your story.
2. Read Phil. 4:6-7. What can you do to maintain the peace of God?
3. Study James 4:7. How does Satan not keep his grip on you?
RELATED
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
12. Eyewitness Testimony in John’s Gospel
4. Church Fathers and John’s Gospel
3. Archaeology and John’s Gospel
SOURCES
For the bibliography, click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 