Church Fathers Commentary John 14:22-27

"Judas (not Iscariot) saith unto him, Lord, what is come to pass that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my words: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father`s who sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, while [yet] abiding with you. But the Comforter, [even] the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful." — John 14:22-27 (ASV)

St. Augustine of Hippo: After our Lord said, A little while, and the world sees Me no more, but you will see Me, Judas—not the traitor named Iscariot, but he whose Epistle is read among the Canonical Scriptures—asked His meaning. Judas said to Him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world? In reply, our Lord explained why He manifests Himself to His own and not to outsiders: namely, because the one group loves Him, while the other does not. Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My words.

St. Gregory the Great: If you want to prove your love, show your works. The love of God is never idle; wherever it exists, it does great things. If it does not work, it is not love.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Love is what distinguishes the saints from the world. It makes people to be of one mind in a house—the house in which the Father and the Son make their home. They give this love to those to whom, in the end, they will manifest themselves.

For the saints, there is a certain inner manifestation of God that is unknown to the ungodly. To the ungodly, there is no manifestation of the Father and the Holy Spirit; the only one possible was that of the Son in the flesh. This latter manifestation, however, is not like the former, as it was only for a little while, not forever; for judgment, not for joy; for punishment, not for reward.

The Lord says, And We will come to him. They come to us as we go to Them. They come by helping, we go by obeying; They come by enlightening, we go by contemplating; They come by filling, we go by taking hold. Therefore, Their manifestation to us is not external, but inward, and Their home in us is not temporary, but eternal. As it follows, And will make Our abode with him.

St. Gregory the Great: He comes into some hearts but does not make His home with them. For some feel remorse for a time and turn to God, but in a time of temptation, they forget what caused their remorse and return to their former sins, just as if they had never lamented them. But for whoever truly loves God, the Lord both comes into his heart and also makes His home there. For the love of God so penetrates him that no temptation can withdraw him from it. He is one who truly loves if his mind is not overcome by evil pleasure through his consent to it.

St. Augustine of Hippo: But while the Father and the Son make Their home with the loving soul, is the Holy Spirit excluded? What does it mean when it was said of the Holy Spirit, He dwells with you, and shall be in you, if not that the Spirit also makes His home with us? Indeed, it would be absurd for anyone to think that when the Father and the Son come, the Holy Spirit departs as if to make way for His superiors. Yet even this carnal thought is countered by Scripture, which says He will abide with you for ever.

Therefore, He will be in the same dwelling with Them forever. Just as He did not come without Them, so They do not come without Him. As a consequence of the Trinity, actions are sometimes attributed to single persons within it, but the very substance of the Trinity demands that the presence of the other Persons is also implied in such actions.

St. Gregory the Great: To the degree that a person's love rests on lesser things, to that same degree is he removed from heavenly love. He that loves Me not, keeps not My sayings. Therefore, let our tongue, mind, and life bear witness to the love of our Maker.

St. John Chrysostom: Alternatively, Judas thought that he would see Him as one sees the dead in a dream. He asked, How is it, that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?—meaning, “Alas, since You are going to die, You will appear to us only as a dead person does.” To correct this mistake, Jesus says, I and My Father will come to him, that is, “I will manifest Myself just as My Father manifests Himself.” He adds, And will make our abode with Him, which is not like a dream.

It follows, And the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s which sent Me. This means that the one who does not hear My words, since he does not love Me, also does not love My Father. He says this to show that He spoke nothing that was not the Father’s, and nothing other than what seemed good to the Father.

St. Augustine of Hippo: And perhaps there is a fundamental distinction here. He speaks of His “sayings” in the plural when they are His own, as when He says, He that loves Me not, keeps not My sayings. But He speaks of the “word” in the singular when it is not His own but the Father’s—that is, as the Word, which He Himself is. For He is not His own Word, but the Father’s, just as He is not His own image, but the Father’s, nor His own Son, but the Father’s.

St. John Chrysostom: These things have I spoken to you, being yet present with you. Some of these things were obscure and not understood by the disciples.

St. Augustine of Hippo: The dwelling He promised them in the future is entirely different from this present dwelling He now speaks of. The one is spiritual and inward; the other is outward and perceptible to physical sight and hearing.

St. John Chrysostom: To help them endure His bodily departure more cheerfully, He promises that this departure will be the source of great benefit. For while He was in the body, they could not know much, because the Spirit had not yet come. He says, But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you.

St. Gregory the Great: “Paraclete” means Advocate or Comforter. The Advocate intercedes with the Father for sinners when, by His inward power, He moves the sinner to pray. The Comforter relieves the sorrow of penitents and cheers them with the hope of pardon.

St. John Chrysostom: He often calls Him the Comforter, referring to the affliction the disciples were in at that time.

Didymus the Blind: The Savior affirms that the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father in His—the Savior’s—name, which name is “the Son.” Here an agreement of nature and the proper relation, so to speak, between the persons is demonstrated. The Son can come in the Father’s name only in a way that is consistent with the unique relationship of the Son to the Father and the Father to the Son. No one else comes in the name of the Father, but rather in the name of God, of the Lord, of the Almighty, and so on.

Just as servants who come in the name of their lord do so as servants of that lord, so the Son who comes in the name of the Father bears that name as the acknowledged only-begotten Son of the Father. That the Holy Spirit, then, is sent by the Father in the Son’s name shows that He is in unity with the Son. From this, He is also said to be the Spirit of the Son and to make those who are willing to receive Him sons by adoption.

The Holy Spirit, therefore, Who comes from the Father in the name of the Son, will teach all things to those who are established in the faith of Christ—all spiritual things, including both the understanding of truth and the mystery of wisdom. But He will not teach like those who have acquired a skill or knowledge through study and effort, but as being the art, doctrine, and knowledge itself. As this Himself, the Spirit of truth will impart the knowledge of divine things to the mind.

St. Gregory the Great: Unless the Spirit is present in the mind of the hearer, the word of the teacher is in vain. Therefore, let no one attribute the understanding that comes from his teaching to the human teacher. For unless there is a teacher within, the tongue of the teacher outside labors in vain. Indeed, even the Maker Himself does not speak for human instruction unless the Spirit also speaks by His anointing at the same time.

St. Augustine of Hippo: So then, the Son speaks and the Holy Spirit teaches. When the Son speaks, we receive the words; when the Holy Spirit teaches, we understand those words. The whole Trinity indeed both speaks and teaches, but unless each person also worked distinctly, the whole would be too much for human weakness to grasp.

St. Gregory the Great: But why is it said of the Spirit, He shall suggest all things to you, since suggesting is the role of an inferior? The word “suggest” is used here, as it sometimes is, in the sense of supplying something secretly. The invisible Spirit suggests, not because He takes a lower place in teaching, but because He teaches secretly.

St. Augustine of Hippo: To “suggest” means to bring to your remembrance. Every wholesome reminder we receive comes from the grace of the Spirit.

Theophylact of Ohrid: The Holy Spirit, then, was both to teach and to bring to remembrance. He was to teach what Christ had refrained from telling His disciples because they were not able to bear it, and He was to bring to remembrance what Christ had told them but which, on account of its difficulty or their slowness of understanding, they were unable to remember.

St. John Chrysostom: Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you. He says this to comfort His disciples, who were now troubled by the prospect of the hatred and opposition that awaited them after His departure.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He left a peace in this world, where we conquer the enemy and have love for one another. He will give us His peace in the world to come, when we will reign without an enemy and where we will be able to live without disagreement. This peace is Christ Himself, both when we believe that He is and when we will see Him as He is.

But why does He say, Peace I leave with you, without the “My,” whereas He includes “My” in, My peace I give to you? Should we understand “My” to be implied in the first phrase, or was it intentionally omitted? His peace is the kind of peace He has Himself. The peace He left us in this world is our peace rather than His.

He has nothing to fight against in Himself, because He has no sin. But ours is a peace in which we still say, Forgive us our debts (Matthew 6:12). Similarly, we have peace among ourselves because we trust that we mutually love one another. But this is not a perfect peace, for we cannot see into each other’s minds. I would not deny, however, that our Lord’s words could also be understood as a simple repetition.

He adds, Not as the world gives, give I unto you. This means He does not give as those who love the world give. They give themselves a kind of peace, which is the free, uninterrupted enjoyment of the world. And even when they grant peace to the righteous by not persecuting them, there cannot be true peace where there is no true agreement, no unity of heart.

St. John Chrysostom: External peace is often more harmful than beneficial to those who enjoy it.

St. Augustine of Hippo: But there is a peace that is serenity of thought, tranquility of mind, simplicity of heart, the bond of love, and the fellowship of charity. No one will be able to come into the Lord’s inheritance who does not observe this testament of peace. No one can be a friend of Christ who is at enmity with other Christians.