The Cause and Effects of Love and the Help we Need
[15] “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. [16] And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, [17] even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
[18] “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. [19] Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. [20] In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. [21] Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
There is one way to read this conditionally like Jesus is being coercive. “If you love me, you’ll buy me the Teddy Ruxpin!” That kind of “if”.
There is another way to read this, knowing the context of all of Jesus’ other teaching, that says the if is a cause and effect statement, not a conditional. “If you train every day for 6 months, you’ll lose at least 20 pounds.”
The great thing about this whole discourse is that Jesus is pounding home the fact that the disciples are going to continue on their own without Jesus, but filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus would speak to their ears one on one but the Holy Spirit would speak to each of them, from the inside of their souls, any time!
As soon as they heard the first statement to obey Him (after just being told someone would betray Him!) He promises the Holy Spirit will come and help them do that obedience. Just as the people of the Old Testament expressed their faith by obeying the Law, New Testament believers will express their faith (our faith!) by obeying the Holy Spirit. Since sin is atoned for and isn’t counted against any believer any more, we have the deeper new life of life in the Spirit.
If you read this whole section, you’ll see that Jesus says over an over again that He will be in us just as He is in the Father. He says it in different ways, with different similes (many houses, a counselor, a spirit, peace, and legal claims) but the point is the same over and over: He is the fulfillment of the ages and God’s promise to be with His people in body and spirit.
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