Bible Study Moment

John 14 has several well-known passages:

“In my Father’s house there are many mansions. If it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”

“I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.”

“I will ask the Father and He will send you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever.”

“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. Not as the world gives I give. Let not your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid.”

All of these are part of Jesus preparing his followers for the time coming shortly when he won’t be with them physically. And the gospel writer has them to provide encouragement for those who become followers of Jesus later (including us) to provide guidance for how to follow someone not physically present with them.

Verse 16 – I will ask the Father and He will send you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever – is understood to be referring to the Holy Spirit. Here it may be helpful to look at the Amplified translation which seems to include every way that the original word or phrase can be translated:

Helper

Comforter

Advocate

Intercessor—Counselor

Strengthener

Standby

 

Years ago when Bette Midler’s song “From a Distance” was popular, it was sung as special music at our church. We (Linda, my sister, and me) discussed it later that we were concerned about the line that “God is watching us from a distance”. What we had learned from experience as well as from ministers and teachers is that God is with us. There is no distance between us and God’s presence. That is one major reason for the importance of Christmas – Emmanuel, God is with us. And also for Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit, God is with each of us and within each of us, empowering us and all those descriptors in the Amplified version I listed above. Each of those are meant to bring us closer to God, and each fall short of expressing how close God is to each of us.

 

Mark Phillips