If
you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the
Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you
forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him,
because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he
lives with you and will be in you. (Jn
14:15-17)
Fear
and obedience are tied together. If we fear, we will be motivated by
that fear to be obedient. Jn 14:15 shows us that love and obedience
are also tied together and this produces a more mature form of
obedience, because love
casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment
(1
Jn 4:18). If
we love, we will be motivated by that love towards obedience. I have
previously written about this in Levels Of Obedience on 8/15/2013.
If
we were to take verses 15-16 by themselves and look for understanding
in them out of the context of scripture in which they are found, we
would end up in trouble at this point. Out of context , they seem
to
be saying that if we are obedient to what Jesus has commanded we will
then receive the Holy Spirit at a later point. However, when we look
at them with vs. 17—
the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither
sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and
will be in you, we
can see that the disciples had knowledge of the Holy Spirit and were
looking towards an indwelling of the Holy Spirit. I believe Jesus
was saying to these that obedience to His teachings would bring about
an indwelling of the Holy Spirit and a deeper and fuller relationship
between Him and these disciples. Verse 16 in the Amplified Bible is
worded: And
I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter
(Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and
Standby), that He may remain with you forever--(Note: Another Comforter of the same kind that Jesus is).
This
is not the case for those who know Christ today, because if we know
Christ, we are already indwelled by the Holy Spirit (Ro 8:9)
Therefore we know these scriptures are not saying to us that if we
are obedient to Jesus we will receive the Holy Spirit. I do believe,
however, that we can safely say that obedience to Christ will bring
about for us a more intimate and deeper relationship with the Holy
Spirit.
Paul
said in 1 Corinthians 13:14
the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. I
like the way the Message records this verse: the
amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, the extravagant love of
God, the intimate
friendship of
the Holy Spirit, be with all of you
(emphasis mine).
