John 14:15Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

I gave you a commandment that you love one another, that you love one another, and that you act toward one another as I acted toward you. Love consists in fulfilling this and imitating the one whom we love. See v. 16.

How then, when you do not keep My commandment but fear death, do you say that you love Me? To this they might say: how can we not grieve, when we are about to be deprived of Thy consolation and guidance? Therefore He says: this will not happen. You will not remain without consolation.

He adds a reference to the exact keeper of the law, showing that the promised mercy and the gift of spiritual blessings will be effective and fulfilled through Him for them, and for no one else.

That the giving right hand of God often ceases and delays, closing the boundary of hope to those unwilling to ask rightly, you may easily understand from what Christ's disciple discloses in the Epistle.

"You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, that you may spend it on your pleasures" (Jas 4:3).

Therefore he also says again concerning those accustomed to double-mindedness: "Let not that man think that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways" (Jas 1:7-8).

For those who ask for heavenly grace, not for the accomplishment of virtue, but for the enjoyment of fleshly pleasures and worldly desires, God as it were closes His ear and gives nothing at all.

How could He give anyone what He must abhor and reject because of its inherent vileness? Being the fountain of all sweetness, how could He pour forth bitter water?

But that He distributes good things with a generous and ready hand to lovers of spiritual gifts, you will easily see when you hear Him speaking to them through the prophet Isaiah.

"While you are still speaking, I will say, What is it?" (Isa 65:24; cf. Isa 58:9). And through the voice of the Psalmist: "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open to their supplication" (Ps 33:16).

Having thus defined and clearly said that the enjoyment of heavenly blessings, plainly given from the Father through Him, must and certainly will belong to those who love Him, He at once describes the power of love.

He teaches how we must practice it in the best and blameless way, for our profit. If someone says that he loves God, he will not thereby receive the glory of one who truly loves.

The meaning of virtue does not lie in word alone. The beauty of piety toward God is not imagined in mere expressions, but is fully discerned from good works and an obedient heart.

The keeping of the divine commandments paints love for God in the finest way. It presents it as a wholly living and true virtue.

As we have said, it is not merely sketched in sounds from the tongue, but shines throughout and gleams with varied forms of works, like bright colors.

Thus our Lord Jesus Christ, clearly pointing us to this, says: "Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven" (Mt 7:21).

Faith is not proved by idle and flattering words, but by the qualities of deeds. This is why divine Scripture calls it dead if works do not accompany it (Jas 2:20, 26).

For the knowledge, as it is said, that God is one, we may find not only in human reason, but even among the unclean demons themselves.

They too tremble, though unwillingly, before the power of the Creator (Jas 2:19). On the contrary, making the splendor of good works a companion of faith is proper to those alone who truly love God.

Thus the proof of love and the definition of perfected faith is the keeping of the Gospel doctrines and the fulfillment of the divine commandments.

Perhaps it would not be difficult to add something else akin to this in meaning, but I think this is not the present occasion.

Therefore we must return again to what is needed for the explanation of the words before us: "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments."

Understand again, and remember well, what He often said in His discourses to the disciples and to the Jews themselves: "The words that I speak are not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me" (Jn 14:10).

And again: "I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who sent Me has Himself given Me commandment what I should say and what I should speak" (Jn 12:49).

And again: "Therefore what I speak is not Mine, but His who sent Me" (cf. Jn 12:50).

Now, although He has acknowledged that the words which He spoke to us are wholly those of God the Father, He nonetheless affirms that what He has uttered to us are His own commandments.

No one with understanding will think that He speaks falsely. Such a thought is not proper to a Christian. Rather, He will again be shown true, since He Himself is the Truth.

He did not transmit the word from the Father to us as one of the prophets, in the manner of a servant and minister.

He did so as One who has likeness with Him, so that He is shown not to differ from Him even in word.

He always speaks as the Father Himself would speak in each matter. The immutability of Their essence causes the Son also to speak identically with the One who begot Him.

As the Word, being also the wisdom and counsel of God the Father, He says that He received a commandment about what to speak and what to utter.

So too we ourselves see that the mind of each of us as it were commands the word, spoken through speech and expressed outwardly, to make clear what is within the mind.

The value of this example is certainly slight when applied to God. Yet, taking an image from ourselves to confirm what is above us, we understand the divine mysteries as in a mirror and in an enigma.

Christ promised the apostles the Comforter, the Spirit. Let us see how He promised Him. 'If you love Me,' He says, 'keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth' (Jn 14:15-16). This is certainly the Holy Spirit in the Trinity. The catholic faith confesses Him to be consubstantial and coeternal with the Father and the Son.

Of Him the Apostle says: 'The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us' (Rom 5:5). How then does the Lord say, 'If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter'? For it is said of the Holy Spirit that, without Him, we can neither love God nor keep His commandments.

How can we love, in order to receive Him, if without Him we cannot love? Or how shall we keep His commandments, in order to receive Him, if without Him we cannot keep them? Or perhaps there is first in us a love by which we love Christ. Then, through love for Christ and the keeping of His commandments, we are counted worthy to receive the Holy Spirit. Thus the love not for Christ, which is already in us, but for God the Father, would be poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us.

Such a judgment is perverse. Whoever believes that he loves the Son and does not love the Father certainly does not love the Son either, but imagines something for himself. Moreover, the apostolic words are these: 'No one says, Jesus is Lord, except in the Holy Spirit' (cf. 1 Cor 12:3). And who calls Jesus Lord, except one who loves Him, if he calls Him in the way the Apostle wished this to be understood?

Many say this with their lips, but deny it in heart and deeds. Of such the Apostle said: 'They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him' (Tit 1:16). If they deny Him by deeds, then without doubt He must also be confessed by deeds.

Therefore no one says 'Jesus is Lord' with soul, word, deed, heart, and lips, except in the Holy Spirit. No one names Him so, except the one who loves Him. The apostles were already saying, 'Lord Jesus.' Since they named Him in such a way that they did not speak hypocritically, confessing with their lips while denying with heart and deeds, they certainly loved Him.

How, then, did they love Him, if not in the Holy Spirit? Yet they were first commanded to love Him and keep His commandments, in order to receive the Holy Spirit. Without Him they could neither love Him nor keep His commandments.

It remains for us to understand that one who loves already has the Holy Spirit. By having Him, he merits having Him still more. By having Him more, he merits loving more.

The disciples already had the Holy Spirit promised by the Lord, for without Him they would not have called Him Lord. Yet they did not yet have Him as the Lord promised Him. Thus they both had Him and did not have Him, since they did not yet have Him as fully as they were later to receive Him.

They had Him in small measure, but He would be given to them in greater measure. They had Him hiddenly, but would receive Him manifestly. For this belonged to the greater gift of the Holy Spirit, that it would become clear to them that they already had Him.

Mentioning this gift, the Apostle said: 'Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things given us by God' (1 Cor 2:12). The Lord also gave this manifest bestowal of the Holy Spirit not once, but twice.

Soon after He rose from the dead, He breathed and said: 'Receive the Holy Spirit' (Jn 20:22). Since He then gave Him, did He not later send Him, as He had promised? Or is it not the same Holy Spirit whom He then breathed and whom He later sent from heaven? (cf. Acts 2:4).

Why this bestowal of the Spirit, performed openly, was made twice is another question. Perhaps this twofold giving of the Spirit was done according to the two commandments of love, namely love of neighbor and love of God. In this way it would be made clear that love is the gift of the Holy Spirit.

If another explanation must be sought, we cannot now allow our discourse to enter such inquiries more deeply than is necessary. For now, let us acknowledge that without the Holy Spirit we can neither love Christ nor keep His commandments. The less we receive Him, the less we can do this. The more fully we receive Him, the more we can do it.

Therefore this promise is not in vain, either for one who does not have the Holy Spirit or for one who has Him. For one who does not have Him, it is so that he may receive Him. For one who has Him, it is so that he may have Him more fully.

If it were not true that one has Him less and another more, holy Elisha would not have said to holy Elijah: 'Let the Spirit that is in you be upon me twofold' (4 Kgs 2:9). When John the Baptist said, 'God does not give the Spirit by measure' (Jn 3:34), he was speaking properly of the Son of God. To Him the Spirit was not given by measure, because in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead (Col 2:9).

For the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, was not without the grace of the Holy Spirit (1 Tim 2:5). He Himself says that this prophecy was fulfilled concerning Him: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me and sent Me to preach good tidings to the poor' (cf. Lk 4:18).

That He is the Only-begotten Son, equal to the Father, belongs not to grace but to nature. That man was received into the unity of the Person of the Only-begotten Son belongs not to nature but to grace. The Gospel acknowledges and affirms this: 'The Child grew and became strong, being filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him' (Lk 2:40).

To others the Spirit is given by measure, and, being given, He is increased until He fills each one according to his measure and perfection. Hence the Apostle reminds us: 'Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but think soberly, according to the measure of faith which God has allotted to each' (Rom 12:3).

The Spirit Himself is not divided, but the gifts through the Spirit are divided. 'There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit' (1 Cor 12:4).

When He says, 'I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter,' He reveals that He Himself is a Comforter. For Comforter, Paracletus, in Latin means advocate, advocatus. It was said of Christ: 'We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous' (1 Jn 2:1).

Did they love Him as they ought to love? Was this love able to endure the trial to which it had to be subjected during His sufferings on the Cross? In the same disposition, after His Resurrection, He tested Peter three times: "Do you love Me?" Jn 21:15.

How easily our heart deceives us. Our self-love so wants to present us in a better light that we must strictly examine ourselves: do we love our Lord?

"If you love Me," the Lord says to the sorrowful disciples, and thereby gives them to understand that love for Him contains much consolation in itself. It is consoling because its object is so lofty, so holy, and so great, that those who love the Lord with deep love forget both earth and heaven.

"What have I in heaven? And what have I desired on earth besides Thee? My heart and my flesh have failed, O God of my heart; God is my portion forever," says David, Ps 72:26.

"If you love Me, keep My commandments." Even before His death on the Cross He speaks of His commandments. He reveals in Himself the One who gave the law on Sinai, Ex 20:6, and who has authority to give statutes to the universe.

Before His gaze lies open that kingdom which will embrace all nations and all ages. There His name will be the name of King and Master, before whom all in heaven and on earth will bow, Phil 2:11.

"If you love Me, keep My commandments," or more precisely, "you will keep them, you will fulfill them." With what meekness of love and with what softness of heavenly goodness the Lord declares His will concerning the fulfillment of His commandments.

He does not inspire fear of the Lawgiver and the law. He does not want His commandments to seem to us bonds or a burden. He says that, as His commandments are the work of His love, so their fulfillment is the necessary fruit of our love for Him.

Whoever sincerely loves the Lord Jesus cannot fail to fulfill His will, His commandments. The one is inseparably joined to the other.

The beloved disciple of Christ teaches concerning love: "Whoever keeps His word, in him truly the love of God has been perfected" (1 Jn 2:5). "This is love for God, that we keep His commandments" (1 Jn 5:3).

The fulfillment of His commandments serves as the test of our love for the Lord. If we do not fulfill His will, we dream in vain that we love Him.