John 14:15

Teaching on the Holy Spirit

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

John 15:10

15:10 If you obey ³  my commandments, you will remain ⁴  in my love, just as I have obeyed ⁵  my Father’s commandments and remain ⁶  in his love.

John 13:34

13:34 “I give you a new commandment – to love ⁷  one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. ⁸ 

John 15:12

15:12 My commandment is this – to love one another just as I have loved you. ⁹ 

John 11:57

11:57 (Now the chief priests and the Pharisees ¹⁰  had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus ¹¹  was should report it, so that they could arrest ¹²  him.) ¹³ 

John 12:49-50

12:49 For I have not spoken from my own authority, ¹⁴  but the Father himself who sent me has commanded me ¹⁵  what I should say and what I should speak. 12:50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. ¹⁶  Thus the things I say, I say just as the Father has told me.” ¹⁷ 

John 14:31

14:31 but I am doing just what the Father commanded me, so that the world may know ¹⁸  that I love the Father. ¹⁹  Get up, let us go from here.” ²⁰ 

John 10:18

10:18 No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down ²¹  of my own free will. ²²  I have the authority ²³  to lay it down, and I have the authority ²⁴  to take it back again. This commandment ²⁵  I received from my Father.”

John 14:21

14:21 The person who has my commandments and obeys ²⁶  them is the one who loves me. ²⁷  The one ²⁸  who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal ²⁹  myself to him.”

[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.

[15:10]  ³ tn Or “keep.”

[15:10]  ⁴ tn Or “reside.”

[15:10]  ⁵ tn Or “kept.”

[15:10]  ⁶ tn Or “reside.”

[13:34]  ⁵ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause gives the content of the commandment. This is indicated by a dash in the translation.

[13:34]  ⁶ sn The idea that love is a commandment is interesting. In the OT the ten commandments have a setting in the covenant between God and Israel at Sinai; they were the stipulations that Israel had to observe if the nation were to be God’s chosen people. In speaking of love as the new commandment for those whom Jesus had chosen as his own (John 13:1, 15:16) and as a mark by which they could be distinguished from others (13:35), John shows that he is thinking of this scene in covenant terminology. But note that the disciples are to love “Just as I have loved you” (13:34). The love Jesus has for his followers cannot be duplicated by them in one sense, because it effects their salvation, since he lays down his life for them: It is an act of love that gives life to people. But in another sense, they can follow his example (recall to the end, 13:1; also 1 John 3:16, 4:16 and the interpretation of Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet). In this way Jesus’ disciples are to love one another: They are to follow his example of sacrificial service to one another, to death if necessary.

[15:12]  ⁷ sn Now the reference to the commandments (plural) in 15:10 have been reduced to a singular commandment: The disciples are to love one another, just as Jesus has loved them. This is the ‘new commandment’ of John 13:34, and it is repeated in 15:17. The disciples’ love for one another is compared to Jesus’ love for them. How has Jesus shown his love for the disciples? This was illustrated in 13:1-20 in the washing of the disciples’ feet, introduced by the statement in 13:1 that Jesus loved them “to the end.” In context this constitutes a reference to Jesus’ self-sacrificial death on the cross on their behalf; the love they are to have for one another is so great that it must include a self-sacrificial willingness to die for one another if necessary. This is exactly what Jesus is discussing here, because he introduces the theme of his sacrificial death in the following verse. In John 10:18 and 14:31 Jesus spoke of his death on the cross as a commandment he had received from his Father, which also links the idea of commandment and love as they are linked here. One final note: It is not just the degree or intensity of the disciples’ love for one another that Jesus is referring to when he introduces by comparison his own death on the cross (that they must love one another enough to die for one another) but the very means of expressing that love: It is to express itself in self-sacrifice for one another, sacrifice up to the point of death, which is what Jesus himself did on the cross (cf. 1 John 3:16).

[11:57]  ⁹ tn The phrase “chief priests and Pharisees” is a comprehensive name for the groups represented in the ruling council (the Sanhedrin) as in John 7:45; 18:3; Acts 5:22, 26.

[11:57]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:57]  ¹¹ tn Or “could seize.”

[11:57]  ¹² sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[12:49]  ¹¹ tn Grk “I have not spoken from myself.”

[12:49]  ¹² tn Grk “has given me commandment.”

[12:50]  ¹³ tn Or “his commandment results in eternal life.”

[12:50]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “The things I speak, just as the Father has spoken to me, thus I speak.”

[14:31]  ¹⁵ tn Or “may learn.”

[14:31]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “But so that the world may know that I love the Father, and just as the Father commanded me, thus I do.” The order of the clauses has been rearranged in the translation to conform to contemporary English style.

[14:31]  ¹⁷ sn Some have understood Jesus’ statement Get up, let us go from here to mean that at this point Jesus and the disciples got up and left the room where the meal was served and began the journey to the garden of Gethsemane. If so, the rest of the Farewell Discourse took place en route. Others have pointed to this statement as one of the “seams” in the discourse, indicating that the author used preexisting sources. Both explanations are possible, but not really necessary. Jesus could simply have stood up at this point (the disciples may or may not have stood with him) to finish the discourse before finally departing (in 18:1). In any case it may be argued that Jesus refers not to a literal departure at this point, but to preparing to meet the enemy who is on the way already in the person of Judas and the soldiers with him.

[10:18]  ¹⁷ tn Or “give it up.”

[10:18]  ¹⁸ tn Or “of my own accord.” “Of my own free will” is given by BDAG 321 s.v. ἐμαυτοῦ c.

[10:18]  ¹⁹ tn Or “I have the right.”

[10:18]  ²⁰ tn Or “I have the right.”

[10:18]  ²¹ tn Or “order.”

[14:21]  ¹⁹ tn Or “keeps.”

[14:21]  ²⁰ tn Grk “obeys them, that one is the one who loves me.”

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

[14:21]  ²² tn Or “will disclose.”