John 14:25Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Since the Lord's words were unclear to the disciples, and they did not understand some of them while doubting most of them, He prevents them from asking again, "What commandments must we keep?" He frees them from care and confusion by saying that the Comforter will make what is unclear and hard to understand easy for you to understand. This which seems unclear to you I have said while abiding with you and being with you. But if I depart, you will be taught all things. Therefore you need not grieve over separation from Me, when it will bring you so many blessings and so much wisdom. For as long as I Myself abide with you and the Spirit has not come, you cannot understand anything great or lofty.

This discourse also has a human character and does not depart from our human limits, provided the meaning of the passage is understood properly. Indeed, one may rightly ask: Is Christ not among us by the power of the Godhead, if He fills all things and is absent from nothing at all? Does He not embrace both earth and heaven with ineffable power, and not leave even the depths of Hades without Himself? For where is God not present? Therefore, when He says, "These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you," we must understand this according to His humanity. Since He was to depart from our eyes, I mean according to the flesh, He says this while preparing to go to the heavens.

In the preceding passage of the Holy Gospel, after which come the words just read, the Lord Jesus said that He Himself and the Father would come to those who love Them and prepare abodes in them. But above, He also said of the Holy Spirit: "You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you" (Jn 14:17). From this we understood that the Triune God abides in the saints as in His temple. Now He said, "These things I have spoken to you while being with you." Thus there is that abode which He promised for the future, and there is this one of which He testifies as present here. That abode of His is spiritual and lies within minds. This one is bodily and is opened to outward eyes and ears. That one makes the saved blessed in eternity.

"These things," that is, those things that seem unclear to you. "While being with you." Jesus Christ added these words to show that He would soon depart to the Father.

When was He not among them, Who, about to ascend into heaven, gives the promise, saying: "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen" (Mt 28:20)? But the incarnate Word both remains and departs. He departs in body, and remains in Godhead. Therefore He is presented at that time as remaining among them because He, Who always remains by invisible power, was already departing from bodily sight.

To this the Lord also added that the word which the disciples had heard, now, is not founded upon His own arbitrary will. This word belongs to Him Who sent Him. Therefore it must certainly come to pass in this way. And He concluded: this alone was needful for Me to say to you. But the Comforter, the Spirit, will reveal everything to you more fully. He will also remind you of what I have spoken. After this, as though wishing to end the conversation, He returns to its beginning, so that by a farewell greeting He may strengthen them again.

The disciples continue to hold their former ideas about the Messiah. They expect that Jesus Christ, as the true Messiah, must finally reveal Himself to the world in a brilliant manner. Therefore they do not understand why Jesus Christ wishes to manifest Himself only to them, and not to the whole world. One of His disciples, Judas, not Iscariot, asks the Lord about this. In answering Judas's question, Jesus Christ on the one hand reveals the condition under which His manifestation to the believer takes place. On the other hand, He lets His disciples understand what kind of manifestation He is speaking about. To be counted worthy of the manifestation of Jesus Christ, one must love Him, expressing this love for Him by keeping His teaching.

The departure from Jerusalem. "I deliberately tell you now that I am departing to the Father, so that you may remember My words and believe them when they come to pass."

"These things I have spoken to you," and so forth. The disciples at the present time still could not understand much that they would need to know for their future activity, and that therefore the Lord did not reveal to them now (Jn 16:12). But these things, as much as He revealed to them now and as much as they could now contain, in comparison with all that the Holy Spirit would reveal to them (Jn 14:26), the Lord spoke to them while still being with them. This expression points to the nearness of the separation, with the announcement of which the Lord began this discourse, thus returning to its beginning.

Having said what was said about the manifestation of the Messiah's glory, the Lord had said all that He needed to say during His sojourn on earth. Much remained that the Lord Jesus could still have revealed to His disciples.

The Lord points to two stages in the development of the Kingdom of God. The first is the Lord's preaching, His words spoken as eternal commandments to man while He was among them in the form of man. The second stage is the coming and abiding of the Comforter with the Church of God. In the preceding words, the Lord promises to appear Himself in the image of the God-man, whom the disciples so loved. Later the Holy Spirit the Comforter will speak to them, teaching, reminding, and explaining the same eternal words of life that the Lord spoke. First the Lord speaks of the words pronounced by Him "while being with you." Having comforted them (vv.