I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever: the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him and doesn’t know him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. One who has my commandments and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.”
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John 14:16-21 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father who lives in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works’ sake. Most certainly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father. Whatever you will ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you will ask anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, keep my commandments. I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever: the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him and doesn’t know him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. One who has my commandments and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.”
Parallel Translations
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I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever:
the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him and doesn’t know him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.
Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also.
In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
One who has my commandments and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.”
-
and I will praye the father and he shall geve you a nother comforter that he maye byde with you ever
which is the sprete of truthe whome the worlde cannot receave because the worlde seyth him not nether knoweth him. But ye knowe him. For he dwelleth with you and shalbe in you.
I will not leave you comfortlesse: but will come vnto you.
Yet a litell whyle and the worlde seith me no moare: but ye shall se me. For I live and ye shall live.
That daye shall ye knowe that I am in my father and you in me and I in you.
He that hath my commaundementes and kepeth them the same is he that loveth me. And he that loveth me shall be loved of my father: and I will love him and will shewe myne awne selfe vnto him.
Show all 3 translations
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And I wil pray the Father, and he shall giue you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for euer,
Euen the Spirit of trueth, whome the world can not receiue, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye knowe him: for he dwelleth with you, and shalbe in you.
I will not leaue you fatherles: but I will come to you.
Yet a litle while, and the world shall see me no more, but ye shall see me: because I liue, ye shall liue also.
At that day shall ye knowe that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
He that hath my commandements, and keepeth them, is he that loueth me: and he that loueth me, shall be loued of my Father: and I will loue him, and wil shewe mine owne selfe to him.
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Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (152)
- John 14:15 (v21) If you love me, keep my commandments.
- 1 John 5:3 (v21) For this is loving God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous.
- 1 John 2:5 (v21) But God’s love has most certainly been perfected in whoever keeps his word. This is how we know that we are in him:
- 2 John 1:6 (v21) This is love, that we should walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment, even as you heard from the beginning, that you…
- John 14:26 (v16) But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said…
Show all 100 cross-references
- John 15:9-10 (v21) Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as…
- John 15:26 (vv16–17) “When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify…
- John 16:27 (v21) for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came from God.
- Deuteronomy 11:13 (v21) It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you today, to love Yahweh your God, and to serve him…
- Ezekiel 36:27 (v17) I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. You will keep my ordinances and do them.
- John 16:7-15 (v16) Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I don’t go away, the Counselor won’t come to you. But if…
- Luke 11:28 (v21) But he said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it.”
- John 15:5-7 (v20) I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man…
- Psalms 23:4 (v18) Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they…
- John 14:3 (v18) If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will receive you to myself; that where I am, you may be there also.
- Romans 15:13 (v16) Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
- Ezekiel 36:25-27 (v21) I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness, and from all your idols. I will…
- John 16:13 (v17) However when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak from himself; but whatever he…
- Romans 8:26-27 (v16) In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession…
- Galatians 2:20 (v20) I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live…
- Galatians 5:22 (v16) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,
- 1 John 2:27 (v17) As for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you don’t need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing…
- 1 John 3:18-24 (v21) My little children, let’s not love in word only, or with the tongue only, but in deed and truth. And by this we know that we are of the…
- John 17:21-23 (v20) that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that…
- Romans 14:17 (v16) for God’s Kingdom is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
- John 14:22-24 (v21) Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, what has happened that you are about to reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus…
- John 17:26 (v20) I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
- 1 John 4:6 (v17) We are of God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not of God doesn’t listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the…
- 1 Corinthians 2:14 (v17) Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can’t know them, because they are…
- 1 Corinthians 3:16 (v17) Don’t you know that you are a temple of God, and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
- Matthew 18:20 (v18) For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the middle of them.”
- Acts 9:31 (v16) So the assemblies throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace, and were built up. They were multiplied, walking in the fear of the…
- John 14:16 (vv17–18) I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever:
- Deuteronomy 10:12-13 (v21) Now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, and to serve…
- John 4:14 (v16) but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well…
- John 14:10 (v20) Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father who…
- John 14:27-28 (v18) Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, I give to you. Don’t let your heart be troubled, neither let it be…
- 1 John 2:1 (v16) My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have a Counselor with the Father, Jesus Christ,…
- Deuteronomy 30:6-8 (v21) Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your offspring, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your…
- Psalms 119:4-6 (v21) You have commanded your precepts, that we should fully obey them. Oh that my ways were steadfast to obey your statutes! Then I wouldn’t be…
- John 15:14 (v21) You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you.
- Ephesians 1:13-14 (v16) In him you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with…
- 2 Timothy 1:14 (v17) That good thing which was committed to you, guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
- 1 John 4:12 (v20) No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us.
- John 17:9-11 (v16) I pray for them. I don’t pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All things that are mine are yours,…
- Romans 8:13-14 (v17) For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as…
- 1 Corinthians 6:19 (v17) Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
- Matthew 28:20 (vv16, 18) teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
- John 10:38 (v20) But if I do them, though you don’t believe me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the…
- Philippians 2:1 (v16) If therefore there is any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and…
- 1 John 1:1-3 (vv19, 21) That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we saw, and our hands…
- Acts 13:52 (v16) The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
- Romans 5:5 (v16) and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
- Romans 8:1 (v20) There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
- Revelation 3:20 (v21) Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and…
- 2 Corinthians 13:5 (vv17, 20) Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don’t you know about your own selves, that Jesus Christ is…
- John 14:23 (v17) Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.
- John 17:23 (v21) I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me and loved them, even as you loved…
- John 14:18 (vv16, 21) I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.
- Colossians 1:27 (vv17, 20) to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope…
- Isaiah 57:15 (v17) For the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, says: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a…
- John 16:16 (v19) A little while, and you will not see me. Again a little while, and you will see me.”
- John 16:26 (v20) In that day you will ask in my name; and I don’t say to you that I will pray to the Father for you,
- John 16:26-27 (v16) In that day you will ask in my name; and I don’t say to you that I will pray to the Father for you, for the Father himself loves you,…
- John 17:15 (v16) I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one.
- Romans 8:15-16 (v16) For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The…
- 2 Corinthians 4:6 (v21) seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory…
- James 2:23-24 (v21) So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness,” and he was called the…
- Revelation 22:14 (v21) Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city.
- Romans 8:34 (vv16, 19) Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes…
- Hebrews 7:25 (vv16, 19) Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make…
- Revelation 2:17 (vv17, 21) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I…
- John 6:56-58 (v19) He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father; so he…
- John 7:33 (v19) Then Jesus said, “I will be with you a little while longer, then I go to him who sent me.
- John 14:14 (v16) If you will ask anything in my name, I will do it.
- John 16:33 (v18) I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.”
- 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (v21) For the love of Christ constrains us; because we judge thus, that one died for all, therefore all died. He died for all, that those who…
- 1 John 3:24 (v17) He who keeps his commandments remains in him, and he in him. By this we know that he remains in us, by the Spirit which he gave us.
- 1 John 4:4 (v17) You are of God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.
- 1 John 4:12-13 (v17) No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we…
- Psalms 35:27 (v21) Let those who favor my righteous cause shout for joy and be glad. Yes, let them say continually, “May Yahweh be magnified, who has pleasure…
- Isaiah 62:2-5 (v21) The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory. You will be called by a new name, which Yahweh’s mouth will name. You…
- John 6:56 (v20) He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I in him.
- John 16:23 (v20) “In that day you will ask me no questions. Most certainly I tell you, whatever you may ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.
- John 17:20 (v16) Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who will believe in me through their word,
- 2 Corinthians 5:17 (v20) Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
- Colossians 1:19 (v20) For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him,
- Colossians 2:9 (v20) For in him all the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily,
- Hebrews 2:18 (v18) For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.
- John 16:22 (vv16, 19) Therefore you now have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.
- Colossians 3:3-4 (vv16, 19) For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you will also be revealed with him in…
- Psalms 101:2 (v18) I will be careful to live a blameless life. When will you come to me? I will walk within my house with a blameless heart.
- Romans 8:9-11 (v17) But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of…
- Galatians 4:6 (v17) And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!”
- 2 Thessalonians 2:16 (vv16, 18, 21) Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,
- Hosea 6:3 (v18) Let’s acknowledge Yahweh. Let’s press on to know Yahweh. As surely as the sun rises, Yahweh will appear. He will come to us like the rain,…
- Zephaniah 3:17 (v21) Yahweh, your God, is among you, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will calm you in his love. He will…
- John 11:25 (v19) Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies.
- John 17:11 (v20) I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have…
- Ephesians 2:22 (v17) in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
100 distinct cross-references across this passage (152 total citations).
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Explain this passage (24 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv16–21 16. And I will pray to the Father. This…
16. And I will pray to the Father. This was given as a remedy for soothing the grief which they might feel on account of Christ’s absence; but at the same time, Christ promises that he will give them strength to keep his commandments; For otherwise the exhortation would have had little effect. He therefore loses no time in informing them that, though he be absent from them in body, yet he will never allow them to remain destitute of assistance; for he will be present with them by his Spirit.
Here he calls the Spirit the gift of the Father, but a gift which he will obtain by his prayers; in another passage he promises that he will give the Spirit. If I depart, says he, I will send, Him to you, (John 16:7.) Both statements are true and correct; for in so far as Christ is our Mediator and Intercessor, he obtains from the Father the grace of the Spirit, but in so far as he is God, he bestows that grace from himself. The meaning of this passage therefore is: “I was given to you by the Father to be a Comforter, but only for a time; now, having discharged my office, I will pray to him to give another Comforter, who will not be for a short time, but will remain always with you.”
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And he will, give you another Comforter. The word Comforter is here applied both to Christ and to the Spirit, and justly; for it is an office which belongs equally to both of them, to comfort and exhort us, and to guard us by their protection. Christ was the Protector of his disciples, so long as he dwelt in the world: and afterwards he committed them to the protection and guardianship of the Spirit. It may be asked, are we not still under the protection of Christ? The answer is easy. Christ is a continual Protector, but not in a visible way. So long as he dwelt in the world, he openly manifested himself as their Protector; but now he guards us by his Spirit.
He calls the Spirit another Comforter, on account of the difference between the blessings which we obtain from both. The peculiar office of Christ was, to appease the wrath of God by atoning for the sins of the world, to redeem men from death, to procure righteousness and life; and the peculiar office of the Spirit is, to make us partakers not only of Christ himself, but of all his blessings. And yet there would be no impropriety in inferring from this passage a distinction of Persons; for there must be some peculiarity in which the Spirit differs from the Son so as to be another than the Son.
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.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv17, 20, 21 The holy Ghost is called the Spirit of truth…
The holy Ghost is called the Spirit of truth ,of the effect which he worketh, because he inspireth the truth into us, whereas otherwise he hath truth in himself.
Worldly men.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv16–21 16 And I will pray the Father, and he…
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
Ver. 16. And he shall give you another Comforter] Or, pleader, deprecator, advocate, παρακλητον. Properly it signifies such a one as we send for, when we are in any danger, to advise and counsel us. The devil is called the accuser, Κατηγορος, in full opposition to this name and title given here to the Holy Spirit; whose office it is (as this attribute here imports) to make intercession in our hearts to God for us; and upon our true repentance to make our apology, 1Co 7:11; to comfort us, by discovering our graces, 1Co 2:12, and by pleading our evidences, Rom 8:18, which they that refuse to read over and rest upon, they help Satan, the accuser, taking his part against themselves, and pleading his cause against the Spirit their Comforter.
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That he may abide with you for ever] The Spirit (saith Dr Sibbs) is Christ’s vicar-general, with whom he leaves us, and by whom he is with us to the end of the world.
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.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv16–21 This verse containeth a new argument by which our…
This verse containeth a new argument by which our Saviour relieveth his disciples under their affliction for the want of his bodily presence; that is, the mission of the Holy Spirit,
another Comforter, as our translation reads it. For this he saith that he
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will pray the Father; not that himself had no concern in the mission of the blessed Spirit; for himself telleth us, Joh 16:7, that he would send him; only for the attestation,
1. Of his human nature;
2. Of himself, as our Mediator; and:
3. Of his Father’s concern, as well as his own, in sending the Holy Spirit; he here saith, I will pray the Father, and he shall send you another Comforter.
That term
another, signifieth the personal distinction of the Third from the First and Second Person in the blessed Trinity. And the name here given to the blessed Spirit, Παρακλητον, (which we too narrowly translate comforter), is a term exceedingly proper to signify all the operations of the blessed Spirit in and upon the souls of his people. The same word, 1Jo 2:1, where it is applied to Christ, (as here it is to the Spirit), is there much better translated Advocate; and it is most probable that our translators here translate it
Comforter, because he is here promised to the disciples troubled, as fitted to their present distress. The verb from whence the word derives, signifies not to comfort only, but to exhort, and to be an advocate for another. Now it belongs to the office of an advocate to suggest to his client what may be for his advantage; which is also the office of the blessed Spirit: if he seeth his client in an error, to reprove and to convince him; which is also the work of the Spirit, Joh 16:8; if he seeth him weak and discouraged, to uphold, strengthen, and encourage him; this is also the Spirit’s work, Eph 3:16; if he seeth him running into an error, to restrain him; if he findeth him dull and heavy, to quicken him; if he seeth him ready to be run down, to defend him; if he hath any thing to do in the court, to prepare and dram it up for him, and, as occasion serveth, to speak for him. All these things (as might be largely showed) fall within the office of an advocate, and under the comprehensive term here used. And (saith our Saviour) he shall
abide with you for ever: I shall be with you but for a while, but he shall abide with you to eternity (as some observe this word is constantly used by this evangelist). So that the promise of the Spirit is not to be restrained only to the apostles and their successors in the ministry, or to be understood only of those extraordinary gifts bestowed on the apostles and first ministers of the gospel; but to be extended further, both with reference to persons and influences: and without doubt the influences of the Spirit, both as to gifts and graces, both upon ministers and more private Christians, are much more plentiful since the sending of the Holy Ghost, after Christ’s ascension, in the days of Pentecost, than ever they were before: not as to particular persons; a David, a Solomon, or some particular persons, might have greater measures than any or the most have since had; but as to the generality of ministers and Christians. Doubtless, since the pouring out of the Spirit in the days of Pentecost, there have been greater measures of the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit given out, and will be to the end of the world, than ever was in any age before Christ’s ascension; which is no more than what was prophesied, Isa 44:3; Joe 2:28, applied to the days of Pentecost, Act 2:17, but not to be limited to that time or age, either for gifts or gracious habits: for as the extraordinary gifts and powers held in some degree after the apostles’ age, (if we may give any credit to ecclesiastical history), so both in those ages, and ever since, as to the generality both of ministers and Christians, (that is, such as are mentioned Joh 14:15, that love Christ, and keep his commandments), there have been fuller measures of gifts, of more constant, standing use for the church, such as those of knowledge and utterance, &c., and also of inward graces, than ever before was.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv16, 18, 19, 21 Christ comforteth his disciples here, with a promise of…
Christ comforteth his disciples here, with a promise of the mission of the Holy Spirit, to supply the want of his bodily presence.
Where observe, 1. The procurer of this blessing, and that is Christ, by his prevailing prayer, and powerful intercession; I will pray: it runs in the future tense; and so it is a promise of Christ’s continual intercession. As long as Christ is in heaven, a Christian shall not want a supply of comfort and consolation here on earth.
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Observe 2, The author and donor of the blessing, and that is, God himself; I will pray the Father, and he shall give. The Father, that is, my Father, your Father, and he that is the Father of comfort and consolation; I will pray, and he will give. It is an expression of great assurance.
Observe, 3. The blessing itself, the Holy Ghost, called here, Another Comforter.
Where note, 1. The divinity of the Holy Ghost; he that will supply the comforts of Christ’s presence, must be as Christ is, the God of all comfort.
Note, 2. The person of the Holy Ghost; he is a divine person, not a divine quality or operation; then we might call him a comfort, but not a comforter.
Note, 3. The office and employment of the Holy Ghost; He is a Comforter; that is, an advocate, an intercessor to sue for us; an encourager, and one that administers consolation to us; and as he is an Holy Spirit, so are his comforts holy comforts.
Observe, 4. The stability of this blessing; That he may abide with you for ever. The best of our outward comforts are sudden flashes, not lasting flames: but the consolations of the Holy Spirit are strong consolations, they are abounding consolations, and everlasting consolations; especially the Holy Spirit will be the comforter of good men in the day of affliciton, in the day of temptation, and at the hour of death, when all other comforts flag and fail.
Observe lastly, The additional title given to the Holy Ghost, he is called the Spirit of truth; partly in opposition to Satan, who is called a lying spirit, partly because he teacheth and revealeth the truth, leadeth his people into all truth, and sealeth and confirmeth truth to the souls of believers: he is the spirit of truth, both in his essence and in his operations.
Learn hence, That as the Holy Spirit is true in his essence and nature, so is he true in his office as a comforter to good men; all his consolations being real and solid, and free from imposture and delusion.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v18 When friends are parting, it is a common request…
When friends are parting, it is a common request they make to each other, "Pray let us hear from you as often as you can:" this Christ engaged to his disciples, that out of sight they should not be out of mind.
I. He promises that he would continue his care of them (Joh 14:18): "I will not leave you orphans, or fatherless; for, though I leave you, yet I leave you this comfort, I will come to you." His departure from them was that which grieved them; but it was not so bad as they apprehended, for it was neither total nor final. 1. Not total. "Though I leave you without my bodily presence, yet I do not leave you without comfort." Though children, and left little, yet they had received the adoption of sons, and his Father would be their Father, with whom those who otherwise would be fatherless find mercy. Note, The case of true believers, though sometimes it may be sorrowful, is never comfortless, because they are never orphans: for God is their Father, who is an everlasting Father. 2. Not final: I will come to you, erchomai - I do come; that is, (1.) "I will come speedily to you at my resurrection, I will not be long away, but will be with you again in a little time." He had often said, The third day I will rise again. (2.) "I will be coming daily to you in my Spirit;" in the tokens of his love, and visits of his grace, he is still coming. (3.) "I will come certainly at the end of time; surely I will come quickly to introduce you into the joy of your Lord." Note, The consideration of Christ's coming to us saves us from being comfortless in his removals from us; for, if he depart for a season, it is that we may receive him for ever. Let this moderate our grief, The Lord is at hand.
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II. He promises that they should continue their acquaintance with him and interest in him (Joh 14:19, Joh 14:20): Yet a little while, and the world sees me no more, that is, Now I am no more in the world. After his death, the world saw him no more, for, though he rose to life, he never showed himself to all the people, Act 10:41. The malignant world thought they had seen enough of him, and cried, Away with him; crucify him; and so shall their doom be; they shall see him no more. Those only that see Christ with an eye of faith shall see him for ever. The world sees him no more till his second coming; but his disciples have communion with him in his absence.
1. You see me, and shall continue to see me, when the world sees me no more. They saw him with their bodily eyes after his resurrection, for he showed himself to them by many infallible proofs, Act 1:8. And then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. They saw him with an eye of faith after his ascension, sitting at God's right hand, as Lord of all; saw that in him which the world saw not.
2. Because I live, you shall live also. That which grieved them was, that their Master was dying, and they counted upon nothing else but to die with him. No, saith Christ, (1.) I live; this the great God glories in, I live, saith the Lord, and Christ saith the same; not only, I shall live, as he saith of them, but, I do live; for he has life in himself, and lives for evermore. We are not comfortless, while we know that our Redeemer lives. (2.) Therefore you shall live also. Note, The life of Christians is bound up in the life of Christ; as sure and as long as he lives, those that by faith are united to him shall live also; they shall live spiritually, a divine life in communion with God. This life is hid with Christ; if the head and root live, the members and branches live also. They shall live eternally; their bodies shall rise in the virtue of Christ's resurrection; it will be well with them in the world to come. It cannot but be well with all that are his, Isa 26:19.
3. You shall have the assurance of this (Joh 14:20): At that day, when I am glorified, when the Spirit is poured out, you shall know more clearly and certainly than you do now that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. (1.) These glorious mysteries will be fully known in heaven; At that day, when I shall receive you to myself, you shall know perfectly that which now you see through a glass darkly. Now it appears not what we shall be, but then it will appear what we were. (2.) They were more fully known after the pouring out of the Spirit upon the apostles; at that day divine light should shine, and their eyes should see more clearly, their knowledge should greatly advance and increase then, would become more extensive and more distinct, and like the blind man's at the second touch of Christ's hand, who at first only saw men as trees walking. (3.) They are known by all that receive the Spirit of truth, to their abundant satisfaction, for in the knowledge of this is founded their fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. They know, [1.] That Christ is in the Father, is one with the Father, by their experience of what he has wrought for them and in them; they find what an admirable consent and harmony there is between Christianity and natural religion, that that is grafted into this, and so they know that Christ is in the Father. [2.] That Christ is in them; experienced Christians know by the Spirit that Christ abides in them, Jo1 3:24. [3.] That they are in Christ, for the relation is mutual, and equally near on both sides, Christ in them and they in Christ, which speaks an intimate and inseparable union; in the virtue of which it is that because he lives they shall live also. Note, First, Union with Christ is the life of believers; and their relation to him, and to God through him, is their felicity. Secondly, The knowledge of this union is their unspeakable joy and satisfaction; they were now in Christ, and he in them, but he speaks of it as a further act of grace that they should know it, and have the comfort of it. An interest in Christ and the knowledge of it are sometimes separated.
III. He promises that he would love them, and manifest himself to them, Joh 14:21-24. Here observe,
1. Who they are whom Christ will look upon, and accept, as lovers of him; those that have his commandments, and keep them. By this Christ shows that the kind things he here said to his disciples were intended not for those only that were now his followers, but for all that should believe in him through their word. Here is, (1.) The duty of those who claim the dignity of being disciples. Having Christ's commandments, we must keep them; as Christians in name and profession we have Christ's commandments, we have them sounding in our ears, written before our eyes, we have the knowledge of them; but this is not enough; would we approve ourselves Christians indeed, we must keep them. Having them in our heads, we must keep them in our hearts and lives. (2.) The dignity of those that do the duty of disciples. They are looked upon by Christ to be such as love him. Not those that have the greatest wit and know how to talk for him, but those that keep his commandments. Note, The surest evidence of our love to Christ is obedience to the laws of Christ. Such is the love of a subject to his sovereign, a dutiful, respectful, obediential love, a conformity to his will, and satisfaction in his wisdom.
2. What returns he will make to them for their love; rich returns; there is no love lost upon Christ. (1.) They shall have the Father's love: He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father. We could not love God if he did not first, out of his good-will to us, give us his grace to love him; but there is a love of complacency promised to those that do love God, Pro 8:17. He loves them, and lets them know that he loves them, smiles upon them, and embraces them. God so loves the Son as to love all those that love him. (2.) They shall have Christ's love: And I will love him, as God-man, as Mediator. God will love him as a Father, and I will love him as a brother, an elder brother. The Creator will love him, and be the felicity of his being; the Redeemer will love him, and be the protector of his well-being. In the nature of God, nothing shines more brightly than this, that God is love. And in the undertaking of Christ nothing appears more glorious than this, that he loved us. Now both these loves are the crown and comfort, the grace and glory, which shall be to all those that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Christ was now leaving his disciples, but promises to continue his love to them; for he not only retains a kindness for believers, though absent, but is doing them kindness while absent, for he bears them on his heart, and ever lives interceding for them. (3.) They shall have the comfort of that love: I will manifest myself to him. Some understand it of Christ's showing himself alive to his disciples after his resurrection; but, being promised to all that love him and keep his commandments, it must be construed so as to extend to them. There is a spiritual manifestation of Christ and his love made to all believers. When he enlightens their minds to know his love, and the dimensions of it (Eph 3:18, Eph 3:19), enlivens their graces, and draws them into exercise, and thus enlarges their comforts in himself - when he clears up the evidences of their interest in him, and gives them tokens of his love, experience of his tenderness, and earnests of his kingdom and glory, - then he manifests himself to them; and Christ is manifested to none but those to whom he is pleased to manifest himself.
3. What occurred upon Christ's making this promise.
(1.) One of the disciples expresses his wonder and surprise at it, Joh 14:22. Observe, [1.] Who it was that said this - Judas, not Iscariot. Judah, or Judas, was a famous name; the most famous tribe in Israel was that of Judah; two of Christ's disciples were of that name: one of them was the traitor, the other was the brother of James (Luk 6:16), one of those that were akin to Christ, Mat 13:55. He is called Lebbeus and Thaddeus, was the penman of the last of the epistles, which in our translation, for distinction's sake, we call the epistle of Jude. This was he that spoke here. Observe, First, There was a very good man, and a very bad man, called by the same name; for names commend us not to God, nor do they make men worse. Judas the apostle was never the worse, nor Judas the apostate ever the better, for being namesakes. But, Secondly, The evangelist carefully distinguishes between them; when he speaks of this pious Judas, he adds, not Iscariot. Take heed of mistaking; let us not confound the precious and the vile. [2.] What he said - Lord how is it? which intimates either, First, the weakness of his understanding. So some take it. He expected the temporal kingdom of the Messiah, that it should appear in external pomp and power, such as all the world would wonder after. "How, then," thinks he, "should it be confined to us only?" ti gegonen - "what is the matter now, that thou wilt not show thyself openly as is expected, that the Gentiles may come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising?" Note, We create difficulties to ourselves by mistaking the nature of Christ's kingdom, as if it were of this world. Or, Secondly, as expressing the strength of his affections, and the humble and thankful sense he had of Christ's distinguishing favours to them: Lord, how is it? He is amazed at the condescensions of divine grace, as David, Sa2 7:18. What is there in us to deserve so great a favour? Note, 1. Christ's manifesting himself to his disciples is done in a distinguishing way - to them, and not to the world that sits in darkness; to the base, and not to the mighty and noble; to babes, and not to the wise and prudent. Distinguishing favours are very obliging; considering who are passed by, and who are pitched upon. 2. It is justly marvellous in our eyes; for it is unaccountable, and must be resolved into free and sovereign grace. Even so, Father, because it seemed good unto thee.
(2.) Christ, in answer hereto, explains and confirms what he had said, Joh 14:23, Joh 14:24. He overlooks what infirmity there was in what Judas spoke, and goes on with his comforts.
[1.] He further explains the condition of the promise, which was loving him, and keeping his commandments. And, as to this, he shows what an inseparable connection there is between love and obedience; love is the root, obedience is the fruit. First, Where a sincere love to Christ is in the heart, there will be obedience: "If a man love me indeed, that love will be such a commanding constraining principle in him, that, no question, he will keep my words." Where there is true love to Christ there is a value for his favour, a veneration for his authority, and an entire surrender of the whole man to his direction and government. Where love is, duty follows of course, is easy and natural, and flows from a principle of gratitude. Secondly, On the other hand, where there is no true love to Christ there will be no care to obey him: He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings, Joh 14:24. This comes in here as a discovery of those that do not love Christ; whatever they pretend, certainly those do not love him that believe not his truths, and obey not his laws, to whom Christ's sayings are but as idle tales, which he heeds not, or hard sayings, which he likes not. It is also a reason why Christ will not manifest himself to the world that doth not love him, because they put this affront upon him, not to keep his sayings; why should Christ be familiar with those that will be strange to him?
[2.] He further explains the promise (Joh 14:23): If a man thus love me, I will manifest myself to him. First, My Father will love him; this he had said before (Joh 14:21), and here repeats it for the confirming of our faith; because it is hard to imagine that the great god should make those the objects of his love that had made themselves vessels of his wrath. Jude wondered that Christ should manifest himself to them; but this answers it, "If my Father love you, why should not I be free with you?" Secondly, We will come unto him, and make our abode with him. This explains the meaning of Christ's manifesting himself to him, and magnifies the favour. 1. Not only,I will, but, We will, I and the Father, who, in this, are one. See Joh 14:9. The light and love of God are communicated to man in the light and love of the Redeemer, so that wherever Christ is formed the image of God is stamped. 2. Not only, "I will show myself to him at a distance," but, "We will come to him, to be near him, to be with him," such are the powerful influences of divine graces and comforts upon the souls of those that love Christ in sincerity. 3. Not only, "I will give him a transient view of me, or make him a short and running visit," but, We will take up our abode with him which denotes complacency in him and constancy to him. God will not only love obedient believers, but he will take a pleasure in loving them, will rest in love to them, Zep 3:17. He will be with them as at his home.
[3.] He gives a good reason both to bind us to observe the condition and encourage us to depend upon the promise. The word which you hear is not mine, but his that sent me, Joh 14:24. To this purport he had often spoken (Joh 7:16; Joh 8:28; Joh 12:44), and here it comes in very pertinently. First, the stress of duty is laid upon the precept of Christ as our rule, and justly, for that word of Christ which we are to keep is the Father's word, and his will the Father's will. Secondly, The stress of our comfort is laid upon the promise of Christ. But forasmuch as, in dependence upon that promise, we must deny ourselves, and take up our cross, and quit all, it concerns us to enquire whether the security be sufficient for us to venture our all upon; and this satisfies us that it is, that the promise is not Christ's bare word, but the Father's which sent him, which therefore we may rely upon.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv16–21 And I will pray the Father,...., Here Christ speaks…
And I will pray the Father,...., Here Christ speaks as Mediator, and promises his disciples, that he would intercede for them with the Father; which is designed as an encouragement to them to ask for what they want, in his name, and to comfort their hearts, which were troubled at the news of his departure from them;
and he shall give you another Comforter. This is no inconsiderable proof of a trinity of persons in the Godhead; here is the Father prayed unto, the Son in human nature praying, and the Holy Ghost the Comforter prayed for; who is the gift of the Father, through the prevalent mediation of the Son, and is another "Comforter"; distinct from the Messiah, to whom reference is here had! One of the names of the Messiah, with the Jews, is (u), "a Comforter"; such an one Jesus had been to his disciples; and now he was about to leave them, and for their support under their sorrows, he promises to use his interest with his Father, that he would give them another Comforter, meaning the Spirit, who performs this his work and office, by taking of the things of Christ, and showing them to his people; by shedding abroad the love of the Father, and of the Son, into their hearts; by opening and applying the precious promises of the Gospel to them; by being a spirit of adoption in them; and by abiding with them as the seal, earnest, and pledge of their future glory; and with this view Christ promises to pray for him,
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that he may abide with you for ever: not a few years only, as I have done, but as long as you live; and with all those that shall succeed you in the work of the ministry, and with the church, and all true believers unto the end of the world: this is a proof of the saints' final perseverance. When we consider these words, in connection with the preceding exhortation, to keep the commands of Christ, and as an encouragement so to do, it brings to mind a saying of R. Eliezer ben Jacob (w);
"he that does one commandment gets for himself , , the very word here used, "one advocate", or "comforter"; and he that transgresses one command, gets for himself one accuser.''
But though the word signifies both an advocate and a comforter, the latter seems to be the meaning of it here, as being more suited to the disconsolate condition of the disciples.
(u) T. Hieros. Beracot, fol. 5. 1. T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 98. 2. Echa Rabbati, fol. 50. 2. (w) Pirke Abot, c. 4. sect. 11.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv16–21 And I will ask the Father - The 21st…
And I will ask the Father - The 21st verse, ver. 21, shows the connection between this and the preceding verses. And he will give you another Comforter - The Greek word signifies also an advocate, instructer, or encourager. Another - For Christ himself was one. To remain with you forever - With you, and your followers in faith, to the end of the world.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv16–21 Verse 16. I will pray the Father] After having…
Verse 16. I will pray the Father] After having made an atonement for the sin of the world, I will become the Mediator between God and man; and through my mediation and intercession shall all the blessings of grace and glory be acquired.
Another Comforter] The word παρακλητος signifies not only a comforter, but also an advocate, a defender of a cause, a counsellor, patron, mediator. Christ is thus termed, 1Jo 2:1, where the common translation renders the word advocate. Christ is thus called, because he is represented as transacting the concerns of our souls with God; and for this cause, he tells us, he goes unto the Father, Joh 14:12. The Holy Spirit is thus called, because he transacts the cause of God and Christ with us, explains to us the nature and importance of the great atonement, shows the necessity of it, counsels us to receive it, instructs us how to lay hold on it, vindicates our claim to it, and makes intercessions in us with unutterable groanings. As Christ acted with his disciples while he sojourned with them, so the Holy Ghost acts with those who believe in his name.
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For ever] As the death and atonement of Christ will be necessary to man till the conclusion of the world, so the office of the Holy Spirit must be continued among men till the end of time: therefore says Christ, he shall continue with you for ever, teaching, comforting, advising, defending, and interceding for you and for all my followers to the end of time.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v18 Joh 14:18-24. I will not leave you comfortless —…
Joh 14:18-24. I will not leave you comfortless — Greek, ορφανους, orphans: a word elegantly applied to those who have lost any dear friend; I will come to you — By my spiritual presence. The Greek, ερχομαι, is literally, I come to you; for what was certainly and speedily to be, our Lord speaks of as if it were already. Yet a little while and the world — Which only sees by bodily eyes; seeth me no more — In the sense it has done for some time past, though it knows me not; but ye see me — That is, ye certainly shall see me; for, after I have done conversing with the world, I will appear again to you, and give you distinguishing marks of my regard for you; because I live, ye shall live also — Because I am the living One, in my divine nature, and shall rise again in my human nature, and live for ever in heaven; therefore, ye shall live the life of faith and love on earth, and hereafter the life of glory. At that day — When I fulfil this promise to you; when ye see me after my resurrection; but more eminently at the day of pentecost, Joh 14:21. He that hath my commandments — Written in his heart; and keepeth them — Makes them the continual rule of his conduct; he it is that loveth me — And none else have any title to this character, whatever specious pretences they may make to it. And he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father — With a peculiar love, a love of approbation and delight; and I will love him — In an especial manner; and will manifest myself to him — More abundantly. Judas saith — Being much surprised to hear our Lord speak as he had done; not Judas Iscariot — For he, as it was said before, was gone out before our Lord began this discourse; but another apostle of that name, who was also called Thaddeus and Lebbeus, the son of Alpheus, and the brother of James the less. This Judas, upon hearing Christ express himself in such a way, said, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us, &c. — Dost thou not intend to make a public appearance, which will be obvious to the eyes of all? For, according to the notions they had conceived of the Messiah, he was to appear unto all the Jews, nay, to the whole world, and was to take unto himself universal empire. Jesus answered, If a man love me — It may be sufficient to tell you, that, as I said before, (Joh 14:21,) If a man, in deed and in truth, love me, he will keep my words, in an humble, obedient, and conscientious manner; and my Father will love him — Will still more approve of, and take complacency in him, for the more any one loves and obeys God, the more God will love him; and we will come unto him — By still larger communications of the Spirit of truth wisdom, holiness, and comfort; and make our abode with him — Continually. If our Lord had been a mere creature, though of the highest rank, it would have been blasphemy in him to have joined himself in this manner with God. This promise implies such a large manifestation of the divine presence and love as far exceeds the former, given when a person is justified and first obtains peace with God. He that loveth me not — Though he may profess to do it; keepeth not my sayings — With any constancy and resolution, and thereby shows that his professions of loving me are not sincere; and, therefore, he must expect no such spiritual and eternal blessings, whatever outward privileges he may enjoy. See to it, therefore, that you diligently hearken and attend to what I say; for the word which ye hear me speak is not mine — Originally or merely; but the Father’s which sent me — Who has particularly given it in charge to me, that I should thus insist on practical and universal holiness as one great end of my appearance.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv16–21 I will pray the Father - This refers to…
I will pray the Father - This refers to his intercession after his death and ascension to heaven, for this prayer was to be connected with their keeping his commandments. In what way he makes intercession in heaven for his people we do not know. The fact, however, is clearly made known, Rom 8:34; Heb 4:14-15; Heb 7:25. It is as the result of his intercession in heaven that we obtain all our blessings, and it is through him that our prayers are to be presented and made efficacious before God.
Another Comforter - Jesus had been to them a counsellor, a guide, a friend, while he was with them. He had instructed them, had borne with their prejudices and ignorance, and had administered consolation to them in the times of despondency. But he was about to leave them now to go alone into an unfriendly world. The other Comforter was to be given as a compensation for his absence, or to perform the offices toward them which he would have done if he had remained personally with them. And from this we may learn, in part, what is the office of the Spirit. It is to furnish to all Christians the instruction and consolation which would be given by the personal presence of Jesus, Joh 16:14. To the apostles it was particularly to inspire them with the knowledge of all truth, Joh 14:26; Joh 15:26. Besides this, he came to convince men of sin. See the notes at Joh 16:8-11. It was proper that such an agent should be sent into the world:
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Because it was a part of the plan that Jesus should ascend to heaven after his death. Unless some heavenly agent should be sent to carry forward the work of salvation, man would reject it and perish. Jesus could not be personally and bodily present in all places with the vast multitudes who should believe on him. The Holy Spirit is omnipresent, and can reach them all. See the notes at Joh 16:7. It was manifestly a part of the plan of redemption that each of the persons of the Trinity should perform his appropriate work the Father in sending his Son, the Son in making atonement and interceding, and the Spirit in applying the work to the hearts of men.
The word translated “Comforter” is used in the New Testament five times. In four instances it is applied to the Holy Spirit - Joh 14:16, Joh 14:26; Joh 15:26; Joh 16:7. In the other instance it is applied to the Lord Jesus - 1Jo 2:1; “We have an advocate (Paraclete - Comforter) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” It is used, therefore, only by John. The verb from which it is taken has many significations. Its proper meaning is to call one to us Act 27:20; then to call one to aid us, as an advocate in a court; then to exhort or entreat, to pray or implore, as an advocate does, and to comfort or console, by suggesting reasons or arguments for consolation. The word “comforter” is frequently used by Greek writers to denote an advocate in a court; one who intercedes; a monitor, a teacher, an assistant, a helper. It is somewhat difficult, therefore, to fix the precise meaning of the word. It may be translated either advocate, monitor, teacher, or helper. What the office of the Holy Spirit in this respect is, is to be learned from what we are elsewhere told he does. We learn particularly from the accounts that our Saviour gives of his work that that office was:
1.To comfort the disciples; to be with them in his absence and to supply his place; and this is properly expressed by the word Comforter.
2.To teach them, or remind them of truth; and this might be expressed by the word monitor or teacher, Joh 14:26; Joh 15:26-27.
3.To aid them in their work; to advocate their cause, or to assist them in advocating the cause of religion in the world, and in bringing sinners to repentance; and this may be expressed by the word advocate, Joh 16:7-13. It was also by the Spirit that they were enabled to stand before kings and magistrates, and boldly to speak in the name of Jesus, Mat 10:20. These seem to comprise all the meanings of the word in the New Testament, but no single word in our language expresses fully the sense of the original.
That he may abide with you for ever - Not that he should remain with you for a few years, as I have done, and then leave you, but be with you in all places to the close of your life. He shall be your constant guide and attendant.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv16, 19, 20, 21 Paraclete. This is a comforter: or also an advocate:…
Paraclete. This is a comforter: or also an advocate: inasmuch as by inspiring prayer, he prays, as it were, in us, and pleads for us. --- For ever. Hence it is evident, that this spirit of truth was not only promised to the persons of the apostles, but also to their successors, through all generations. (Challoner) --- I have not changed the word Paraclete, which signifies, both and advocate and a comforter. He shall remain with you, and in you, for ever. What greater happiness, what greater security for the faithful, than to have this divine promise, the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth, remaining with the Church for ever, to protect her, and preserve her from all errors and heresies? (Witham) --- If the Holy Ghost had been promised only to the apostles, their successors could not have challenged the promise. But the promises and privileges were not merely personal, but attached to their office perpetually. Hence, the Holy Ghost, in every age and clime, perpetually watches over the Catholic Church, and preserves her from both open and secret attacks of her enemies.
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).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv17–21 whom the world cannot receive, &c.--(See Co1 2:14).
whom the world cannot receive, &c.--(See Co1 2:14).
he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you--Though the proper fulness of both these was yet future, our Lord, by using both the present and the future, seems plainly to say that they already had the germ of this great blessing.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv16, 18, 19, 20, 21 16. I will pray the Father—The prayer of the…
16. I will pray the Father—The prayer of the Son, the ever living intercessor, consists in his wish and will ever going forth, that the work of redemption may be accomplished, by the power of the Father, in all its fulness and glory. And this prayer is a perfect divine sympathy with the wish and will of the Father; so that herein the Father and the Son are one, and the prayer of the Son is sure of fulfilment.
Comforter—Rather Advocate. In ancient times there existed the relation of patron and client. The office of patron included the various ideas of protection against arbitrary power, advocacy in law-suits, and consolation in difficulties and trouble. It is this office that the Paraclete, Comforter, or Advocate here mentioned, fulfils.
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Abide with you for ever—He is not to reascend like me. His mission is to fill the entire space of time until my Second Advent. This is the dispensation of the Spirit.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv16–21 16. And I will pray the Father] ‘I’ is…
16. And I will pray the Father] ‘I’ is emphatic: ‘you do your part on earth, and I will do mine in Heaven.’ Our translators have once more rightly made a distinction but an inadequate one (see on Joh_13:23; Joh_13:25). The word for ‘pray’ here is different from that for ‘ask’ Joh_14:13-14; but of the two the one rendered ‘pray’ (erôtân) is (so far as there is a distinction) the less suppliant. It is the word always used by S. John when Christ speaks of His prayers to the Father (Joh_16:26, Joh_17:9; Joh_17:15; Joh_17:20); never the word rendered ‘ask’ (aitein) which however Martha, less careful than the Evangelist, uses of Christ’s prayers (Joh_11:22). But the distinction must not be pressed as if aitein were always used of inferiors (against which Deu_10:12; Act_16:29; 1Pe_3:15 are conclusive), or erôtân always of equals (against which Mar_7:26; Luk_4:38; Luk_7:3; Joh_4:40; Joh_4:47; Act_3:3 are equally conclusive), although the tendency is in that direction. In 1Jn_5:16 both words are used. In classical Greek erôtân is never ‘to make a request,’ but always (as in Joh_1:19; Joh_1:21; Joh_1:25, Joh_9:2; Joh_9:15; Joh_9:19; Joh_9:21; Joh_9:23, &c.) ‘to ask a question.’ (See on Joh_16:23.)
another Comforter] Better, another Advocate. The Greek word, Paraclete (Παράκλητος) is employed five times in the N.T.—four times in this Gospel by Christ of the Holy Spirit (Joh_14:16; Joh_14:26, Joh_15:26, Joh_16:7), once in the First Epistle by S. John of Christ (Joh_2:1). Our translators render it ‘Comforter’ in the Gospel, and ‘Advocate’ in the Epistle. As to the meaning of the word, usage appears to be decisive. It commonly signifies ‘one who is summoned to the side of another’ to aid him in a court of justice, especially the ‘counsel for the defence.’ It is passive, not active; ‘one who is summoned to plead a cause,’ not ‘one who exhorts, or encourages, or comforts.’ A comparison of the simple word (κλητός = ‘called;’ Mat_20:16; Mat_22:14; Rom_1:1; Rom_1:6-7; 1Co_1:1-2, &c.) and the other compounds, of which only one occurs in the N.T. (ἀνέγκλητος = ‘unaccused;’ 1Co_1:8; Col_1:22, &c.), or a reference to the general rule about adjectives similarly formed from transitive verbs, will shew that ‘Paraclete’ must have a passive sense. The rendering ‘Comforter’ has arisen from giving the word an active sense, which it cannot have. Moreover, ‘Advocate’ is the sense which the context suggests, wherever the word is used in the Gospel: the idea of pleading, arguing, convincing, instructing, is prominent in every instance. Here the Paraclete is the ‘Spirit of truth,’ whose reasonings fall dead on the ear of the world, and are taken in only by the faithful. In Joh_14:26 He is to teach and remind them. In Joh_15:26 He is to bear witness to Christ. In Joh_16:7-11 He is to convince or convict the world. In short, He is represented as the Advocate, the Counsel, who suggests true reasonings to our minds and true courses for our lives, convicts our adversary the world of wrong, and pleads our cause before God our Father. In the Te Deum the Holy Spirit is rightly called ‘the Comforter,’ but that is not the function which is set forth here. To substitute ‘Advocate’ will not only bring out the right meaning in the Gospel, but will bring the language of the Gospel into its true relation to the language of the Epistle. ‘He will give you another Advocate’ acquires fresh meaning when we remember that S. John calls Christ our ‘Advocate:’ the Advocacy of Christ and the Advocacy of the Spirit mutually illustrating one another. At the same time an important coincidence between the Gospel and Epistle is preserved, one of the many which help to prove that both are by one and the same author, and therefore that evidence of the genuineness of the Epistle is also evidence of the genuineness of the Gospel. See Lightfoot, On Revision, pp. 50–56, from which nearly the whole of this note is taken.
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It is worth noting that although S. Paul does not use the word Paraclete, yet he has the doctrine: in Rom_8:27; Rom_8:34 the same language, ‘maketh intercession for,’ is used both of the Spirit and of Christ.
that he may abide with you for ever] Their present Advocate has come to them and will leave them again; this ‘other Advocate’ will come and never leave them. And in Him, who is the Spirit of Christ (Rom_8:9), Christ will be with them also (Mat_28:20).
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.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv16–21 (16) And I will pray the Father.—Comp. Note on…
(16) And I will pray the Father.—Comp. Note on Joh_16:26. The pronoun is again emphatic—“I have given you your part to do. I on My part will pray the Father.” The word used for “pray” is one which implies more of nearness of approach and of familiarity than that which is rendered “ask” in Joh_14:14. It is the word which John regularly uses when he speaks of our Lord as praying to the Father, and occurs again in Joh_16:26; Joh_17:9; Joh_17:15; Joh_17:20. The distinction is important, but it has sometimes, perhaps, been unduly pressed. Both words occur in 1Jn_5:16. (See Note there.)
And he shall give you another Comforter.—The better rendering is probably another Advocate. The word is used of the third person in the Holy Trinity here, and in Joh_14:26, and in Joh_15:26 and Joh_16:7. In each of these instances it is used by our Lord. It is found once again in the New Testament, and is there applied by St. John to our Lord Himself (1Jn_2:1). In the Gospel the English version uniformly translates it by “Comforter.” “In the Epistle it is rendered by “Advocate.” But the whole question is of so much interest and importance that it will be convenient to deal with it in a separate Note. (Comp. Excursus G: The Meaning of the word Paraclete.) The word “another” should be observed as implying that which the Epistle states—the advocacy of the second Person in the Trinity, as well as that of the third.
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That he may abide with you for ever.—The thought of the permanent abiding is opposed to the separation which is about to take place between them and the person of our Lord. He would come again to them in the person of the Paraclete, whom He would send to them (Joh_14:18), and this spiritual presence should remain with them for ever. (Comp. Note on Mat_28:20.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv16, 18, 19, 20, 21 Vers. 16-21. (c) The greatest Gift the other Advocate.
Vers. 16-21. (c) The greatest Gift the other Advocate.
Vers. 16, 17 Consequent on this obedient love, conditioned by it, is the Lord"s assurance: And I will ask the Father erwtan is used of an asking which is based on close and intimate fellowship; it is the word which implies the presentation of wish or a desire from an equal to an equal, while aitein represents the prayer or seeking which rises from an inferior to a superior (see note, Joh_16:26, and other usage of the same words, Joh_17:9, Joh_17:15, Joh_17:20) and he will give make a Divine and free manifestation of himself by his Spirit, give to you as your inalienable possessionanother Paraclete, that he may bewith you for evermore. Great deference is due to the Greek expositors, beginning with Chrysostom, who translate this word "Comforter," and who point back to the LXX parakaleite , (Isa_40:1) and because paraklhsiv very often, if not always, means "consolation;" but the word is passive in form, and denotes "one called in," or "called to the side of another," for the purpose of helping him in any way, but especially in legal proceedings and criminal charges, so that the word "Advocate," Pleader for us and in us, is the translation that most generally is accepted by almost all modern expositors. "Another" implies that Christ had already stood in this position while present with them, helping with tender care their first efforts to stand or serve. John (1Jn_2:1) distinctly says, "We have now a Paraclete with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous," etc. And in this place (Ver. 17) the coming of the Paraclete was his own true return to his disciples. The following is the substance of Westcott"s "additional note" on this word: "The two renderings of Paraclete as "Comforter" in the Gospel, and "Advocate" in the Epistle, are found in the English versions, with exception of Rhenish, from Wickliffe to Authorized Version and Revised Version. In the ancient versions, with the exception of Thebaic, the original word Paracletus is preserved. 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, counseling, or aiding him. The classical use is "advocate," so used in Demosthenes, not found in LXX Philo uses it in the same sense, and the rabbinic writers adopt the Greek word fylqrp, in opposition to "accuser." The apostolic Fathers use the word in this sense, but the patristic writers, Origen, Cyril, Gregory of Nyssa, Use it for "Comforter." In 1Jo 4, no other word is satisfactory but "Advocate," and the suggestion is that the only meaning here that is adequate is that of one who pleads, convinces, convicts in a great controversy, who strengthens on the one hand, and defends on the other. Christ, as the Advocate, pleads the believer"s cause with the Father against the accuser. (1Jn_2:1 Rom_8:26 Rev_12:10) The Holy Spirit, as the Advocate, pleads the cause of the believer against the world, (Joh_16:8) and pleads Christ"s cause with the believer." (Joh_14:26 Joh_15:26 Joh_16:14) Archdeacon Watkins has presented a large portion of the Talmudic evidence to the same effect. Thus from the "Pirke Aboth," 4:11, "He that keepeth one commandment obtains for himself one paraklit, but he who committeth one sin obtains for himself one kattegor (kathgorov)." The word was incorporated into the Syrian language, as seen in the Peshito Syriac translation, both of the Gospel and the First Epistle of John. The Advocate who is to be with the disciples forever, arguing down opposition and silencing cavil, is the Spirit of truth. The abundant proof of this great function of the Holy Spirit is not wanting. There is Christ"s promise. (Mat_10:19, 20 Mar_13:9-11) Then in Act_4:8, Act_4:13, whatever Christ had been to the twelve, that would the other Advocate, Mediator of Divine grace, be to the whole Church when the Lord"s earthly manifestation should terminate. The genitive after "Spirit" sometimes denotes its great characteristic; (cf. Rom_1:4, "the Spirit of holiness;" Rom_8:15, "Spirit of bondage" and "of adoption;" but in the same context we have "Spirit of God," "the Spirit;" Eph_1:17, "Spirit of wisdom and revelation; cf. also Rom_8:9, "Spirit of Christ;" 1Pe_4:14, "the Spirit of glory and the idea is that this other Advocate, even the Spirit of truth, shall reveal truth to the disciples, convince them of truth, as Christ had done. Whom the world cannot receive. There are antipathies between "the world" (as conceived by St. John) and "truth," which will render the world strangely unsusceptible of Divine teaching. Still, since the whole process of conviction is the distinct effect of the Holy Spirit upon the world (see John 16), the labein must not mean that the world cannot accept its convincing power, but cannot exert its power of convincing. Through apostles, who are his organs and representatives, the world will be convinced, and not apart from them. Because it seeth him not (yewrei)does not behold him in his external revelationsand knoweth him not by personal experience, "is not learning to know him" as these disciples even hitherto have been able to do in Christ. The world has proved by its rejection of Christ that it cannot behold the Divine energy in him, nor perceive by any inward experience his nature or the real nature of God; but ye, said Christ, are now learning to know him; for he abideth with you. He has begun his abiding presence with you, and shall be in you; and this state of things will continue to the end of time. "The future shows that the whole matter belongs to the domain of futurity" (Hengstenberg). The world cannot "receive," because it is dependent on visible things, and it cannot know because it cannot behold. You have no need to behold, and can and do know by another process. The passage is very difficult, because, if the world cannot receive the Spirit by reason of its own unspirituality and ignorance, how is the threefold conviction to be realized? May labein be regarded in the sense of katalambanein , "to seize hold of"? Rost and Palm give the following instances of this use of lambanein in Homer: " Od.," 6:81; 8:116; " II," 5:273; Herod., 4:130, etc. (cf. Joh_19:1 Rev_8:5) If so, the whole of this passage would read, "He will give you another Helper or Advocate, that he may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot seize (or take from you), because it beholdeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye are learning to know him, because he, according to the eternal laws of his being, dwelleth with you, and will be in you, and be altogether beyond the malice of the world.
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"Another Comforter.
This designation of the Holy Spirit brings forward into prominence his work on earth and his relation to men. And this is the aspect in which the Spirit of God has most interest for us. The theologian properly studies the Third Person of the Trinity in relation to the Father and the Son. But to the Christian desirous of appropriating the blessings revealed by religion, there is great encouragement in this designation, another Comforter.
I THE PROMISE IS SUGGESTIVE OF HUMAN NEEDS. Why should a "Comforter" be provided? There must be something in the condition of men which makes the promise of a Divine Friend so appropriate and welcome. Men suffer from ignorance and proneness to error and delusion. They are encompassed with temptations which act powerfully, sometimes fatally, upon their frail and feeble nature. And those who are bent upon attaining true knowledge and practicing true virtue are exposed to the bitter hostility and opposition of the world.
II THE PROMISE IS SUGGESTIVE OF THE CHARACTER AND THE OFFICES OF CHRIST HIMSELF. In promising another Comforter to come upon his own departure, Jesus was really claiming to be a Comforter, whose loss must needs be sorely felt. And such he was. He had been very much in the society of his disciples, was always sympathetic, always wise in counsel, always faithful in admonition, always gracious in encouragement. Nor, indeed, did he cease to be the Paraclete, the Advocate, of his people, when he quitted the world which he visited in order to befriend and save its guilty and helpless inhabitants.
III THE PROMISE IS SUGGESTIVE OF THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE CHURCH. The Paraclete is One who is called to the side of him who is in need, an Advocate who undertakes the cause Of the defenseless, a Patron exercising a wise protection, a Strengthener or Comforter communicating his power to the feeble. It is implied in the designation that the Holy Spirit is a Person, and that he is Divine. He teaches, guides, assists; he is living, acting, gracious. As he came on the Day of Pentecost the promise of the Father so he has ever resided in his Church, to quicken, to purify, to bless.
IV THE PROMISE IS SUGGESTIVE OF THE PECULIAR ADAPTATION OF THE SPIRIT TO THE WANTS OF THE RANSOMED HUMANITY. Our Lord"s mission to earth, and in the body, was a local and temporary mission. In both respects the mission of the Comforter was more suited to the condition of the Church. Whilst the ministry of Jesus was confined to one land, the influences of the Holy Spirit are felt wherever the gospel is preached, wherever Christian society is established. Whilst the ministry of Jesus lasted but for a few years, the abiding mission of the Comforter endures forever. Wherever and whenever human spirits call, in necessity and under the prompting of faith, upon the unseen God for strength and help, the Spirit of might and wisdom and grace, ever near and ever compassionate, comes to their aid, and proves himself their Comforter indeed. T.
Vers. 16-18. "Another Comforter.
I AS ANSWER TO A REQUEST OF JESUS. The manifestation of the Holy Spirit is a conditional thing. Jesus must ask the Father for it; and he can only ask the Father when he perceives the disciples to be going in the way of his directions. If only the disciples will do what Jesus wants them to do, ha will secure for them the indispensable help. They must not be under the delusion that the might of the Holy Spirit will be given to aid them in their own plans and schemes. They must be servants to the plans and schemes of Jesus. The Father waits for the Son to ask, and the Son waits till he sees his people ready to receive.
II THE GIFT BESTOWED. Here it is plain we must try to look at things rather than words at the whole actual work of the Holy Spirit rather than at special words by which he is described. And inasmuch as he is called "another Paraclete," we must consider the incarnate Jesus himself as the first and introductory Paraclete. Well did the disciples know how utterly helpless they would have been without the assistance of Jesus. Truly he was an earthly Providence to them. They never needed to be at a loss. And all the time they were made to feel more and more their natural insufficiency. And doubtless Jesus saw in their hearts the question rising as to what they should do when he was gone. If Jesus had not come into their lives, they would not have known what life can be. But having had a Paraclete, it would be like sinking from light into darkness to go on without one. Better never to have known Jesus at all, than to know him and then lose him, and have to go on with no mere than they had at the beginning. More than that, the gift of the second Comforter includes all that was essential in the first one. Nay, we may say even more. The first Comforter was only truly operative when he blossomed out, so to speak, into the second one. Jesus was the Truth, and the second Comforter was the Spirit of the Truth. Jesus gave the seed, and then the Spirit came like the breath of spring to stir up the seed into life. There is much about all this process that we cannot understand; but that is all the more reason why we should mark what we can mark even the sequence of processes and results. If the second Comforter had never come, the mission of the first one would have been the greatest enigma in the history of humanity.
III THE RECIPIENTS OF THE GIFT. It has been well said that Jesus is spoken of as having come into the world. The world could receive him after a fashion, because it could gaze upon him and recognize him by the senses, as it could any incarnated human being. But the Holy Spirit comes to the Church, to prepared and humbled hearts. He comes to complete repentance. Men see that the past has been wrong and foolish, full of wasted days and powers. Then they begin to study the communications of Jesus, and so they are led on into a reception of the Holy Spirit. There must surely be much listening to Jesus, much pondering over all the elements of his incarnate career, before it can be comprehended what the Holy Spirit really is and does. Y.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv16, 18, 20, 21 I will pray the Father, and He shall give…
Joh_14:16
I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter
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The praying Christ, the giving Father, and the abiding Spirit
The and shows us that these words are a consequence of some preceding steps.
The ladder that has its summit in heaven has for its rungs, first, believe; second, love; third, obey. And thus the context carries us from the very basis of the Christian life up into its highest reward. And there is another very striking link. There are, if I may so say, two telephones across the abyss that separates the ascended Christ and us. One is, If ye ask anything in My name I will do it; the other, If ye keep My commandments I will ask. Love on this side of the great cleft sets love on the other side of it in motion in a two-fold fashion. If we ask, He does; if we do, He asks.
I. THE PRAYING CHRIST AND THE GIVING FATHER.
1. I Will ask and He will give seems a strange drop from the lofty claims in the earlier verses. The voice that spake the perfect revelation of God lowers its tones into petition. Now apparently diverse views lying so close together cannot have seemed contradictory to the utterer, and there is no explanation which does justice to these two sides of Christs consciousness, except that He is God manifest in the flesh, who prays in His Manhood and hears prayer in His Divinity. The bare humanistic view which emphasizes such utterances as these of my text does not know what to do with the other ones.
2. His intercession is the great hope of the Christian heart. The High Priest passes within the veil, bearing in His hand the offering, and by reason of that offering, and of His powerful presence before the mercy seat, all the spiritual gifts which redeem and regenerate and sanctify humanity are forever coming forth. Note
(1) Christs quiet assumption that all through the ages He knows, at the moment of their being done, His servants deeds.
(2) He puts the Fathers act in pledge to us, and assures us that His prayer brings ever its answer. Father! I will that they whom Thou hast given Me be with Me. How far beyond the warrantable language of man! And how impossible for a fisherman of Bethsaida to imagine that strange blending of submission and of authority which speaks in such words.
(3) That which puts in motion Christs intercessory activity is the obedience of a Christian man. If you obey He will pray, and the Father will send. So the reward of imperfect obedience is the larger measure given to us of that Divine Spirit by whose indwelling obedience becomes possible, and self-surrender a joy and a power.
II. THE ABIDING GIFT.
1. Comforter means not only One who administers sweet whispers of consolation. We have to look not merely for a vague influence, but a
Divine Person who will be by our side on condition of our faith, love, and obedience, to be our Strength in all weakness, our Peace in all trouble, our Wisdom, Guide, Comforter and Cherisher, Righteousness, the Victor over our temptations, and the Companion and Sweetener of our solitude? The metaphors with which Scripture represents this great personal Influence are full of instruction and beauty. He comes as The Fire, which melts, warms, cleanses, quickens; as the rushing, mighty Wind, which hears health upon its wings, and sometimes breathes gently as an infants breath, and sometimes sweeps with irresistible power; as the Oil, gently flowing, lubricating, making every joint supple, nourishing; as the Water of Life, refreshing, vitalizing, quickening all growth. He comes fluttering down as the Dove of God, the bird of peace that will brood upon our hearts. He is the Spirit of holiness, truth, wisdom, power, love, a sound mind, sonship, supplication, etc.
2. And this Strengthener and Advocate is to replace Christ and to carry on His work. Another Comforter. All that that handful of men found of sweetness and shelter and assured guidance, and stay for their weakness, and companionship for their solitude, and a breast on which to rest their heads, and love in which to bathe their hearts, all these this Divine Spirit will be to each of us if we will.
3. This strong continuation of Christs presence will be a permanent companion. He was comforting the disciples who were trembling at the thought of His departure. Here is the abiding Guest, that nothing but your own sin will ever cast out from your hearts.
4. And Christ tells us how this great Spirit will do His work. He is the Spirit of Truth, not as if He brought new truth. To suppose that opens the door to all manner of fanaticism, but the truth, the revelation of which is all summed and finished in the person and work of Jesus Christ, is the weapon by which the Divine Spirit works all His conquests, the staff on which He makes us lean and be strong.
III. THE BLIND WORLD. There is a tone of deep sadness in Christs words. A savage stares at the sunshine and sees nothing. And worldly men, who are bound by this visible diurnal round, lack the organ that enables them to see that Divine Spirit moving round about them. Whether you have put your eyes out by fleshly lusts, or by intellectual self-sufficiency and conceit, you are stone blind to all the best realities of the universe; and if you look out upon the history of the Church, or upon the present condition of Christendom, and say, I see no Divine Spirit working there; well, then, the only thing that is to be said to you is, Go to an oculist, your sight is bad. Perhaps there is solid land, as some of us see it, where you see only mist.
IV. THE RECIPIENT DISCIPLES. Observe that the order of clauses is reversed. The world cannot receive, because it does not know. The disciple knows, because He receives. Possession and knowledge reciprocally interchange places, and may be regarded as cause and effect of one another. At bottom they are one and the same thing, Knowledge is possession, and possession is the only knowledge. He dwelleth with you now, and He shall be in you hereafter. There is a better form of possession opening before them, which came at Pentecost, and has lasted ever since. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The gift of the Spirit and the gift of the Son compared
(text and Joh_3:16):--It is a much overlooked, but nevertheless true, fact that the Divine love is as much displayed in the gift of the Spirit as in the gift of the Son.
I. THE SPIRIT IS AS INTRINSICALLY GREAT AS THE SON. The same attributes, prerogatives, words belong to both.
II. THE SPIRIT IS AS ACTIVELY ENGAGED FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE WORLD AS THE SON. Did He not strive with the old world? Did He not inspire the prophets, etc.? Has there ever been a soul regenerated without His agency? Has there ever been a conscience that He has not touched? In every solemn thought and expression is He not working?
III. THE SPIRIT HAS BEEN AS WICKEDLY TREATED BY THE WORLD AS THE SON. The people of Judaea alone personally ill-treated Christ; the population of the whole world do always resist the Spirit. About thirty-three years measured the period of the Saviours personal ill-treatment, but that of the Spirit extends over well-nigh twice that number of centuries.
IV. THE SPIRIT IS AS NECESSARY TO MANKIND AS THE SON. Two things are necessary to mans salvation: deliverance from the guilt, and from the power of sin. Christ was necessary for the first, the Spirit for the second. It is said that man wants nothing but sufficient evidence and the free use of his faculties to believe.
1. But there are circumstances antagonistic to faith which need to be removed. There is
(1) Moral habit. The habits contracted by most, before the gospel comes fairly under attention, are such that the whole tenor of its truths condemn, and when assailed marshal every power of the soul to their defence.
(2) Servile fear. The man who feels that he is hastening to insolvency is frequently reluctant to go into his accounts. Nothing but sheer urgency will induce him to open his ledger. Is there not something similar to this in a mans soul in relation to the Bible. Often has conscience whispered that a fearful debt has been contracted, and that there is nothing to pay, and the Bible which confirms that is shunned.
(3) Social influence.
(4) Satanic agency. The god of this world blindeth the eyes of men.
2. All this being true, the Spirit is necessary, in a sense, apart from truth, and apart from His dwelling in the truth. He is a personal power, using the truth and making it effective in the minds and hearts of men. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The parting promise
Among the many sources of trouble which disquieted the disciples we can distinguish four. And for each of these our Lord provides an adequate consolation.
1. The pang of separation from a beloved Master. For this His consolation is, that such separation shall not be forever (Joh_14:2-3).
2. The fear lest, in proclaiming their message, they should not be able to appeal to those mighty signs and wonders with which our Lord Himself had demonstrated the Divine origin of His mission. For this He gives them the assurance that they should even perform greater wonders (Joh_14:12).
3. That they should not have their Divine Master to fly to when they might require protection and provision. The answer to this was that our Lord would secure to them a perpetual access to God in prayer (Joh_14:13).
4. The painful consciousness that they should no longer have the wisdom of their Master to guide them in their proclamation of the gospel. For this our Lord provided in the text. Consider this blessing
I. IN ITS SOURCE: as it arises from the mediation of Christ Himself. I will pray the Father. This does not mean that the Father is unwilling to bestow, but that in the order of the eternal counsels Christ must ascend up on high to receive gifts for men. Large and blessed as were the results of our Lords personal ministry, yet all the blessings which attend the promulgation of the gospel spring directly from the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, the result of Christs intercession.
II. IN ITS EFFICACY: as able to impart a consolation equal to that of Christ Himself. Large and dreary must have been the void created by Christs departure. But He would not go away until He had provided another Comforter. I will send One to you, who shall achieve for you mightier, more abundant, more lasting benefits. I will send that blessed Spirit, whose office shall be to seal and to hind upon your souls all those comforting promises which you have heard from Me; who shall recall all My discourses to you, and enable you to pour out your prayers to God by reason of His groanings which cannot be uttered.
III. IN HIS PARTICULAR OFFICE OF SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION we are to have the Spirit of Truth
1. To instruct us in all points of doctrine. It is the office of the Spirit to take of the things of Christ and to show them to the soul; to reveal the mysteries of redemption. Thus we see that this office of the Spirit must be a great comfort to those destitute of human learning. Having One to guide into all truth, the poor and the wayfaring have the assurance that the whole mind of God shall be made plain to them, as much as to the greatest genius that ever tenanted the soul of man.
2. To direct us in all the practical concerns of life. He shall teach you all things.
IV. IN ITS EXCLUSIVENESS: as applying to all true believers. Christ does not say, Whom the Lord will not give; but, Whom the world cannot receive. Why cannot the world receive Him? Because it seeth Him not. Why does not the world see the Spirit? Is it from deficiency of evidence? No, but because they will not see. They close the shutter, and complain of darkness. Every worldly man is permitted to witness the daily operations of Gods Spirit in the world. Let him look abroad and see the transforming power of religion, the revivals in many Christian Churches, the changed habits of many families, and of many souls, brought under the power of Gods Spirit. Seeth it not!--might he not as well say that he seeth not the wind? He sees the ocean roused into tempest, etc.; will he tell us he cannot see the wind?
V. IN ITS PERMANENCE. He is not a stranger to visit; He is not a traveller, to sojourn for a season; but He is a friend, to abide and dwell. (D. Moore, M. A.)
The Paraclete
The etymological meaning of the word is, One called to be beside another. The word is used in classical Greek, and a word of similar etymology, from which our word advocate is derived, is used in classical Latin to denote a person who patronises another in a judicial cause, and who appears in support of him. It was the custom, before the ancient tribunals, for the parties to appear in court, attended by one or more of their most powerful and influential friends, who were called paracletes--the Greek--or advocates--the Latin term. They were not advocates in our sense of the term--feed counsel; they were persons who, prompted by affection, were disposed to stand by their friend; and persons in whose knowledge, wisdom, and truth the individual having the cause had confidence. These paracletes, or advocates, gave their friends--prospelates, or clients, as they were called--the advantages of their character and station in society, and the aid of their counsel. They stood by them in the court, giving them advice, and speaking in their behalf when it was necessary. Jesus had been the Paraclete of His disciples while He was with them. He had made their cause His own. He had taught them how to manage their cause with God. He had taught them to pray; and He had prayed for them. He had taught them how to manage their cause with the wicked one; bidding them watch and pray, lest they should enter into temptation; and He had prayed for them, that their faith should not fail. When the scribes and Pharisees attacked them, He was ever ready to defend them. In the great cause which was at once His and theirs He was their great helper. He instructed them what to say, and how to act. He gave them miraculous powers, and taught them how to use them. Thus He had been their patron--their paraclete. And He was not to cease to be so; He was, in His Fathers house of many mansions, ever living to interpose in their behalf (1Jn_2:1; Heb_7:25). But He was to cease to be their Paraclete on earth; and therefore, knowing how much they needed such a patron and adviser, and monitor and helper, He says, I will pray to the Father, and He will send you another Paraclete. Instead of losing, you are to gain by My removal. They had, in becoming His disciples, identified themselves with His cause. They stood pledged to establish the right which their Masters principles had to be universally embraced and submitted to. And all the resources of Judaism and Paganism, all the subtlety of philosophy, all the seductions of idolatry, all the power of kingdoms and empires, all the craft, and activity, and energy of hell, were against them. And what were they? poor, unlearned, obscure men? Truly, they needed a powerful patron, a wise adviser. And such a paraclete was He whom the Saviour promises. He cannot want power, through whose plastic influence the world was formed; He cannot want wisdom, who searches all things, even the deep things of God; and we know how He guided them, and enabled them to bring to a triumphant issue their mighty litigation. He filled their minds with the pure light of Divine truth, and their hearts with the holy fire of Divine love, and He poured grace and power into their lips; and when brought before counsels and synagogues, and governors, and kings, He gave them a force of reason and a power of eloquence that could not be withstood. They spake with tongues, as He gave them utterance, and proclaimed the mysteries of the kingdom, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Holy Ghost. (J. Brown, D. D.)
The Paraclete
It means one who calls us to his side, as a father does his child when he has some special thing to say. (H. Bonar, D. D.)
The Paraclete
I. HOW THE SPIRIT OF GOD IS THE PARACLETE.
1. The Holy Spirit is to be to us all that Jesus was to His disciples. What a valiant leader is to an army, the shepherd to the sheep, Jesus Christ was to His people. As the Orientals say of the palm tree, that every fragment of it is of use, and there is scarcely any domestic arrangement into which the palm tree in some form or other does not enter, even so Jesus Christ is good for everything to His people, and there is nothing that they have to do or feel or know but Jesus Christ enters into it. What would that little company have been without their Lord? Now, all that Jesus was, the Spirit of God is now. If there be any power in the Church, any light in her instruction, life in her ministry, glory gotten to God, good wrought among men, it is entirely because the Holy Spirit is still with her. And we shall do well to treat the Holy Spirit as we would have treated Christ. Our Lords disciples told Him their troubles; we must trust the Comforter with ours. Whenever they felt baffled by the adversary, they fell back upon their Leaders power; so must we call in the aid of the Holy Spirit. When they needed guidance, they sought direction from Jesus; we also must seek and abide by the Spirits leadings. When, knowing what to do, they felt themselves weak, they waited upon their Master for strength; and so must we upon the Spirit of all grace.
2. The Holy Spirit comforts by His presence and indwelling (Joh_14:17).
3. He comforts us by His teaching (Joh_14:26). We can, so far as the letter goes, learn from the Scriptures the words of Jesus for ourselves; but to understand them is the gift of the Spirit of God. What comfort is there equal to the words of Jesus, the consolation of Israel, when they are really understood?
4. Through the Holy Spirit we obtain peace (Joh_14:27). He who is taught of God naturally enjoys peace, for if I be taught that my sins were laid on Jesus, and the chastisement of my peace was upon Him, how can I help having peace?
5. The Holy Spirit, according to Joh_16:13, guides us into all truth, which is more than teaching us all truth. There are caverns full of sparkling stalactites. Now, it is a good thing, when you are travelling, to be taught where each of these caverns is--that is teaching you truth; but it is a better thing when the guide, with his flaming torch, conducts you down into the great subterranean chambers, while ten thousand crystals, like stars, vicing in colour with the rainbow, flash their beams upon you. So the Spirit of God will convince you that such and such a teaching is truth, and that is very much to know; but when he leads you into it, so that you experimentally know it, taste it, and feel it, oh, then you are admitted to the innermost cave of jewels, where the diamond lights up the secret mine. A great many Christians never get into the truth. They sit on the outside of it, but do not enter in.
6. The Spirit (Joh_16:14) glorifies Christ by taking of the things of Christ and showing them to us. Could infinite wisdom select a sweeter topic for a disconsolate heart than the things of Christ? You may bring me the things of Moses and of David, of Solomon and of Daniel, but what are they to me compared with the things of Christ?
II. THE NATURE OF THE HOLY SPIRITS COMFORT.
1. He never dissociates His comfort from character (see verse 15). The Spirit of God never comforts a man in his sin. See what sin it is that makes you sorrow--obey, and ye shall be comforted.
2. He does not aim at working mere comfort by itself and alone. He does not comfort us as a fond mother who does not teach the child anything, nor cleanse its body or purify its heart in order to comfort it, but who neglects these to please the little one; but the Holy Spirit never acts so unwisely.
When a man is feeling pain he is very desirous that the surgeon should administer some drug which will stop the unpleasant sensation immediately; yet the surgeon refuses to do anything of the kind, but endeavours to remove the cause of the evil, which lies far lower than the pain. Do not expect to get comfort by merely running to sweet texts or listening to pleasing preachers, but expect to find comfort through the holy, reproving, humbling, strengthening, sanctifying processes which are the operation of the Divine Paraclete.
3. His comfort is not founded upon concealment. Some have obtained consolation by conveniently forgetting troublesome truth. Now, the Holy Spirit lays the whole truth open before us; therefore our consolation is not of fools, but of wise men; peace, which age and experience will not invalidate, but which both these will deepen, causing it to grow with our growth and strengthen with our strength.
4. It is a comfort always in connection with Jesus.
5. It is comfort which is always available. It does not depend upon health, strength, wealth, position, or friendship; the Holy Spirit comforts us through the truth, and the truth does not change; through Jesus, and He is yea and amen; therefore our comforts may be quite as lively when we are dying as when we are in vigorous health, when the purse is empty, and the cruse of oil low, as when all worldly store and cheer abound to us.
III. SOME OBSERVATIONS UPON THE WHOLE SUBJECT.
1. To the believer
(1) Honour the Spirit of God as you would honour Jesus Christ if He were present.
2. Never impute the vain imaginings of your fancy to Him.
3. In all your learning ask Him to teach you, in all your suffering ask Him to sustain you, in all your teaching ask Him to give you the right words, in all your witness-bearing ask Him to give you constant wisdom, and in all service depend upon Him for His help. Believingly reckon upon the Holy Spirit.
4. To the unconverted--if thou art ever to be saved, the Holy Spirit is essential to thee. Except thou be born again from above, thou canst never see the kingdom of God, much less enter it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Another Comforter
I. THERE IS A COMFORTER.
1. So our high festival of the Holy Ghost comes round, and meets the wants which the year has been accumulating. Just as Good Friday came and met another years guilt, Whit-Sunday comes to meet another years grief. Some have wept alone, and have had no earthly solace. Some have had comforters; but their well-intentioned comfortings mocked you. Or, the human comforting was very precious and very true, and you know what that word comforter means; but here is that which exceeds it all, as the fountain exceeds one of its own smallest drops--a Comforter.
2. Christ said, Another Comforter. Who is it? The Father? Yes; for He is the God of all comfort. The Son? Yes; I will not leave you comfortless. Then, a Trinity of Comforters. Is that the way we travel to God is love? Through a Comforter I ask a Comforter to send a Comforter. Or more truly, two Comforters, of themselves, send a Comforter. You are a deep mourner. But see how you are encircled. And can any sorrow outreach that comforting?
II. THE MODE OF HIS COMING.
1. It is the comforting of a Spirit. Therefore He mingles with our spirit. He does not need that there should pass any actual words. Every one who has ever passed through very deep sorrow will appreciate this. There are times when all language is poor and rude. How often have we longed that our minds could throw themselves into anothers mind without speaking. The Holy Ghost does that.
2. And what power there is in that thought, that He is the Holy Ghost! It wants holiness to deal with a wounded mind. Nothing but what is very holy ought ever to come near sorrow.
3. Still, the Spirit uses instruments, and almost always the Word. It is not always a promise. Sometimes it is a doctrine, whose grandeur fills, and raises, and assures the Spirit. Sometimes it is a command, and the comfort is the sense of duty. The Comforter never forgets that He is the Sanctifier, and the Sanctifier never forgets that He is the Comforter. Therefore, if you would be comforted, obey the impulse of the Spirit, and go and be much with your Bible, and be jealous that the first thing you seek is holiness.
4. He does not make you forget, but He draws happiness out of the unhappiness; He makes the subject of your tears the element of your smile; He does not take away the cloud, but He makes a rainbow of the shower; the pain does not go, but gradually the pain has so much of Christ in it that you scarcely wish to part with it.
5. He always displays Christ--makes you find what you want, not in man, but in Christ. If the thought which is presented to your mind does not draw you nearer to Christ--if you are not led to do something for Christs sake--it is not the true Comforter who has been speaking to you. Jesus is thebalm of life, and the comfort of the Spirit is the revealing of Christ. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Another Comforter
The Divine Spirit is
I. A HOLY COMFORTER. There can be no comfort apart from goodness. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. His name indicates His work. By Him the soul is regenerated. Christians are elect through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience.
II. AN INSTRUCTIVE COMFORTER. By His inspiration all Holy Scripture was given for our learning. Not by methods opposed to or ignoring our intellectual nature; not by mere excitement of the emotions; but by conveying truth to the mind, and enabling us to understand and feel it, the Holy Spirit acts as another Comforter. By His help we believe, and then, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, and enjoy that peace which passeth all understanding.
III. A PERSUASIVE COMFORTER. By revealing Jesus to the soul the Holy Spirit produces that love which is the strongest motive to holiness, and which is the fulfilling of the law. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. And the love of Christ constraineth us to live not to ourselves, but to Him who died for us and rose again. The Comforter, as a faithful guide, in places of difficulty takes the traveller by the hand, and in addition to words of counsel, restrains him when he would step into danger, and kindly compels him to proceed when through fear or thoughtlessness he hesitates and may be overtaken by storm or darkness.
IV. A STRENGTHENING COMFORTER. He helpeth our infirmities. He comes to our succour when we are too heavily burdened, and lightens the weight or gives us strength to bear it. We are strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. The result of such strengthening is Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith, the being rooted and grounded in love, knowing the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, and being filled with all the fulness of God. And what consolation can surpass that which must result from such strengthening! Especially are we taught to expect this help in prayer (Rom_8:26). He helps us to obtain comfort by teaching us what to pray for, by enabling us to pray aright, by overcoming the doubts which hinder us in the exercise, by creating within us earnest longings after God, by exciting in us desires which we may be unable to express in words, but which bring down the refreshing showers upon the mown grass, and cause us to say, I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my supplication,
V. AN ASSURING COMFORTER. What consolation can be greater than to know that Jesus is our Saviour and that we are His friends, and that through Him we can look upward and with confidence say, My God! my Father! (Rom_8:14-16).
VI. A HOPE-INSPIRING COMFORTER. We abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost (Rom_8:17-19). Practical lessons:
1. Let us regard the Holy Spirit, not with dread, but with loving confidence.
2. Let our actions respond to His methods of help. Does He comfort by teaching? let us be diligent learners; by persuasion? let us yield to His influence; by guiding? let us follow; by promoting our holiness? let us strive against sin; by helping us to know our high vocation? let us give diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end.
3. Let all be encouraged to seek His help, for If ye, being evil, etc. (Newman Hall, LL. B.)
Another Comforter
I. THE BEING SPOKEN OF.
1. Spiritual (Joh_14:17).
2. Personal. Not a mere influence or energy, as according to the Monarchians, Patripassians, Unitarians, but a Person as truly as Christ was. That Christ taught this is apparent from
(1) The use of the personal pronoun (Joh_14:26; chap. 15:26).
(2) The names given Him.
3. Divine. Christ could not be represented by or commit the interests of His Church to a creature.
4. Distinct, as against Sabellians and Swedenborgians. Another.
II. THE RELATION IN WHICH HE STANDS
1. To the Father.
(1) Ontologically: one with Him, equal in being, wisdom, power, and glory, and yet proceeding from Him (Joh_15:26).
(2) Historically. He is sent (Joh_14:26) and given (Joh_14:16) by the Father.
2. To the Son.
(1) Essentially the Sons as the Fathers equal, He is nevertheless
(2) Historically exhibited as sent forth by the Father at the Sons intercession.
3. To the Truth. Spirit of Truth may signify the Spirit whose essence is the Truth, whose operations concern the Truth, whose office it is to testify of Him who is the Truth (Joh_15:26), and to guide into all the Truth Joh_16:13).
4. To the disciples. A presence
(1) Inward; not with and by, but in them (1Co_3:16).
(2) Permanent; not temporary, as Christs had been.
(3) Helpful (Mat_10:20).
5. To the world (Joh_16:17; Joh_16:8).
III. THE CONDITIONS OF RECEIVING HIM.
1. Loving obedience to Christ (Joh_16:15).
2. Believing recognition of the Spirit (Joh_16:17). The world had closed its eyes and steeled its heart against Him.
Learn
1. That all a saint obtains on earth he owes to the Saviours intercession Rom_8:34; Heb_7:25).
2. That the highest gift a human spirit can receive is the Holy Ghost as a Divine Being, an all-sufficient Helper, a heavenly Teacher, an unchanging Friend.
3. That the worlds unbelief of the Spirit is no proof that He does not exist. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
Another Comforter
I. THE WORK OF CHRIST AS IMPLIED IN THE ALLUSION TO HIMSELF. Christ is a Comforter.
1. In the needs He came to meet. To have had no mission for the sorrowful would have been to neglect the most evident of the worlds wants.
2. In the predictions concerning Him--He hath sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, etc.
3. In the nature of His words and works. To alleviate pain, to console bereavement, to meet doubt, to lighten death, He set Himself with all the absorbing interest of a master passion.
II. THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT RESEMBLES THAT OF CHRIST. The life of Jesus is an index of the work of the Comforter.
1. What we read of Jesus doing as a consoler, we read also of the Holy Spirit doing.
2. What men saw Jesus doing in Judaea, we may see and feel is being done by the Spirit now. As Christ led, inspired, soothed, and elevated human hearts, so the Spirit will ever do.
III. THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT TRANSCENDS THE SIMILAR WORK OF CHRIST.
1. In its permanence. Jesus Christ went away. His stay was only for a little while. But the Spirit abides forever.
2. In its universality. Jesus was only known to the comparative few who were around Him. But on every shore, and under every sky, the Spirit dwells with men.
3. In its nearness. Those who came nearest to Christ but kissed His feet or lay in His bosom. This is distant in comparison with the Spirits indwelling. (V. R. Thomas.)
The Comforter
I. OUR NEED OF A COMFORTER. We live in a world of sorrow and suffering.
II. IS THERE A REMEDY? God is love; and it is impossible that He should intend His creatures to sink under such a burden.
1. Shall we seek for it in the influences of nature?
2. Shall we seek for it in our fellow men? Many seem to think so.
3. It may be said, indeed, that there is no need, even if we feel that all these earthly stays and solaces are insufficient, to think of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. We have consolation in Christ, and we need no other. We need a present Comforter to make them efficacious.
III. HOW, THEN, DOES THE HOLY GHOST COMFORT US? When we first approach the consideration of the work of the Comforter, we meet with certain views of that work which seem to be the reverse of comforting. How can He who convinces us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, be a Comforter to us who are sinners? The friend who is found to be the truest and most trustworthy comforter is not he who whispers merely pleasant things in our ears; but he who tells us the truth, who, by telling us the truth, prepares us to understand what is wrong with us and to seek for a remedy. And how does He administer to the necessities which He thus makes apparent?
1. By revealing the fulness and sufficiency of Christ for all our spiritual wants. We say the work of comfort must begin here; for it is plain that, unless there be a supply for those deepest wants of our nature, we can have no real comfort or happiness. How, for instance, can a man be happy, or what kind of comfort can he enjoy, while he is laden with the burden of unforgiven sin?
2. By giving grace and strength in temptation.
3. And as it is in our spiritual trials, so also He comforts us in the ordinary troubles of life. (W. R. Clark.)
Another Comforter
Christ Himself was a Comforter, a true Barnabas, a brother born for adversity. His disciples found Him such.
I. The Spirit is an INDWELLING Comforter. Dwelleth with … shall be in you. Most of our comforts are external, outside of us. Our souls are empty, weak, unsatisfied; and we need to look outward for strength and consolation. Even Christs bodily presence was without, and sometimes He and His disciples were separated from each other. But the Holy Ghost is in you; He goes where you go; He dwells with you; He makes your bodies temples of the Holy Ghost; He makes your souls wells of living water; He is the glory in the midst, in the heart, of each of you.
II. The Spirit is an ABIDING Comforter (Joh_14:16). Change is written upon all things here. Health and strength fail, friends die, riches fly away. Even Christ, as to His bodily presence, was only a sojourner on earth. But the Spirit abides; He will never leave the soul of which He has taken saving possession.
III. The Spirit is an UNWORLDLY Comforter (Joh_14:17). He is spirit, and so the world cannot see Him, cannot handle Him. Even if He could become visible and tangible, the world would neither know Him nor receive Him. The world can have no sympathy with Him, for He does not speak of earthly things; it is not with them that He seeks to comfort sorrowful, longing souls. If He spoke of earthly things, He could not be a Comforter to Gods poor, humbled, broken, wearied ones. The true believer has left all for Christ, has sold all to get the treasure, and now nothing but Christ can satisfy him. And so the Holy Ghost, when He wishes to comfort, speaks of Christ (chap. 15:26; 16:14).
IV. The Spirit is an EFFECTUAL Teacher (Joh_14:26). Christ was a Teacher; He was always at work, in public and private. (John Milne.)
The Comforter
I. THE OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT. This term signifies to call to ones self. A person is in distress on account of ignorance, and he calls to him a learned person; a person ignorant in the law, who wants to appear in a court of justice, calls a person learned in the law; a person who is in distress on account of any disease calls a physician.. So the Holy Spirit. In the season of distress He comes to us at our call. The Holy Spirit performs this office
1. By the attestation of pardon.
2. By the production of a new and holy nature.
3. By maturing the Christian character.
4. By the assistance He affords in devotional exercises.
5. By fortifying the mind against the fear of death.
II. THE PERIOD OF HIS CONTINUANCE. His continued residence
1. Constitutes the great distinction and difference between the
Church and the world (Joh_14:17).
2. Gives efficiency and success to the means of grace.
3. Is an assurance of the ultimate triumph of the Church.
III. THE MODE OF HIS ATTAINING THIS OFFICE. We are indebted to Jesus Christ for the gift of the Holy Ghost, because
1. It is the reward of His sufferings.
2. The reward of His intercession, Therefore
3. We have a pledge and an assurance that Christ will pray the
Father. (T. Lessey.)
Comfort by the support of the indwelling Spirit
If you thoroughly exhaust a vessel of the air it contains, the pressure of the air outside will break that vessel into perhaps millions of pieces, because there is not a sufficiency of air within to resist and counteract the weight of the atmosphere from without. A person who is exercised by severe affliction, and who does not experience the Divine comforts and supports in his soul, resembles the exhausted receiver above described; and it is no wonder if he yields, and is broken to shivers, under the weight of Gods providential hand. But affliction to one who is sustained by the inward presence of the Holy Ghost resembles the aerial pressure on the outer surface of an unexhausted vessel. There is that within which supports it and preserves it from being destroyed by the incumbent pressure from without. (T. H.Leary, D. C. L.)
The two paracletes
Their mutual and distinctive relation to the work of redemption, to the life of believers, and to the service of the Church.
I. WHAT DOES THE WORD PARACLETE MEAN? Nearly all the ancient interpreters render it comforter or consoler. This accords with one use of it and its related words in both the Old Testament and the New. It does not cover the whole ground, since the Holy Ghost not only comforts, but does a great deal more than that. In some cases the word is equivalent to master, teacher, interpreter. In other cases it means a pleader or advocate--one engaged to take up a cause and to carry it through. Hence the word comes to mean--one by whose grace and love the entire case and cause of men are undertaken: who will soothe, comfort, advocate, plead, teach, interpret--yea, who will stand by us and render any needed aid whatever! For thisreason the word advocate is, like the word comforter, too restricted. We want a word of wider significance than either. The word helper is the best that we can find.
1. A helper--a large and beautiful word, which, in the fulness of its meaning as here used, nought but the experience of Gods love can unfold to us.
2. A Divine Helper. And we have two Divine Helpers, both working together to make the help complete. But who are they who have causes in hand that need such help? Manifold and complex is our need. We want help in every form. As sinners, we want such help as One can give who has a right to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee. As penitents, we want One who can grant us access to the Father. As learners, we want One who can take of the things of God and show them to us. As suppliants, we want One who can receive and answer our requests. As believers, we want One who can lead, sustain, and inspire. As confessors of Christ and ambassadors for Him, we need One who can convict men of sin, and who can speed our words directly to their hearts. Strong, constant, varied help do we want.
II. Then let us look at our TWO HELPERS AND SEE HOW THEY COMPLETE EACH OTHERS WORK.
1. One Helper is in heaven, is a link joining on heaven to earth; the other Helper is on earth, as a link uniting earth to heaven. Hence one Helper remains for us above; the other remains in us below.
2. The help of the Son is by the appointment of the Father; the help of the Spirit is through the ministration of the Son.
3. By the help of the one Helper we have a great sacrifice for sin; by the work of the other Helper men are convicted of sin.
4. Hence another and not less striking correspondence appears. The Lord Jesus Christ presents Himself to us as the object of faith; the Holy Ghost, working within us, enters into the region of an inward experience, and enables us by the power of a spiritual intuition to verify what we believe.
5. Further: In every detail of Christian truth and life these two Divine Helpers supplement and complete each others work. Christ reveals the Father to us; the Holy Ghost creates the spirit of adoption in us, so that we cry, Abba, Father. Christ gives us, when we believe, the right of being sons of God; the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that such we are. Christ is in Himself the truth; the Holy Ghost gives us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Christ is the object in whom we rejoice, but the joy itself is imparted by the Holy Ghost.
6. One Helper intercedes with the Father; the other Helper intercedes in the children. In one case the scriptural expressions are, We have an Advocate with the Father; He ever liveth to make intercession for us. In the other case, The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
7. But we must not omit to give distinctness to the thought of the advocacy of our two Helpers. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Advocate, Pleader, and Defender of our cause above; the Holy Ghost is the Advocate, Pleader, and Defender of our cause below. Christ above, that sin may not bar us from the throne; the Spirit below, that the world may not put us to shame.
8. One Helper is graciously preparing a place for us; the other Helper is engaged in preparing us for the place.
III. In view of the combined work of these two Divine Helpers, we can see THE COMPLETENESS OF REDEMPTIONS PLAN. Had our Redeemer wrought alone, His work had been unappreciated by man; but let another Helper come, creating men anew, convicting, regenerating, enlightening, educating, and training, then we see the Divine completeness of the Redeemers mighty work, and learn how surely the Redeemer will see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. On recognizing and laying hold of both these Helpers will depend our completeness as Christians. Our own piety and power in Christ are a prime condition of power for Christ. The degree to which the Spirit of God works by us surely depends on the measure in which He works in us. So also the efficiency of Church life depends on realizing and utilizing this double help. Not merely has soundness in faith to be guarded, but vigour of life has to be carefully watched. On this double help depends the efficiency of private members. It is also, and only, in the full use of this double help that the Christian ambassador is completely equipped. While we hold up Christ as the Light of the world, let us also equally extol the Holy Ghost as the Power of the Church. (C. Clemance, D. D.)
Even the Spirit of Truth
The Spirit of truth
I. THE NEED OF THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. It was by a lie that evil gained entrance into the world. Satan is both a liar and a murderer … Evil first introduced by means of a lie has been continually promulgated through the same instrumentality. Alas! the dominion of falsehood has been almost universally established!--false notions of God, of ourselves, of happiness; false estimates of good and evil; false dealings in the intercourse of life. Who is not conscious of these and other forms of it. It is amongst the most melancholy proofs of our fallen estate, that often, with children, the earliest exercise of the gift of speech is an endeavour at deceiving their parents. And as we grow up, it cannot be denied, that a rigid and unvarying adherence to truth is the most difficult of our duties. Hence the suspicion and mistrust between man and man. We admit, indeed, that a liar is held in general abhorrence. Men have naturally an admiration of courage in whatever way displayed; and therefore they despise a liar as they do the poltroon. And over and above the cowardice which is manifested by a lie, there is the injury which is done to society. Therefore, it may be little more than a consciousness that its own permanence is identified with adherence to truth, which induces society to be so vehement in its rebuke of a lie. But even if the contempt in which a liar is held might be referred to the very highest principles, whatever indignation at falsehood is excited, it exists in a degree which proves this indignation but little efficacious in destroying its empire. There is not the land where false principles are not wielding an influence which should belong only to true. There is not a family within whose circle there is no admiration for false theories in regard of duty and interest. There is not a heart so thoroughly hallowed into a sanctuary for truth that it is always closed against the intrusion of false opinions and false expectations. The whole creation groaneth for the establishment of truth.
II. HOW IN HIS RESIDENCE WITH THE CHURCH THE HOLY GHOST HAS EARNED THIS TITLE.
1. It is curious and interesting to observe how truth of every kind has advanced hand in hand with religion. Not, indeed, that it was the office of the Holy Ghost to instruct the world in natural philosophy. He came to unfold redemption, and so to strengthen the human understanding, that it might be able to bear the vast truths of the Mediatorial work. But, nevertheless, it did come to pass--that the understanding, so strengthened, found itself strengthened also to investigate creation. The Christian era has been distinguished by a rapid advance made in every branch of science; by the emancipation of mind from a thousand trammels; by the discovery of truths which seemed to lie beyond the scope of human intelligence. In the dark ages when Christianity was almost buried beneath superstition, ignorance of every kind oppressed the earth; but when better days dawned; science revived and the arts again flourished. And besides this, there is the same strict alliance between all kinds of truth as between all kinds of falsehood. And it ought not therefore to excite surprise that science and Christianity should have marched side by side. The rushing mighty wind, which swept superstition before it, swept also much of the cloud which had rested on natural things. In clearing the moral firmament, that the Sun of Righteousness might be discovered, it took the mist from the material heavens.
2. But, at the same time, the great business on which the Holy Ghost came was the instructing the world in the mysteries of redemption
(1) The Holy Ghost was the Spirit of truth to the apostles. We do not know that it is more amazing to hear so soon as the Spirit had descended, the twelve speaking fluently all the languages of the earth, than the preacher expounding to the multitude the blessed gospel of Christ. He made good this character by enabling them to preach the truth: and also by enabling them to write the truth. We know too well the treachery of the memory, and might reasonably say, that where the writing had been so long deferred, the narrative would be imperfect. But this is our security--the fact that it was the Spirit of Truth which guided the evangelists.
(2) If the Spirit were thus the Spirit of Truth in regard of apostles, is He not still such in regard of every real Christian? There is naturally gross darkness on the mind, and the most gifted of our race is unable to discern things so long as he is left to his unassisted powers. Mental as well as moral power has been put out of joint through apostacy; the affections strongly biassed towards evil exert a disastrous power over the will, and the will does the same with the understanding. And then the understanding will often reject the clearest evidence and fail to comprehend the simplest truth. It is the office of this Divine person to rectify the disorder of the moral and mental constitution, and thus to communicate that sort of inner light in which alone can be discerned the great truths of religion. And when a man has once submitted himself to the teaching of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth, guides him into truth, and leads him from one stage to another of knowledge, showing him, successively, the mysteries of redemption, and never allowing him to open the Bible without finding fresh matter for thought and for thankfulness. There remains much, very much, for this Spirit to teach. But observe, our Lord says--He shall abide with you forever. But we are now only in the infancy of being. No marvel then if we master only the rudiments of truth. And if this Spirit is to abide with us forever, why may we not expect the completion of what is thus commenced? He has all Eternity to teach in. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
The Spirit of Truth
The Holy Ghost is the living, personal, Divine unity of complete revelation, and, as such, the Spirit of Truth. He is the Spirit of Truth inasmuch as He makes objective truth subjective in believers, in order to a knowledge of the truth. (J. P. Lange, D. D.)
The function of the Spirit of Truth in relation to revealed truth
When a telescope is directed to some distant landscape, it enables us to see what we could not otherwise have seen; but it does not enable us to see anything which has not a real existence in the prospect before us. The natural eye saw nothing but blue land stretching along the distant horizon. By the aid of the glass, there bursts upon it a charming variety of fields, and woods, and spires, and villages. And so of the Spirit. He does not add a single truth or character to the book of Revelation. He enables the spiritual man to see what the natural man cannot see; but the spectacle which he lays open is uniform and immutable. It is the Word of God which is ever the same; and he whom the Spirit of Truth has enabled to look to the Bible with a clear and affecting discernment, sees no phantom passing before him; but amid all the visionary extravagance with which he is charged, can for every article of his faith, and every duty of his practice, makes his triumphal appeal to the law and to the testimony. (T. Chalmers, D. D.)
Willingness to know the truth a condition of the reception of the truth
A celebrated French beauty was smitten with smallpox, and as she became convalescent, her friends, fearing the consequences, would not tell her of her disfigurement. But one day, not getting an answer to her questions, she called for a mirror, and when she saw the calamitous fact that her beauty was gone, in a fit of passion, smashed the glass. It had told her the truth about herself. So the Spirit of Truth tells us about ourselves; and some people, rather than believe His witness, deny His existence. Whom the world cannot receive.
The world--that is, worldly men, minds full of worldliness--cannot receive, cannot see or know the Spirit, because He is wholly heavenly. As a mirror which is unclean cannot reflect clearly the image which is before it, so the heart that is impure, and which clings to the things of earth, cannot see with the eye of faith the Spirit of Truth, and so cannot receive Him. Worldliness receives Him not
(1) Because it does not and cannot see Him intellectually, which is the only mode by which it is accustomed to perceive anything that is not corporeal.
(2) Because it does not see Him corporeally; for such a temper of mind receives only what it sees: sight and the other senses are the instruments of reception, not faith; and hence, since He cannot be apprehended by the senses, such men did not receive Him, and cannot love Him, for the knowledge which is here spoken of includes love. (W. Denton, M. A.)
But ye know Him
The saint and the Spirit
The Holy Spirit, although the most active, potent, and real worker in the world, is not discerned by the mass of mankind, who are affected only by what they see, or hear, or feel. The vital distinction between the man of God and the man of the world is this: the man of God knows the Holy Spirit, for He is with him and dwelleth in him; but the man of the world knows not the Holy Ghost.
I. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS KNOWN TO BELIEVERS THROUGH HIS OPERATIONS IN THEM AND UPON THEM.
1. We have seen the operations of the Holy Spirit in the Church at large
(1) It was the Holy Spirit who at the very first formed the Church; who called out the chosen ones, quickened them, made them living stones fit to be builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit; who binds these living stones together, for all Christian unity comes from Him as the Spirit of peace, the Holy Dove proceeding from the Father.
(2) The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the Church is as manifest to many of us as any other great fact can possibly be. Even when we have doubted whether we ourselves possessed the Spirit, we have been charmed to see his work in others. We have seen conversions which nothing but Omnipotence could have wrought; we have seen graces exemplified which unaided human nature could not have produced.
2. The works of the Holy Spirit within a regenerate man find an illustration in the work of the Holy Spirit upon the person of our Lord, our Covenant Head and Representative.
(1) Christ was not born at Bethlehem without the Spirit of God, neither is He born in our hearts.
(2) Although Christ was baptized by man with water, He was also baptized with the Holy Ghost; and it is only in the power of His Divine anointing that we can have power to minister in the Lords house.
(3) Then the power by which Christ wrought miracles, and preached, is ascribed to the Holy Ghost. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, etc. Did the Master work in the power of the Spirit of God, and shall not the servants do so?
(4) The resurrection of Christ is ascribed to the Holy Ghost. You are promised that the same power which raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies.
3. If we know the Spirit of God at all, we shall know Him as having convinced us of sin. No one ever came to Christ until he felt his need of Him.
4. If you know the Holy Spirit, you will also know Him as the great revealer of Christ.
5. Since that, have we not often known the Spirit as our helper in prayer?
6. Then, when we rose from our knees, we opened the Scriptures, the Spirit of Truth acted as interpreter. He wrote the book, and therefore He understands it meaning.
7. You know not the Spirit unless you have often recognized Him as the great calmer and quieter of His peoples minds when under distractions.
8. More especially is the Spirit known to believers as their sanctifier.
II. THEY KNOW HIM BY HIS PERSONAL INDWELLING IN THEIR SOULS. The Holy Spirit gives us His operations and His influences for which we should be very grateful, but the greatest gift is Himself, which dwelleth with you and shall be in you. This is
1. Wondrously condescending;
2. Singularly effective. There is no way of doing work well, except doing it yourself; and when the Master comes and gives personal attendance, it is sure to be done.
3. Delightfully encouraging, If God actually dwells in me, then what may I not expect?
4. Potently sanctifying. If God dwell in us, let us not defile these bodies. When Ignatius stood before the judges, they said, You are called the God bearer, Theophorus; what mean you by this? He said, God dwells in me. When the persecutor looked at him and said he blasphemed, he replied that the Holy Spirit dwelt in him. Ah! but Ignatius proved it. If you and I dare to say God dwells in us, we must prove it too; perhaps not by a cruel death, but by what is far more difficult--a holy life.
III. WE SHALL KNOW HIM BETTER SOON. We shall be more instructed; and the instructed disciple knows the Master better than he who is in the A B C class. We shall be more fully sanctified, and the more pure we become, the more clearly shall we see the great Purifier. I do not know what we may be even here. We become warped and crippled by our small conceptions of the possible in grace. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you
The office of the Spirit
I. THE ASSURANCE OF A NEARER RELATION TO THE DIVINE BEING CONVEYED BY THIS PROMISE. The indwelling of the Spirit is declared to be a mere metaphor, as when we say of a philosopher, there is in him the soul of science; or of a poet, that he has the spirit of song. The disciples at this time needed comfort, they were about to lose the support of their Masters personal presence. What mockery to have been told that they should be so inspirited with truth as to compensate them abundantly for all their loss. A literal indwelling, then, being contended for, notice some of the included blessings.
1. It is a standing pledge of the Divine presence and protection. The Divine Spirit dwelling in us is God Himself coming back to that temple. He had dwelt in it once before; but this once living temple lost its purity, and in that same hour lost the presence of God. The rebuilding of this temple, the preparatory step for bringing back God to His forsaken sanctuary, was the awful mystery of the Incarnation. By this one act the human nature became an honoured and noble thing. Through the power of the Spirit it had enshrined Godhead. The indwelling of the Spirit is an abiding pledge of restored and continuing confidence between God and man.
2. It is the vital principle of union betwixt Christ and His people. Our being made one in Christ is one of the great junction facts of the Gospel system. It connects the sinner with his hope, the elect with the covenant, and both originates and effects that vital relation to God which brings the faithful within the reach of the mediatorial designs and purposes. The Spirit initiates that union, for by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body. He assures us of the union remaining unbroken, Thereby we know that Christ abideth in us by the Spirit which He hath given us (Rom_8:11). He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
II. THE PERMANENT INFLUENCE PROMISED AS IT BEARS UPON OUR HAPPINESS AND ADVANCEMENT IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
1. It assures to us a constant supply of enlightening and directing influences. He will guide you into all truth. He enlarges the range of our spiritual knowledge, and reveals, as if by a new spiritual sense, the great mystery of godliness.
2. It influences the moral affections also. This imparted life makes the heart to burn, while it opens the understanding.
3. It gives to all our services a filial and loving character--For ye have not received the spirit of bondage, etc. There is a service which is not happy. It may be sincere, and earnest, and costly, and self-denying; but it is the service not of a son, but of a bondsman. The Spirit in us changes constraint into cheerfulness and duty into happiness, and the restless activities of a self-devised worship into a calm repose and a commanded and accepted sacrifice. (D. Moore, M. A.)
The Spirit with you and in you
I. A MAN MAY HAVE THE DIVINE SPIRIT WITH HIM, BUT NOT IN HIM. The Divine Spirit was with the disciples in the person of Christ. Every man has the Spirit with him.
1. In the operations of nature.
2. In the revelations of the Bible.
3. In the events of history.
4. In the lives of all good men.
II. IT IS A GREAT PRIVILEGE FOR A MAN TO HAVE THE SPIRIT OF GOD WITH HIM. We have one who is ready to
1. Guide;
2. Protect;
3. Strengthen;
4. Perfect us.
III. IT IS A GREATER PRIVILEGE FOR A MAN TO HAVE THE DIVINE SPIRIT IN HIM. Christ had unfolded to His disciples an infinite system of truth, but it lay cold and dead in their memories. He deposited precious seed in the soil; but the soil lacked the warmth and sunshine that the Spirit of God alone could give. Compare the difference between the disciples before and after Pentecost. When the Spirit of God is in you you have spiritual
1. Life.
2. Satisfaction.
3. Power. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The indwelling of the Spirit
God is said to dwell in heaven; among the children of men; in Zion; among His people; in believers. The Spirit is said to dwell in His Church which is thus a temple of God, and in believers individually, who are severally His temple. It follows, then, that where the Spirit dwells His presence is indicated by certain specific effects.
I. KNOWLEDGE. This is one of the chief ends for which He was promised. This knowledge includes correct intellectual convictions and spiritual discernment. To this are due orthodoxy, love of truth and adherence to it under all circumstances. To this source, also, we are indebted for the unity as well as the preservation of the faith. This is a ground of conviction beyond the reach of scepticism, and unassailable by infidelity.
II. HOLINESS in all its forms.
1. Faith, confidence in God, in His word, promises, favours, etc.
2. Love
(1) To God.
(2) To Christ.
(3) To the brotherhood.
(4) To all men.
3. Temperance.
4. Meekness.
5. Long suffering.
III. HOPE, JOY, AND PEACE. The consolations of the Spirit which sustain the soul under all sorrow; whether from conviction of sin or from affliction.
IV. ACTIVITY IN RESISTING SIN AND IN DOING GOOD. He is the source not only of inward spiritual life, but of outward acts of devotion and obedience to God.
V. GUIDANCE.
1. By the Word.
2. By inward operation on the mind, guiding its thoughts, shaping its conclusions and exciting right feelings; not by impulse or any magic methods.
Duties flowing from this doctrine
1. To cherish the conviction that we in a special sense belong to
God.
2. To reverence and obey the admonitions of the indwelling Spirit.
3. To preserve our soul and body pure as the temple of the Holy Ghost.
4. A grateful sense of this unspeakable blessing and dignity. (C. Hodge, D. D.)
God in us
I. ALL THE CONDITIONS OF THE DIVINE LIFE IN MAN BASE THEMSELVES ULTIMATELY ON THE NECESSARY AND ETERNAL RELATIONS OF THE EVERBLESSED GODHEAD, OF THE TRINITY IN UNITY. The gradualness of Gods revelation of Himself enables us to trace out something of this mystery.
1. For many generations the revelation of the everlasting Father covered the canvas, and that form of awful majesty was shrouded everywhere in clouds and darkness. The utterance was, I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect.
2. To this succeeded the revelation of the co-eternal Son. At first, wrapped, up in the types and figures of the old law: then struggling like the sun through the mists of the morning, as by the chant of Psalms, and the voice of prophecy, the ever-brightening form was declared to the waiting soul of humanity; until the fulness of the time was come, and the eternal Son stood incarnate upon the earth. Humanity had now reached altogether a new stags; God was manifest in the flesh; yet still God was external to man. The brightness of the uncreated glory shone before his eyes, but his eyes were not quickened to receive it.
3. One mighty further step was yet to be reached, and it is with the promise of this that the Lord here upholds their hearts. The Paraclete shall be in you. The external revelation was to be replaced by the internal. Accordingly, when the coming of the Holy Ghost was perfectly accomplished, all additions to the external revelation ceased. Miracles were but visible attestations of the outward kingdom passing into the inward, and one by one they expired as the inward kingdom was established. Even the external revelation of the heavenly mysteries soon ceased. The canon was closed.
II. FROM THIS FOLLOWS THE PECULIAR CHARACTER OF OUR PROBATION. For though the Spirit of God works as a most free agent, quickening whom He will; yet does He work on humanity according to the law under which God has created it; not destroying its free agency, but, in the mystery of mans freedom, working with his spirit, and not by external force, overpowering its proper action. The energy of the Spirits working is enlarged or restrained as man yields himself to it, or resists it. In the first preaching of the gospel this great distinction of the new dispensation was emphatically declared. Repent, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, that the times of refreshing may come, from the presence of the Lord, and He shall send Jesus. This is
1. A promise to the whole Church. The stirring of the indwelling power was openly manifested, and through all times since the same law may be traced as pervading the Churchs history. It does not set before us one equally prolific age, but times of utter coldness and weariness alternating with blessed seasons of refreshing. Ease, success, quietness, has often bred a deadly lethargy in the Church, and the Spirit seems to have left her; but when danger, or persecution, has brought her back to repentance, at once the Spirit stirred within her, and the times of refreshing were restored. This has been, all along its history, the distinctive criterion of the Church. No dead empire has ever lived again; no exhausted school of philosophy has ever revived; no sect has ever recovered again its early strength after falling into decrepitude. The Church of Christ alone has thus renewed her strength, and mounted up from her decay with wings as eagles, because in her only is this hidden presence of God the Holy Ghost, and therefore for her only these times of refreshing are possible.
2. The law of the life of separate souls. With what energy does it awake when the heart turns really to God. Who has not known hearts, which seemed dead, the mere slaves of selfishness, burnt out,--like exhausted volcanoes buried in their ashy scoriae,--which have suddenly revived, under the breathing of the Spirit, and put forth again, like the earth in the blessed spring-time, the manifested glories of an irrepressible life?
III. FROM THIS GREAT MYSTERY THERE FOLLOW SOME PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCES.
1. As this is the characteristic of the dispensation of the Spirit, how do they lose the glory and the blessedness of life who do not know it in its fulness? What earthly joy can be compared with these Divine refreshings? How different a life is this from the cold, doubting, questioning, colourless life which the greater number of those who call themselves Christians are leading. What know they, alas! in life or in death, of this word of promise, He shall be in you?
2. This indwelling of God must, with all its unspeakable blessedness, be accompanied by correlative perils. So the word of God distinctly teaches us when it speaks of sin against the Holy Ghost as marked with such a peculiar malignity of charity, and leading to so terrible and hopeless an end.
(1) For other sins are committed against God as external to the soul, these are committed against Him within us.
(2) But beyond this. He who did not believe in the Son of Man, great as was his guilt, might under the power of the Holy Ghost be won to penitence; but he who blasphemes that Holy Spirit, on whose presence within us depends the faculty of seeing, destroys in his soul the very power of vision itself. He can never see the truth; he can never be won to repentance, and so he hath never forgiveness, neither in this life, nor in that which is to come.
(3) Again, the progress of this deadly sin is from its peculiar character preeminently insidious. Every external act of wickedness has of necessity about it some note of warning. But the separate actings of these sins against the Holy Spirit are so inward and secret, that men may pass through the whole series without any external sign awakening their alarm.
(4) The end of such a course, and the secret history of that spiritual decay, may sometimes be read in those terrible cases of what seem to be the sudden falls into gross iniquity of those who have long stood upright. The evil has, we may be sure, been long festering within. There may, perhaps, be no very marked outward change in the conduct, It is but that they are colder than they were in all the religious life: that is, God the Holy Ghost has left them. Then some sudden gust of temptation falls suddenly upon them, and their utter failure under it reveals to light and day the fearful secret. Conclusion: With such capacities of ruin involved in the very blessedness of our regenerate life, surely the lesson of lessons is for us the need of perpetual watchfulness: of guarding jealously that secret indwelling of God within us which is our glory, but which we can make our destruction, (Bp. S. Wilberforce.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv16, 17, 18, 20, 21 16. I will pray the Father. Rather, “request.” The…
16. I will pray the Father. Rather, “request.” The Greek word is not the one used when we are bidden to pray. The creature prays; the Son requests. He shall give you another Comforter. The Holy Spirit; the Helper. The latter word more nearly expresses the idea of the Greek term than the word “Comforter.” Abide with you for ever. The Lord had been with them over three years, but is about to depart. Henceforth he will abide with them, not in person, but by the Holy Spirit that he shall send. Through this agency he will be with his people “always.”
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.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv16, 18, 20 Joh 14:16 - Joh 14:17.
John
THE COMFORTER GIVEN
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Joh 14:16 - Joh 14:17.
The ‘and’ at the beginning of these words shows us that they are continuous with and the consequence of what precedes. ‘If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments, and I will pray . . . and He will send.’ Such is the series; but we must also remember that, as we have seen in previous sermons, the obedience spoken of in the clause before my text is itself treated as a consequence of some preceding steps. The ladder that is fixed upon earth and has its summit in heaven has for its rungs, first and lowest, ‘believe’; second, ‘love’; third, ‘obey.’ And thus the context carries us from the very basis of the Christian life up into its highest reward, even the larger gift to an obedient spirit of that Great Spirit, who is the Comforter and the Teacher.
And there is another very striking link of connection between these words and the preceding. There are, if I may so say, two telephones across the abyss that separates the ascended Christ and us. One of them is contained in His words, ‘If ye ask anything in My name I will do it’; the other is contained in these words, ‘If ye keep My commandments I will ask.’ Love on this side of the great cleft sets love on the other side of it in motion in a twofold fashion. If we ask, He does; if we do, He asks. His action is the answer to our prayers, and His prayers are the answer to our obedient action. So we have here these points-the praying Christ and the giving Father; the abiding Gift; the blind world and the recipient disciples.
I. Note, then, first, the praying Christ and the giving Father.
‘I will ask and He will give’ seems a strange drop from the lofty claims with which we have become familiar in the earlier verses of this chapter. ‘Believe in God, believe also in Me’; ‘He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father’; ‘If ye shall ask anything in My name I will do it’; ‘Keep My commandments.’ All these distinctly express, or necessarily imply, divine nature, prerogatives, and authority. But here the voice that spake the perfect revelation of God, and gave utterance authoritatively to the perfect law of life, softens and lowers its tones in petition; and Jesus Christ joins the rank of the suppliants. Now common sense tells us that apparently diverse views lying so close together in one continuous stream of speech cannot have seemed to the utterer of them to be contradictory; and I venture to affirm that there is no explanation which does justice to these two sides of Christ’s consciousness-the one all divine and authoritative and lofty, and the other all lowly and identifying Himself with petitioners and suppliants everywhere-except the old-fashioned and to-day discredited belief that He is ‘God manifest in the flesh,’ who prays in His Manhood and hears prayer in His Divinity. The bare humanistic view which emphasises such utterances as these of my text does not, for the life of it, know what to do with the other ones, and cannot manage to unite these two images into a stereoscopic solid. That is reserved for the faith which believes in the Manhood and in the Deity of our Lord and Saviour.
His intercession is the great hope of the Christian heart. His intercession is the great activity of His present exalted and glorious state. His intercession is no mere verbal utterance, nor the representation to the Father of an alien or a diverse will, but His intercession, mysterious as it is, and unfathomable to our poor, short lines and light plummets, must mean this at all events-His continual activity in presenting before the divine Father, as the motive and condition of His petition being granted, His own great work upon the Cross. The High Priest passes within the veil, bearing in His hand the offering which He has made, and by reason of that offering, and of His powerful presence before the mercy-seat, all the spiritual gifts which redeem and regenerate and sanctify humanity are for ever coming forth. ‘I will pray, and He will give,’ is but one way of saying, ‘Seeing then, that we have a great High Priest over the House of God who is entered within the veil, let us draw near.’
But I would have you notice how, as is always the case in all utterances of Jesus Christ which express the lowest humiliation and completest identification of Himself with humanity, there is ever present some touch of obscured glory, some all but suppressed flash of brightness which will not be wholly concealed. Note two things in this great utterance; one, Christ’s quiet assumption that all through the ages, and today, nineteen centuries after He died, He knows, at the moment of their being done, His servants’ deeds. ‘Keep my commandments, and, knowing that you keep them, I will then and there pray for you.’ He claims in the lowly words an altogether supernatural, abnormal, divine cognisance of all the acts of men down the ages and across the gulf between earth and heaven.
And the other signature of divinity stamped on the prayer of Christ is His certitude of the answer. ‘I will ask and He will give’: He puts, as it were, the Father’s act in pledge to us, and assures us, in a tone of certainty, which is not merely the assurance of faith, but the certitude of One who is ‘one with the Father,’ that His prayer brings ever its answer. ‘Father! I will that they whom Thou hast given Me be with Me.’ How strange! How far beyond the warrantable language of man! And how impossible for a fisherman of Bethsaida to imagine, if he had not heard, that strange blending of submission and of authority which speaks in such words!
Then, remember what I have already said, that, according to the teaching of this verse, taken in connection with its context, that which put in motion Christ’s Intercessory activity, as represented in my text, is the obedience of a Christian man. If you obey He will pray, and the Father will send. So the reward of imperfect obedience is the larger measure given to us of that divine Spirit by whose indwelling obedience becomes possible, and self-surrender a joy and a power. And that is not merely because of the natural operation by which any kind of conduct tends to repeat itself in more complete measure, nor is it merely a case of ‘to him that hath shall be given’; as a man’s arm is strengthened by exercise, and any faculty becomes more assured, and swift, and at the command of its owner, by use. But there is a distinct supernatural impartation to every obedient heart of divine gifts which come straight through Jesus Christ to it. He Himself, in this immediate context, says, ‘If I depart I will send Him unto you,’ and the true conception is that in that Spirit’s gift, which is a reality waiting as its crown and reward upon our poor stained obedience, the whole Godhead is present; the Father the Source, the Son the Channel, the Spirit the Gift.
II. And so, secondly, note what our text tells us of that abiding gift.
‘He will send another Comforter,’ ‘that He may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of Truth.’ I suppose I may take it for granted that most of my audience know all that need be said as to the meaning of this word ‘Comforter.’ In our present modern English it has a very much narrower range of meaning than its etymology would give it, and than probably it had when it was first used in an English translation. ‘Comforter’ means a great deal more than ‘consoler,’ though we have narrowed it to that signification almost exclusively. It means not only one who administers sweet whispers of consolation in sorrow, but one who, in any circumstances, by his presence makes strong. And the original Greek word, of which it is the translation here, has a precisely analogous meaning; its original signification being that of ‘one who is called to the aid of another,’ primarily as an advocate in a court of law, but more widely as a helper in any form whatsoever. And that is the idea which is to be attached to the word here:-a Comforter who makes strong by His presence; the Paraclete, who is our Advocate, Helper, Guide, and Instructor. Need I dwell upon the great thoughts that spring from that metaphor; how we have to look for a Person, and not merely a vague influence; a divine Person who will be by our sides on condition of our faith, love, and obedience, to be our Strength in all weakness, our Peace in all trouble, our Wisdom in all darkness, our Guide in every perplexity, our Comforter and Cherisher, our Righteousness when sin is strong, the Victor over our temptations, and the Companion and Sweetener of our solitude? The metaphors with which Scripture represents this great personal Influence are full of instruction and beauty. He comes as ‘the Fire,’ which melts, which warms, which cleanses, which quickens. He comes as the ‘rushing, mighty Wind,’ which bears health upon its wings, and sometimes breathes softly as an infant’s breath, and sometimes sweeps with irresistible power. He comes as the ‘Oil,’ gently flowing, lubricating, making every joint supple, nourishing. He comes as the ‘Water of Life,’ refreshing, vitalising, quickening all growth. He comes fluttering down as the Dove of God, the bird of peace that will brood upon our hearts. The predicates which Scripture attaches to that great Name are equally various, and are full of teaching as to the manner in which He is the Comforter and the Advocate. He is the Spirit of Holiness, the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Wisdom, the Spirit of Power, the Spirit of Love, the Spirit of a sound Mind, the Spirit of Sonship, the Spirit of Supplication, and of many great things besides. And this sweet, strong, all-sufficient Person is offered to each of us, and waits to enter our hearts.
And, says Christ, this Strengthener and Advocate is to replace Me and to carry on My work. ‘He will send another Comforter.’ Who was the other but the Master who was speaking? So all that that handful of men had found of sweetness and shelter and assured guidance, and stay for their weakness, and enlightenment for their darkness, and companionship for their solitude, and a breast on which to rest their heads, and love in which to bathe their hearts, all these this divine Spirit will bring to each of us if we will.
And further, our Lord tells us that this strong continuer of His presence will be a permanent Companion. ‘He will abide with you for ever.’ He was comforting the disciples who were trembling at the thought of His departure, and knowing that all the sweetness of these three short years had come to an end; and He says to them, and through them to all the ages to the end of time: ‘Here is the abiding Guest, that nothing but your own sin will ever cast out from your hearts.’
And Christ tells us how this great Spirit will do His work. He is the ‘Spirit of Truth,’ not as if He brought new truth. To suppose that He does so, opens the door to all manner of fanaticism, but the truth, the revelation of which is all summed and finished in the person and work of Jesus Christ, is the weapon by which the divine Spirit works all His conquests, the staff on which He makes us lean and be strong. He is the Spirit by whom the truth passes into our personal possession, by no mere imperfect form of outward teaching which is always confused and insufficient, but by the inward teaching that deals with our hearts and our spirits.
But Christ speaks, too, of the blind world. There is a tone of deep sadness in His words. The thought of the immense multitude of men who were incapacitated to receive this Strengthener steals across and casts a momentary shadow upon even the brightness and greatness of His promise. ‘The world cannot receive because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him.’ The ‘world’ is the mass of man, considered as godless and separate from Him, and there is a bit of the world in us all; but there are men who are wholly under its influence and dominion. And these men, says Christ, are perfectly incapable of receiving the teaching of this divine Comforter. Of course there are other operations of that Great Spirit of which we shall have to hear as we go on further in this context, in which His work ‘convicts the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.’ But what our Lord is speaking of here is the work of that Spirit who comes in response to His prayer which rises in consequence of our obedience, and who, coming, brings with Him strength and purity and peace and wisdom; and that aspect of His operations a heart that is all full and seething with the world is unfit to receive. It cannot see Him. Embruted natures are altogether incapacitated for high thoughts, for the perception of natural beauty, for the appreciation of art; and worldly men, by the very same law, are incapable of receiving this divine Spirit. A savage stares at the sunshine and sees nothing but a glare. And worldly men-that is to say, men whose tastes, inclinations, desires, hopes, purposes, strivings, are all bound by this visible diurnal round-lack the organ that enables them to see that divine Spirit moving round about them. Whether you have put your eyes out by fleshly lusts, or, as many men in this generation have done, by intellectual self-sufficiency and conceit, if the world, in its grosser or in its most refined forms, is your master, you are stone blind to all the best realities of the universe, and you cannot see the things that are. If you look out upon the history of the Church, or upon the present condition of Christendom, and say, ‘I see no divine Spirit working there’; well, then, the only thing that is to be said to you is, ‘Go to an oculist; your sight is bad. Perhaps there is solid land, as some of us see it, where you see only mist.’ This generation needs the preaching of a supernatural power at work beside us, and among us, and until we come to believe that, we do not understand the fullness of Christ’s gift.
III. Then, lastly, note the recipient disciples.
Observe that the order of clauses is reversed in the last part of the text. The world cannot receive, because it does not know. The disciple knows, because he receives. Possession and knowledge reciprocally interchange places, and may be regarded as cause and effect of one another. That is to say, at bottom they are one and the same thing. Knowledge is possession, and possession is the only knowledge. These disciples knew Christ in a fashion. He had just been telling them that they did not know Him; but so far as they did dimly grasp Him, they saw the Spirit-in another form, indeed, than they would hereafter see-but still truly, though imperfectly. Beholding the Spirit, though ‘through a glass darkly,’ and cherishing their partial possession of Him, they will come to more, and steadfastly increase from the morning’s twilight to the midday glory. So He says: ‘He dwelleth with you’ now, and ‘He shall be in you’ hereafter. There is a better form of possession opening before them, which came at Pentecost, and has lasted ever since. From thenceforward we have a Spirit that not only stands by our sides and holds fellowship with us {for the two ‘withs’ of our text are two different words, expressing respectively proximity and communion}, but who actually dwells in the central depths of our natures, and whom we thus possess more perfectly and blessedly than is possible to even the closest outward proximity, and the sweetest outward fellowship.
That possession of an abiding and indwelling Spirit is the gift of Christ to every Christian soul, and is to be found by us all upon the path so plainly marked out in our text and its connections-’believe,’ ‘love,’ ‘obey.’ Then the Dove of God will flutter down upon our heads and nestle in our hearts, and brooding over the solemn and solitary sea of our chaotic spirits, will bring up from it a new world glistening in fresh order and beauty, and ‘very good’ in its Maker’s eyes.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv16, 17, 19 G. Parakletos, "one called alongside to help." Translated "advocate,"…
Comforter
G. Parakletos, "one called alongside to help." Translated "advocate," 1Jn 2:1. Christ is the believer’s Paraclete with the Father when he sins; the Holy Spirit the believer’s indwelling Paraclete to help his ignorance and infirmity and to make intercession Rom 8:26; Rom 8:27.
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(See "Holy Spirit," N.T. doctrine,) Mat 1:18. (See Scofield "Act 2:4").
And I will (See Scofield "Luk 11:13").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv18, 21 Further encouragement:
Further encouragement:
v. 18. I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you.
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v. 19. Yet a little while and the world seeth Me no more; but ye see Me. Because I live, ye shall live also.
v. 20. At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.
The Lord repeats His comforting assurance from another angle. He promises not to leave His disciples orphans, without a guide, deprived of all comfort. In addition to the fact that He will provide the Comforter for them, He Himself will not abandon them and leave them to the fate of children bereft of their parents. It may seem to them that His departure means as much, but because of this very fact that He is entering into His glory, He will be able to be present with them just as surely as before, and for all times. He will return to them in the means of grace, where His presence is always certain, and He will shortly return to them in person. It is but a little while, and the world, the unbelieving, hostile children of unbelief, would see Him no more, neither with the eyes of the body nor with those of the spirit. But His disciples would and will see Him, the eyes of their understanding being enlightened; they would understand Him, His person and work, better than ever before. For with His resurrection His human body would enter into a new mode of existence, His mortal body would be transfused with divinity, it would be transfigured for all times. Jesus lives, and they shall live. When Christ comes to them in the spirit and they learn to know and understand Him better with each new day, then they become partakers of the new spiritual life of Jesus. They will also understand more and more what that wonderful union and communion means which obtains between Father and Son, between the believers and Christ. And the day will come when the last shred of the veil will be taken from their eyes, and they will know their Savior and the mystery of the Triune God even as they are known. In the mean time they should rest assured that the relation between the Savior and the believers is just as intimate and blessed as that between the Father and the Son. The presence of Jesus in the believers assures them of the fullness of both His grace and power in them, grace and mercy for their sins and power for their sanctification.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv18, 21 leave you alone
leave you alone
Here Jesus implies that he will not leave his disciples with no one to care for them. AT: "leave you with no one to care for you" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
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the world
Here the "world" is a metonym that represents the people who do not belong to God. AT: "the unbelievers" (See: Metonymy)
you will know that I am in my Father
God the Father and Jesus live as one person. AT: "you will know that my Father and I are just like one person"
my Father
This is an important title for God. (See: Translating Son and Father)
you are in me, and that I am in you
"you and I are just like one person"
translationWords
world
life
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv16, 17, 18, 20 14:16 another Advocate: The Spirit continues Jesus’ work by…
14:16 another Advocate: The Spirit continues Jesus’ work by advising, defending, and protecting believers.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.