John 14:15-21
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 to be with you forever,
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the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.
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I will not leave you orphans; I am coming to you.
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A little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me because I live, and you will also live.
20
On that day, you will realize that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
21
Whoever keeps my commandments is the one who loves me. If he loves me, he will also be loved by my Father; I too shall love him and reveal myself to him.”
Commentaries
Jesus, the Way to the Father
This chapter explores a mysterious pattern of Jesus going and returning: going to the Father only to reappear to his disciples and stay with them forever. The text in the Fourth Gospel reveals that Jesus never truly leaves or disappears; his going to the Father symbolizes a fuller return to his followers. Verse 23 is the chapter’s central point. God’s dwelling among his people, which the Old Testament describes in a cultic way (Ex 25:8; 29:45; Lv 26:11), was promised for the end times (Ezk 37:26ff; Zec 2:14; Rev 21:3, 22ff), and is now fulfilled within the community. It is the presence of the Holy Trinity in the heart of the Christian, who is transformed into a living temple of God! Amidst the desert and the exodus of our history, God truly dwells in the tent and temple of the believer.