John Wesley's notes
on the Gospel: John 14:15-31
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments - Immediately after faith he exhorts to
love and good works.
16 And I will ask the Father - The 21st verse, Joh 14:21, shows the
connection between this and the preceding verses. And he will give you
another Comforter - The Greek word signifies also an advocate, instructer,
or encourager. Another - For Christ himself was one. To remain with you
for ever - With you, and your followers in faith, to the end of the world.
17 The Spirit of truth - Who has, reveals, testifies, and defends the
truth as it is in Jesus. Whom the world - All who do not love or fear God,
cannot receive, because it seeth him not - Having no spiritual senses,
no internal eye to discern him; nor consequently knoweth him. He shall
be in you - As a constant guest. Your bodies and souls shall be temples
of the Holy Ghost dwelling in you.
18 I will not leave you orphans - A word that is elegantly applied to
those who have lost any dear friend. I come to you - What was certainly
and speedily to be, our Lord speaks of as if it were already.
19 But ye see me - That is, ye shall certainly see me. Because I live,
ye shall live also - Because I am the living One in my Divine nature, and
shall rise again in my human nature, and live for ever in heaven: therefore
ye shall live the life of faith and love on earth, and hereafter the life
of glory.
20 At that day - When ye see me after my resurrection; but more eminently
at the day of pentecost.
21 He that hath my commandments - Written in his heart. I will manifest
myself to him - More abundantly.
23 Jesus answered - Because ye love and obey me, and they do not, therefore
I will reveal myself to you, and not to them. My Father will love him -
The more any man loves and obeys, the more God will love him. And we will
come to him, and make our abode with him - Which implies such a large manifestation
of the Divine presence and love, that the former in justification is as
nothing in comparison of it.
26 In my name - For my sake, in my room, and as my agent. He will teach
you all things - Necessary for you to know. Here is a clear promise to
the apostles, and their successors in the faith, that the Holy Ghost will
teach them all that truth which is needful for their salvation.
27 Peace I leave with you - Peace in general; peace with God and with
your own consciences. My peace - In particular; that peace which I enjoy,
and which I create, I give - At this instant. Not as the world giveth -
Unsatisfying unsettled, transient; but filling the soul with constant,
even tranquillity. Lord, evermore give us this peace! How serenely may
we pass through the most turbulent scenes of life, when all is quiet and
harmonious within! Thou hast made peace through the blood of thy cross.
May we give all diligence to preserve the inestimable gift inviolate, till
it issue in everlasting peace!
28 God the Father is greater than I - As he was man. As God, neither
is greater nor less than the other. 29 I have told you - Of my going and
return.
30 The prince of this world is coming - To make his grand assault. But
he hath nothing in me - No right, no claim, or power. There is no guilt
in me, to give him power over me; no corruption to take part with his temptation.
31 But I suffer him thus to assault me,
1. Because it is the Father's commission to me, Joh 10:18.
2. To convince the world of my love to the Father, in being obedient unto
death, Php 2:8.
Arise, let us go hence - Into the city, to the passover. All that has
been related from John 12:31, was done and said on Thursday, without the
city. But what follows in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters,
was said in the city, on the very evening of the passover just before he
went over the brook Kedron.
