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Joh_16:26-27. Ἐν ἐκ τ . ἡμ . ἐν τῷ ὀν . μ . αἰτήσ .] Because enlightened by the Paraclete. Comp. Joh_16:24. Bengel’s remark is apt: “Cognitio parit orationem,” and that the prayer to be heard in the name of Jesus.[183]
ΚΑῚ Οὐ ΛΈΓΩ , Κ . Τ . Λ .] and I say not, etc.; I would therewith promise something for that coming time that may be dispensed with. For on my part ( ἐγώ ) an intercession on your behalf in order to the hearing of these your prayers will not at all be needed, because, that is, they are just prayers in my name (see on Joh_14:14). The opposite meaning is deduced by Aretius, Grotius, Wolf, Rosenmüller, Kuinoel: that οὐ λέγω ὑΜ . means: I will not mention at all, so that the intercession is thus designated as a matter of course. Against this the following αὐτὸς γὰρ , κ . τ . λ ., is decisive. There is no contradiction, however, with Joh_14:16, Joh_17:9, since in these places the intercession of Christ belongs to the time prior to the communication of the Paraclete.
αὐτός ] ipse, from the proper divine impulse of love, without my intercessory mediation being required to that end.
φιλεῖ ] “amat vos, adeoque vos exaudit,” Bengel. The present denotes that the future is represented as present. They have then the πνεῦμα υἱοθεσίας , Rom_8:15; Gal_4:6; along with which, however, the intercession intended in 1Jn_2:1, Heb_7:25, Rom_8:34, on the part of the exalted Jesus, is not excluded. This intercession is not required in order to the hearing of prayer, if it is made in virtue of the Spirit in the name of Jesus, but rather generally in order to the continued efficacy of the atonement on behalf of believers.
The reason of that ΑὐΤῸς … ΦΙΛΕῖ ὙΜᾶς is: ὍΤΙ ὙΜΕῖς , Κ . Τ . Λ .: “for He will not thus remove Himself out of the midst, that they should pray without and exclusive of Him,” Luther. Note ὙΜΕῖς ἘΜΈ : because ye are they who have loved me. πεφιλ . is placed first as the correlate of φιλεῖ ; and with logical correctness, since faith, in this definiteness of development ( ὍΤΙ … ἘΞῆΛΘΟΝ ), could in its progress gradually unfold itself only in their loving bond to Christ, by means of the exercise and experience of this love. On the perfects, as the presents of the completed act, Bengel says, and rightly: “amore et fide prehensum habetis.” Hofmann, Schriftbew. II. 1, p. 543, incorrectly explains them from the standpoint of the Parousia, from which a glance is taken backwards to the love that has been borne to the close. The entire promise has nothing to do with the Parousia; see on Joh_16:16; Joh_16:22; Joh_14:18.
ἐξῆλθον ] See on Joh_8:42.
[183] “For thou comest not in thine own name, work, or merit, but on this, that it is announced to thee by the Holy Spirit what God’s will and command is, which He has performed through Christ,” Luther.