Section 14:15–31 Jesus promised the Holy Spirit
In this section, Jesus told his disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” He then promised to send another Advocate (Helper), the Holy Spirit. Only those who believe in Jesus and love him can receive the Holy Spirit. Jesus too would come back and live with them with His Father.
The Holy Spirit would teach them and remind them what Jesus said. Jesus gave his disciples peace, but knew that the ruler of the world (Satan) would come to get him soon. He had no power over Jesus because Jesus did not sin. So Jesus would not die on the cross because of Satan. Rather, Jesus did what the Father wanted to show his love for the Father.
Here are some other possible section headings:
Jesus will leave but the Holy Spirit will come
-or-
Teaching on the Holy Spirit coming and Jesus leaving
Paragraph 14:15–17
Jesus told his disciples that if they loved him, they would obey his commandments. He also promised to send the Holy Spirit to be with his disciples.
14:15
If you love Me, you will keep My commandments: There is a textual issue in this verse:
(1) Some Greek manuscripts have the verb form that means you will keep or “you will obey.” For example:
If you love me, you will obey my commandments (Good News Translation)
(Berean Standard Bible, English Standard Version, New American Standard Bible, New International Version (1984), New Revised Standard Version, Contemporary English Version, God’s Word, NET Bible, Good News Translation, Revised English Bible, New Century Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Revised Edition)
(2) Some Greek manuscripts have the command form of the verb “obey.” For example:
If you love me, obey my commandments (New Living Translation (2004))
(King James Version, New Living Translation (2004), New International Version (2011))
It is recommended that you follow option (1) because most English translations follow it. Also, the UBS Handbook Committee followed that option, though they gave it a C rating, which means that there was doubt about the decision. However, most of the Committee thought that it fit the context better.
Believers show that they love Jesus by doing what he has told them to do. Here is another way to translate this sentence:
Those of you who love me will keep my commandments.
If you love Me: This clause can be true or not true. It does not assume that either possibility is correct.
you will keep My commandments: This clause means “you will do/obey what I told you to do.” In some languages it may be more natural to use a verb instead of the noun commandments. For example:
you will obey what I command (NIV93)
© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.