John 14:15

Teaching on the Holy Spirit

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

John 15:17

15:17 This ³  I command you – to love one another.

John 15:12

15:12 My commandment is this – to love one another just as I have loved you. ⁴ 

John 15:14

15:14 You are my friends ⁵  if you do what I command you.

John 15:10

15:10 If you obey ⁶  my commandments, you will remain ⁷  in my love, just as I have obeyed ⁸  my Father’s commandments and remain ⁹  in his love.

John 13:34

13:34 “I give you a new commandment – to love ¹⁰  one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. ¹¹ 

John 8:5

8:5 In the law Moses commanded us to stone to death ¹²  such women. ¹³  What then do you say?”

John 12:50

12:50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. ¹⁴  Thus the things I say, I say just as the Father has told me.” ¹⁵ 

John 14:31

14:31 but I am doing just what the Father commanded me, so that the world may know ¹⁶  that I love the Father. ¹⁷  Get up, let us go from here.” ¹⁸ 

John 12:49

12:49 For I have not spoken from my own authority, ¹⁹  but the Father himself who sent me has commanded me ²⁰  what I should say and what I should speak.

John 14:21

14:21 The person who has my commandments and obeys ²¹  them is the one who loves me. ²²  The one ²³  who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal ²⁴  myself to him.”

John 18:12

Jesus Before Annas

18:12 Then the squad of soldiers ²⁵  with their commanding officer ²⁶  and the officers of the Jewish leaders ²⁷  arrested ²⁸  Jesus and tied him up. ²⁹ 

John 10:18

10:18 No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down ³⁰  of my own free will. ³¹  I have the authority ³²  to lay it down, and I have the authority ³³  to take it back again. This commandment ³⁴  I received from my Father.”

John 11:57

11:57 (Now the chief priests and the Pharisees ³⁵  had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus ³⁶  was should report it, so that they could arrest ³⁷  him.) ³⁸ 

John 18:11

18:11 But Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath! Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?” ³⁹ 

[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.

[15:17]  ³ tn Grk “These things.”

[15:12]  ⁵ 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).

[15:14]  ⁷ sn This verse really explains John 15:10 in another way. Those who keep Jesus’ commandments are called his friends, those friends for whom he lays down his life (v. 13). It is possible to understand this verse as referring to a smaller group within Christianity as a whole, perhaps only the apostles who were present when Jesus spoke these words. Some have supported this by comparing it to the small group of associates and advisers to the Roman Emperor who were called “Friends of the Emperor.” Others would see these words as addressed only to those Christians who as disciples were obedient to Jesus. In either case the result would be to create a sort of “inner circle” of Christians who are more privileged than mere “believers” or average Christians. In context, it seems clear that Jesus’ words must be addressed to all true Christians, not just some narrower category of believers, because Jesus’ sacrificial death, which is his act of love toward his friends (v. 13) applies to all Christians equally (cf. John 13:1).

[15:10]  ⁹ tn Or “keep.”

[15:10]  ¹⁰ tn Or “reside.”

[15:10]  ¹¹ tn Or “kept.”

[15:10]  ¹² tn Or “reside.”

[13:34]  ¹¹ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause gives the content of the commandment. This is indicated by a dash in the translation.

[13:34]  ¹² 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.

[8:5]  ¹³ sn An allusion to Lev 20:10 and Deut 22:22-24.

[8:5]  ¹⁴ sn The accusers themselves subtly misrepresented the law. The Mosaic law stated that in the case of adultery, both the man and woman must be put to death (Lev 20:10, Deut 22:22), but they mentioned only such women.

[12:50]  ¹⁵ tn Or “his commandment results in eternal life.”

[12:50]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “The things I speak, just as the Father has spoken to me, thus I speak.”

[14:31]  ¹⁷ tn Or “may learn.”

[14:31]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ 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.

[12:49]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “I have not spoken from myself.”

[12:49]  ²⁰ tn Grk “has given me commandment.”

[14:21]  ²¹ tn Or “keeps.”

[14:21]  ²² tn Grk “obeys them, that one is the one who loves me.”

[14:21]  ²³ tn Grk “And the one.” Here the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated to improve the English style.

[14:21]  ²⁴ tn Or “will disclose.”

[18:12]  ²³ tn Grk “a cohort” (but since this was a unit of 600 soldiers, a smaller detachment is almost certainly intended).

[18:12]  ²⁴ tn Grk “their chiliarch” (an officer in command of a thousand soldiers). In Greek the term χιλίαρχος (ciliarco") literally described the “commander of a thousand,” but it was used as the standard translation for the Latin tribunus militum or tribunus militaris, the military tribune who commanded a cohort of 600 men.

[18:12]  ²⁵ tn Or “the Jewish authorities”; Grk “the Jews.” In NT usage the term ᾿Ιουδαῖοι (Ioudaioi) may refer to the entire Jewish people, the residents of Jerusalem and surrounding territory, the authorities in Jerusalem, or merely those who were hostile to Jesus. (For further information see R. G. Bratcher, “‘The Jews’ in the Gospel of John,” BT 26 [1975]: 401-9.) Here the phrase refers to the Jewish leaders, who were named as “chief priests and Pharisees” in John 18:3.

[18:12]  ²⁶ tn Or “seized.”

[18:12]  ²⁷ tn Or “bound him.”

[10:18]  ²⁵ tn Or “give it up.”

[10:18]  ²⁶ tn Or “of my own accord.” “Of my own free will” is given by BDAG 321 s.v. ἐμαυτοῦ c.

[10:18]  ²⁷ tn Or “I have the right.”

[10:18]  ²⁸ tn Or “I have the right.”

[10:18]  ²⁹ tn Or “order.”

[11:57]  ²⁷ 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]  ²⁸ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:57]  ²⁹ tn Or “could seize.”

[11:57]  ³⁰ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[18:11]  ²⁹ tn Grk “The cup that the Father has given me to drink, shall I not drink it?” The order of the clauses has been rearranged to reflect contemporary English style.