15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”
The NASU sets the verse apart from the previous passage and the following passage as if it were a standalone statement. It also provides a paragraph heading after the verse which makes it appear to be part of the previous passage where Jesus says, “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” (NASU). Most other versions connect it with the following verses with the word, “and” preceding verse 16 . If indeed this verse belongs to the previous passage, then it would be a qualifier for asking for things in Jesus’ name. We wouldn’t make any requests that are outside of his commands or our love for him. That doesn’t bode well for many of our prayers. We are generally too involved in self-love and not very conversant with his commands.
However, if the verse belongs to the following verses, then it must speak in some way of the Holy Spirit coming to us. Indeed, the better translation is to include the word “and” because the word, kago, is translate in other verses as either “and I” or “I also.”[1]
This now implies that sending the Holy Spirit is conditional. If this is true, then loving Jesus and keeping his commandments must be an essential demonstration of true salvation. If we were to examine many who claim to love Jesus and find that their lives don’t live up to his commands, then it would be an indicate that they are not truly saved. On the other hand, if we see someone who meticulously obeys Jesus’ commands but doesn’t show any outward signs of love of Jesus, we can expect that they would fall under Jesus’s condemnation written to the Ephesian church, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first” (Rev 2:4 ESV). One without the other is a sure sign that something is wrong in one who claims to be a Christian.
In fact, Jesus will clarify and expand on this topic. Loving Jesus and obedience to his commands are the subject of rest of this passage.
16 "[And] I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” (And is not in the NASU.)
The Holy Spirit is called in this passage another Helper. Other versions call him Advocate, Comforter, or Counselor. The Greek word is parakletos, which is defined as, “called to one's aid in a judicial cause … an advocate, pleader, intercessor; a friend of the accused person, called to speak to his character, or otherwise enlist sympathy in his favour.”[2]
When we are in trouble, when we are attacked by temptations or trials, the Holy Spirit is with us. The Greek word comes from two words, para, which is to come along side, as is used for paramedics. Kletos, is to be called or appointed. This is a fitting way to describe the Holy Spirit as Jesus will call him to come alongside of us. The best part of this is that he will be with us forever.
As we look back at the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit didn’t reside in people. He rushed upon Samson (Judg 14:6, 19, 15:14). But he didn’t even realize it when the Holy Spirit left him (Judg 16:20). The Holy Spirit also rushed on Saul in 1 Samuel 10:10, 11:6. Then, an evil spirit rushed on Saul in 1 Samuel 18:10 and the Lord departed from him (1 Sam 18:12). Both men had tasted the goodness of the Lord by the Holy Spirit, but their disobedience and arrogance cost them the very presence of the Lord. I cautiously say they both tasted of the goodness of the Lord because the Holy Spirit didn’t reside in them permanently. People today can “taste” of the goodness of God, but not be saved.
For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. (Heb 6:4-6 ESV)
This certainly describes Saul. To his dying day, he didn’t express any repentance for his sinful attitudes and behavior that he exhibited during his reign. It describes churchgoers who live seemingly good lives but have never yielded their lives to the lordship of Jesus. In contrast to this Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will be with us forever. Paul expressed this in this promise to us:
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory (Eph 1:13-14 ESV).
The Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of truth. When he comes into our lives at salvation, we are given the truth of who God is, who Jesus is, and that our salvation is in Jesus alone. He also guides us into all other biblical truths, but I’m afraid to say that not everyone continues to let the Holy Spirit guide them in truth. They resist and fight to maintain their own person beliefs and biases. It would be a wonderful if we would be so in tune with the Holy Spirit that we would also allow him to reveal other truth to us as well. We wouldn’t have all the crazy conspiracy theories and heresies that divert so many Christians from godly living. It seems that this was also a problem for the early church as Paul wanted Timothy to make sure people stayed away from myths, genealogies, irreverent and silly myths which promote controversies and speculations (1 Tim 1:4, 4:7).
But then, this only leads into what Jesus said about the world and that it cannot receive him. While believers can still resist the Holy Spirit, the world doesn’t have him in way shape or form. It is a fundamental truth of Christianity, if you have the Spirit, you are a Christian. If you don’t have the Spirit, you are not a Christian. The key is knowing Jesus Christ. Jesus explained it by letting the disciples know that the Holy Spirit is in Jesus and in the same way that they had seen the Father through him, they have seen the Holy Spirit through Jesus. He has been there all along but when Jesus leaves, the Holy Spirit will be with them, and he is with us and in us now.
18 "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also.”
I try to look at these words without knowing the whole story and they just don’t make a lot of sense. The disciples’ heads must have been spinning. What’s this about not being orphans. They don’t know that when the Holy Spirit comes, they will receive, “the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (ESV). While Jesus taught to them to pray to the Father, they haven’t received the understanding that God is our Abba, Father.
They still don’t understand the resurrection or the fact that Jesus will appear to as many as five hundred people after he has been killed and brought back to life (1 Cor 15:6). Jesus appeared to many of his disciples, but we have no record of his appearance to this large number of disciples between his resurrection and ascension. He clearly explains that the world can’t see him unless the Holy Spirit regenerates and opens their eyes.
Jesus says that because he lives, we will also live. In stating this, it becomes clear that the Son of God never died. God didn’t die. The human body of Jesus died, but the divine nature of the Son continued to live. That is why we live. Had the Son of God died, the second person of the Trinity, then it would have been game over. Jesus holds all things together (Col 1:17, Heb 1:3). Had God died, then the universe would have disappeared.
20 "In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 21 He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him." 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?" 23 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. 24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me.”
Again, how did the disciples understand this? Jesus has been telling them clearly about his union with the Father, but they still don’t understand as is evident by Judas’ question. Jesus doesn’t stop when he explains his relationship with the Father but continues to associate that to our relationship with him. It is just as easy for us to read too quickly and not understand in the same way Judas didn’t grasp the immensity of what Jesus was explaining.
Jesus includes that in some future day, the disciples will be in him. However, there is a condition to this. This isn’t for everyone, but it is for everyone who keeps Jesus’ commandments. That can lead to confusion because it now sounds like salvation has a works requirement. Rather than trying to unwrap this completely, we only have to look at Jesus’ word about salvation coming through faith, that is, believing in him in John 3:16, 3:18, 3:36, 6:40, 6:47, 11:26, and 20:31. Paul also says in Rom 10:9-10 "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved" (ESV). This is super important because it clarifies that once you believe you are justified, i.e., declared or made righteous in the sight of God. This happens before keeping any of Jesus’ commandments. Quite frankly, we can’t keep any of his commandments until we are saved.
What Jesus is talking about here is the relationship with God after we believe. We obey because we love Jesus. Jesus and the Father love us and lets us know we are in them. God lives in us. When we are saved, we don’t just have the Holy Spirit living in us, we have all of God. I have heard some people deny that Jesus lives in us because he has a physical body. I have heard some people claim that you have to receive the Father before you can be saved. These just plain ignore what Jesus has said which is good theology. All the attributes of God belong to all three persons of the Trinity. If they didn’t, then they wouldn’t be God. God is omnipresent. How can he not be in us? Yet it is more than that because we become his residence after we come to Christ. We can rightfully say that he does not reside in unbelievers.
If we don’t obey, then it simply shows that we are not saved. It shows, just as Jesus says, we don’t really love him. James clarified this when he wrote, “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:17 NIV). The most basic action is loving and obeying Jesus. We will have a lot of actions that demonstrate our love and obedience including loving and taking care of each other as James used as an example in James 2:14-16.
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