John 14:15,16 - If you love me, you will keep my commadments

14:15

So Jesus has just been talking about His disciples doing greater things and having their prayers in His name answered. How can this possibly be? The answer is the Holy Spirit, who could only be sent after the cross and resurrection. So far most of Jesus’ teaching has been about the Father. For the rest of John’s gospel there will still be teaching on the Father, but also an awful lot about the Spirit. This is a most trinitarian gospel! But first there is a most important verse, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” So anyone who claims to be following Jesus but is quite happy to reject some of His teaching is badly mistaken. The salvation in the gospel is a bringing us back to God, to live our lives in obedience and fellowship with Him, with Him as Lord of our lives. It most definitely not a matter of letting us carry on in our own not so sweet way.

14:16

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper”. So we see here an example of Christ’s prayers being answered! Asking in Jesus’ name is accompanied by a certainty of a positive answer, but asking in Jesus’ name means asking with the heart of Jesus. The word that ESV translates as “Helper”  can also be translated as “Advocate” or “Counsellor”. The Greek word has its roots in the legal context, though it does go beyond that, hence “Advocate”. It can also be translated as “Comforter”, this was appropriate when “comforter” meant encourager (and possibly quite forcefully so), rather than its present meaning as someone who encourages you in your misery (I am being a little unfair, but the point remains). “Counsellor” also suffers from its modern connotations with being a therapist. The best thing is to see what the Bible actually teaches us about Him, and not to allow ourselves to be influenced by modern meanings of words. The first thing is that the Father sends Him. So the Father sent the Son, He will then send the Spirit. The word “another” implies that He is in some way a replacement for Jesus, i.e. He will do many of the things that Jesus did.  And He will be with us forever. It is worth remembering that in Matt 28:20 Jesus promises to be with us always. This signifies that the presence of Jesus is mediated through the Holy Spirit.