John 14:15

Teaching on the Holy Spirit

14:15 “If you love me, you will obey ¹  my commandments. ² 

John 14:21

14:21 The person who has my commandments and obeys ³  them is the one who loves me. ⁴  The one ⁵  who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal ⁶  myself to him.”

John 14:1

Jesus’ Parting Words to His Disciples

14:1 “Do not let your hearts be distressed. ⁷  You believe in God; ⁸  believe also in me.

Colossians 1:19

1:19 For God ⁹  was pleased to have all his ¹⁰  fullness dwell ¹¹  in the Son ¹² 

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ¹³  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Colossians 4:1-2

4:1 Masters, treat your slaves with justice and fairness, because you know that you also have a master in heaven.

Exhortation to Pray for the Success of Paul’s Mission

4:2 Be devoted to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving.

Colossians 2:21

2:21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”

Colossians 2:1

2:1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you, ¹⁴  and for those in Laodicea, and for those who have not met me face to face. ¹⁵ 

Colossians 2:5

2:5 For though ¹⁶  I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, rejoicing to see ¹⁷  your morale ¹⁸  and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

Colossians 3:21-24

3:21 Fathers, ¹⁹  do not provoke ²⁰  your children, so they will not become disheartened. 3:22 Slaves, ²¹  obey your earthly ²²  masters in every respect, not only when they are watching – like those who are strictly people-pleasers – but with a sincere heart, fearing the Lord. 3:23 Whatever you are doing, ²³  work at it with enthusiasm, ²⁴  as to the Lord and not for people, ²⁵  3:24 because you know that you will receive your ²⁶  inheritance ²⁷  from the Lord as the reward. Serve ²⁸  the Lord Christ.

Colossians 1:3

Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer for the Church

1:3 We always ²⁹  give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

Revelation 22:14

22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes so they can have access ³⁰  to the tree of life and can enter into the city by the gates.

[14:15]  ¹ tn Or “will keep.”

[14:15]  ² sn Jesus’ statement If you love me, you will obey my commandments provides the transition between the promises of answered prayer which Jesus makes to his disciples in vv. 13-14 and the promise of the Holy Spirit which is introduced in v. 16. Obedience is the proof of genuine love.

[14:21]  ³ tn Or “keeps.”

[14:21]  ⁴ tn Grk “obeys them, that one is the one who loves me.”

[14:21]  ⁵ tn Grk “And the one.” Here the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated to improve the English style.

[14:21]  ⁶ tn Or “will disclose.”

[14:1]  ⁷ sn The same verb is used to describe Jesus’ own state in John 11:33, 12:27, and 13:21. Jesus is looking ahead to the events of the evening and the next day, his arrest, trials, crucifixion, and death, which will cause his disciples extreme emotional distress.

[14:1]  ⁸ tn Or “Believe in God.” The translation of the two uses of πιστεύετε (pisteuete) is difficult. Both may be either indicative or imperative, and as L. Morris points out (John [NICNT], 637), this results in a bewildering variety of possibilities. To complicate matters further, the first may be understood as a question: “Do you believe in God? Believe also in me.” Morris argues against the KJV translation which renders the first πιστεύετε as indicative and the second as imperative on the grounds that for the writer of the Fourth Gospel, faith in Jesus is inseparable from faith in God. But this is precisely the point that Jesus is addressing in context. He is about to undergo rejection by his own people as their Messiah. The disciples’ faith in him as Messiah and Lord would be cast into extreme doubt by these events, which the author makes clear were not at this time foreseen by the disciples. After the resurrection it is this identification between Jesus and the Father which needs to be reaffirmed (cf. John 20:24-29). Thus it seems best to take the first πιστεύετε as indicative and the second as imperative, producing the translation “You believe in God; believe also in me.”

[1:19]  ⁹ tn The noun “God” does not appear in the Greek text, but since God is the one who reconciles the world to himself (cf. 2 Cor 5:19), he is clearly the subject of εὐδόκησεν (eudokhsen).

[1:19]  ¹⁰ tn The Greek article τό (to), insofar as it relates to God, may be translated as a possessive pronoun, i.e., “his.” BDAG 404 s.v. εὐδοκέω 1 translates the phrase as “all the fullness willed to dwell in him” thus leaving the referent as impersonal. Insofar as Paul is alluding to the so-called emanations from God this is acceptable. But the fact that “the fullness” dwells in a person (i.e., “in him”) seems to argue for the translation “his fullness” where “his” refers to God.

[1:19]  ¹¹ tn The aorist verb κατοικῆσαι (katoikhsai) could be taken as an ingressive, in which case it refers to the incarnation and may be translated as “begin to dwell, to take up residence.” It is perhaps better, though, to take it as a constative aorist and simply a reference to the fact that the fullness of God dwells in Jesus Christ. This is a permanent dwelling, though, not a temporary one, as the present tense in 2:9 makes clear.

[1:19]  ¹² tn Grk “him”; the referent (the Son; see v. 13) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:1]  ¹³ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[2:1]  ¹⁴ tn Or “I want you to know how hard I am working for you…”

[2:1]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.”

[2:5]  ¹⁶ tn The conditional particle εἰ (ei) together with καί (kai) here indicates a first class condition in Greek and carries a concessive force, especially when seen in contrast to the following phrase which begins with ἀλλά (alla).

[2:5]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “rejoicing and seeing.”

[2:5]  ¹⁸ tn The Greek word τάξις can mean “order,” “discipline,” or even “unbroken ranks” (REB).

[3:21]  ¹⁹ tn Or perhaps “Parents.” The plural οἱ πατέρες (Joi patere", “fathers”) can be used to refer to both the male and female parent (BDAG 786 s.v. πατήρ 1.a).

[3:21]  ²⁰ tn Or “do not cause your children to become resentful” (L&N 88.168). BDAG 391 s.v. ἐρεθίζω states, “to cause someone to react in a way that suggests acceptance of a challenge, arouse, provoke mostly in bad sense irritate, embitter.”

[3:22]  ²¹ tn On this word here and in 4:1, see the note on “fellow slave” in 1:7.

[3:22]  ²² tn The prepositional phrase κατὰ σάρκα (kata sarka) does not necessarily qualify the masters as earthly or human (as opposed to the Master in heaven, the Lord), but could also refer to the sphere in which “the service-relation holds true.” See BDAG 577 s.v. κύριος 1.b.

[3:23]  ²³ tn The present progressive “are doing” was used in the translation of ποιῆτε (poihte) to bring out the idea that Paul is probably referring to what they already do for work.

[3:23]  ²⁴ tn Grk “from the soul.”

[3:23]  ²⁵ tn Grk “men”; here ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpoi") is used in a generic sense and refers to people in general.

[3:24]  ²⁶ tn The article τῆς (ths) has been translated as a possessive pronoun, “your” (ExSyn 215). It may also be functioning to indicate a well-known concept (inheritance as eternal life). See BDAG 548 s.v. κληρονομία 3: “common in Christian usage (corresp. to the LXX) (the possession of) transcendent salvation (as the inheritance of God’s children).”

[3:24]  ²⁷ tn The genitive τῆς κληρονομίας (th" klhronomia") is a genitive of apposition: The reward consists of the inheritance.

[3:24]  ²⁸ tn The form of the term δουλεύετε (douleuete) is ambiguous; it can be read as either indicative or imperative. In favor of the indicative: (1) it seems to explain better the first part of v. 24, esp. “from the Lord” which would then read as: “because you know that you will receive your inheritance from the Lord as a reward for it is the Lord you are serving.” The “for” is supplied to make the relation explicit (it is actually added in many mss – D¹ Ψ 075 Ï – but the best ms evidence is against its inclusion). (2) With the imperative, one might expect ὡς τῷ κυρίῳ (Jw" tw kuriw), as for example in Eph 6:7. In favor of the imperative: (1) an imperative resumes the ἐργάζεσθε (ergazesqe) in v. 23a and forms a chiasm with it; (2) an imperative makes more sense of the γάρ (gar) in v. 25a; (3) an imperative relates equally well to the preceding statement; (4) a parallel can be found in Rom 12:11 which uses an imperatival participle δουλεύοντες (douleuonte") with the dative τῷ κυρίῳ. For an elaboration of these points see M. J. Harris, Colossians and Philemon (EGGNT), 185-86.

[1:3]  ²⁹ tn The adverb πάντοτε (pantote) is understood to modify the indicative εὐχαριστοῦμεν (eucaristoumen) because it precedes περὶ ὑμῶν (peri Jumwn) which probably modifies the indicative and not the participle προσευχόμενοι (proseucomenoi). But see 1:9 where the same expression occurs and περὶ ὑμῶν modifies the participle “praying” (προσευχόμενοι).

[22:14]  ³⁰ tn Grk “so that there will be to them authority over the tree of life.”