Advocate

Promise of the Holy Spirit

The Lexham English Bible Chapter 14

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, in order that he may be with you ⌊forever⌋—17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world is not able to receive, because it does not see him or know him.* You know him, because he resides with you and will be in you.

It seems like the answer to life is in this section of scripture. So, we could look at this passage as the one thing. Jesus tells us that if we follow his commandments we will show our love for him. Jesus also tells us that if we do this he will ask the Father to send another advocate. (Paraclete) Transliteration of the Greek word meaning “one who is called to someone’s aid” So, Jesus was the first advocate and the very breath of God the Father will be the second advocate.

Jesus says this is so that he may be with you forever. What is he saying? This Paraclete will not be lifted up in death to reveal the love of God in a consummate act of love for the disciples (see 12:32–33; 13:1), but will remain with the disciples eis ton aiōna (v. 16). The Paraclete is the Spirit of truth (to pneuma tēs alētheias), “the Spirit who communicates truth,” the ongoing presence of the revelation of God in the world, which “the world” is unable to recognize.

Francis J. Moloney, Glory Not Dishonor: Reading John 13–21 (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1998), 40–41.

Jesus says in verse 18,  “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. 19 Yet a little time and the world will see me no longer, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Jn 14:18–20.

Glory Not Dishonor: Reading John 13–21 a. Verses 15–17: The Paraclete and the World

One cannot live in “the world of Jesus” if one thinks that it can be determined by the realities of “this world.” Jesus’ origin with the Father has always been the stumbling block

The Lexham English Bible Chapter 5

“But I have a testimony greater than John’s, for the works which the Father has given to me that I should complete them—the very works which I am doing—these testify about me, that the Father has sent me.

The Lexham English Bible Chapter 5

And the Father who sent me, that one has testified about me. You have neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his form.

The Lexham English Bible Chapter 5

And you do not have his word residing in yourselves, because the one whom that one sent, in this one you do not believe.

The Lexham English Bible (Chapter 14) The one who has my commandments and keeps them—that one is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.”