Charles Spurgeon Commentary John 14:15-17

"If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever, [even] the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth him not, neither knoweth him: ye know him; for he abideth with you, and shall be in you." — John 14:15-17 (ASV)

If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him, nor knows him:

The world is carnal, it is unspiritual; therefore, it is unable to see or to know the Spirit of God. A man without a spiritual nature cannot recognize the Holy Spirit; he must be born again before he can do so. You who are only soul and body need to receive that third and loftier principle – the spirit which is worked in us by the Spirit of God. Until you have it, this verse applies to you: The Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him, nor knows him.

If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him, nor does it know him: but you know him; for he dwells with you, and will be in you.

"I am going away from you, you will not have my personal presence much longer; but I will send you One who will never go away from you, for whom there is no death and no departure: another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, – who knows the truth, who can teach the truth, and who applies the truth to the hearts and consciences of men, – whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him, nor does it know him." Let us not imagine that the world ever will receive the Spirit of God. It is supposed by some, that the world gets more enlightened from age to age, but that is a supposition for which there is not the slightest foundation.

The death of human nature never develops into life; the darkness brought by the Fall never becomes light without the operation of a supernatural power. It is the Spirit of God that works this change in God's own children: but you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you. He was with them in a certain sense, even while Christ was here; else they would have learned nothing; and he was more fully in them when Christ had gone back to heaven; hence they learned, after Pentecost, more of the meaning of the gospel than they had ever gathered from the teaching of their Master.

If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but you know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

He dwelt with the apostles, but was not in them until after Christ rose from the dead. But now you and I know his indwelling. He has made our bodies to be the temples of the Holy Ghost.