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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - John 14:25 - 14:31
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Joh_14:25-31
25"These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. 26But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. 27Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. 28You heard that I said to you, 'I go away, and I will come to you.' If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe. 30I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; 31but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here."
Joh_14:25 "These things" This must refer to the upper room teachings (chaps. 13-17, but is phrased specifically in Joh_15:11; Joh_16:1; Joh_16:4; Joh_16:6; Joh_16:25; Joh_16:33).
Joh_14:26 "the Holy Spirit" This title for the third person of the Trinity occurs only in Joh_1:33; Joh_20:22, and here in John (see Special Topic: The Holy One at 1Jn_2:20). However, He is called by several other names in John's Gospel (Paraclete, Spirit of Truth, the Spirit).
There are several passages in the NT that refer to the Spirit in personal terms (cf. Mar_3:29; Luk_12:12; Joh_14:26; Joh_15:26; Joh_16:7-15, see Special Topic below). There are other texts where the neuter pronoun is used of the Spirit because the Greek word for spirit (pneuma) is neuter (cf. Joh_14:17; Rom_8:26).
Also, at this point just a word about the concept of a Trinity. The term "trinity" is not a biblical word, but in several texts the three personal manifestations of the one true God are seen together (see Special Topic below). If Jesus is divine and the Spirit is personal, then theologically as monotheists (cf. Deu_6:4-6), we are forced into a tri-unity-not progressive manifestations, but eternal persons!
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▣ "whom the Father will send" There was a tremendous fight in the early church (fourth century) about whether the Spirit came from the Father (cf. Joh_3:34; Joh_14:16; Joh_16:26) or from the Son (cf. Joh_15:26; Joh_16:7; Luk_24:49; Act_2:33). The theological issue in the Arius - Athanasius debate was the full and eternal deity and equality between God the Father and Jesus the Son.
▣ "will teach you all things" This must be qualified. The Spirit does not teach believers in all areas of knowledge, but about spiritual truth, especially in relation to Jesus' person and work, the gospel (cf. Joh_16:13-14; 1Jn_2:20; 1Jn_2:27).
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▣ "and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you" The purposes of the Spirit are
1. to convict humans of sin
2. to bring them to Christ
3. to baptize them into Christ
4. to form Christ in them (cf. Joh_16:7-15)
5. to help the Apostles remember all the things Jesus had said to them and clarify their meaning so that they can record them in the Scriptures (cf. Joh_2:22; Joh_15:26; Joh_16:13)
Jesus Himself also instructed the Apostles after His resurrection, particularly about how the OT points to Him and is fulfilled in Him (cf. Luk_24:13 ff).
Joh_14:27 "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you" Believers' peace is not related to circumstances, but to a tranquility based on Jesus' promises and presence (cf. Joh_16:33; Php_4:7; Col_3:15).
"Peace" is used in both an objective sense, restoration with God, and a subjective sense, a feeling of security or stability amidst difficult circumstances. It reflects a Jewish greeting, Shalom, which meant both the absence of problems and the presence of contentment (cf. Joh_20:19; Joh_20:21; Joh_20:26; 3Jn_1:14; Eph_2:14; Num_6:26; Psa_29:11; Isa_9:6). It characterizes the new age!
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▣ "leave" Grant Osborne, The Hermeneutical Spiral (p. 21) makes an excellent comment about the priority of context in determining word meaning.
"The Logical Context
In a very real sense, the logical context is the most basic factor in interpretation. I tell my classes that if anyone is half asleep and does not hear a question that I ask, there is a fifty percent chance of being correct if he or she answers 'context.' The term itself covers a vast array of influences upon a text. These can best be diagrammed as a series of concentric circles moving outward from the passage itself.
As we move nearer the center, the influence upon the meaning of the passage increases. Genre, for instance, identifies the type of literature and helps the interpreter to identify parallels, but these are not as influential as the rest of Scripture is on the passage. We can, for example, identify the book of Revelation as apocalyptic; yet although intertestamental and Hellenistic apocalyptic provide important parallels, most of the symbols are taken from the Old Testament. At the other end of the scale, the immediate context is the final arbiter for all decisions regarding the meaning of a term or concept. There is no guarantee that Paul uses a term the same way in Philippians 1 as he does in Philippians 2. Language simply does not work that way, for every word has many meanings and a writer's use depends upon the present context rather than his use of it in previous contexts. A good example would be the use of aphiemi in Joh_14:27, "Peace I leave with you," and in Joh_16:28, "I am leaving the world again." We would hardly interpret the one by the other, for their use is exactly opposite. In the first Jesus gives something to the disciples, in the second he takes something (himself!) away from them. Even less would we read into the term its common use (as in 1Jn_1:9) for "forgiveness." The other passages help us to determine the semantic range (the different things the word might mean), but only the immediate context can narrow the possibilities to the actual meaning" (p. 21).
▣ "do not let your heart be troubled" This is a present passive imperative with negative particle which usually means "stop an action already in process," a repeat of Joh_14:1.
Joh_14:28 "if you loved Me" This is a second class conditional sentence ,like Joh_14:7, which is called a "contrary to fact." It will be better that Jesus goes to the Father and sends the Spirit, but of course, they do not realize this at this time.
▣ "for the Father is greater than I" This is not a statement that focuses on the inequality of the Son, but a statement that deals with the functions within the Trinity related to mankind's salvation (cf. Joh_10:29-30). This subordination of the Son was only for a period of time, during His stay on the earth to fulfill the Triune God's plan of revelation and redemption (cf. Joh_17:4-5; Php_2:6-11). However, there is a sense in which the Father, being the sender, is primary (cf. Joh_13:16; 1Co_15:27-28; Eph_1:3-14).
Joh_14:29 "Now I have told you this before it happens" This was so that their faith might be strengthened (cf. Joh_13:19; Joh_16:4).
Joh_14:30
NASB "the ruler of the world"
NKJV, NRSV,
TEV "the ruler of this world"
NJB "the prince of this world"
This refers to Satan, whose realm of activity is now the earth (cf. Joh_12:31; Joh_16:11; 2Co_4:4, "the god of this world"; Eph_2:2, "the prince of the power of the air"). Possibly, Jesus saw the leaving of Judas as the coming of Satan (cf. Joh_13:27). See Special Topic at Joh_12:31.
NASB, NKJV "he has nothing in Me"
NRSV, TEV,
NJB "he has no power over me"
The meaning is that Satan has no basis for accusation, no power over, or nothing in common with Jesus at all (cf. Heb_4:15).
1.James Moffatt translated it as "he has no hold on me"
2. William F. Beck as "he has no claim on Me"
3. New English Bible as "no rights over me"
4. the Twentieth Century New Testament as "nothing in common with me"
Joh_14:31 "but so that the world may know" Satan is in the will of God and is being manipulated for God's ultimate purpose in the redemption of mankind. See A. B. Davidson, The Theology of the Old Testament, pp. 300-306.
▣ "I do exactly as the Father commanded Me" It was the Father's will that Jesus die (cf. Isa_53:10 a,b; Mar_10:45; 2Co_5:21). See hyperlink at Joh_12:50.
▣ "Get up, let us go from here" This is a present middle imperative. This is a very difficult phrase because it appears in Matthew and Mark in the Garden of Gethsemane as Judas and the band of policemen approach Jesus. Exactly why it is used in this upper room context (chapters 13-17) is uncertain. Possibly, Jesus had left the Upper Room and was teaching along the way to Gethsemane (cf. Joh_18:1).
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