John Calvin Commentary John 14:25

"These things have I spoken unto you, while [yet] abiding with you." — John 14:25 (ASV)

These things I have spoken to you. He adds this so that they might not despair, even though they might have profited less than they should have. For at that time, He scattered a seed of doctrine which lay hidden and, as it were, suffocated in the disciples. He therefore exhorts them to maintain good hope, until fruit is yielded by the doctrine which might now appear useless.

In short, He testifies that in the doctrine which they had heard, they have abundant ground for consolation, and that they should not seek it anywhere else. And if they do not immediately see it, He urges them to take courage, until the Holy Spirit, who is the inward Teacher, speaks the same thing in their hearts.

This admonition is highly useful to all. For if we do not immediately understand what Christ teaches, we begin to grow weary and become reluctant to expend fruitless effort on what is obscure. But we must have an eager desire to receive instruction; we must listen attentively if we desire to make proper progress in the school of God. Especially, we need patience until the Holy Spirit enables us to understand what we thought we had often read or heard to no avail.

So that the desire for learning may not be weakened in us, or that we may not fall into despair when we do not immediately perceive the meaning of Christ speaking to us, let us understand that this is spoken to all of us.

The Holy Spirit will bring to your remembrance all things that I have said to you. It is indeed a punishment threatened by Isaiah against unbelievers, that the Word of God will be to them as a book that is sealed (Isaiah 29:11), but in this manner, also, the Lord frequently humbles His people. We should, therefore, wait patiently and meekly for the time of revelation, and must not, for that reason, reject the Word.

When Christ testifies that it is the unique role of the Holy Spirit to teach the apostles what they had already learned from His mouth, it follows that outward preaching will be vain and useless if it is not accompanied by the teaching of the Spirit. God therefore has two ways of teaching: first, He speaks into our ears by the mouth of men; and, secondly, He addresses us inwardly by His Spirit. He does this either at the same moment or at different times, as He sees fit.

But observe what all these things are that He promises the Spirit will teach. He will suggest, He says, or bring to your remembrance, all that I have said. Hence it follows that the Spirit will not be a builder of new revelations.

By this one statement we can refute all the inventions which Satan has brought into the Church from the beginning under the pretense of the Spirit. Muhammad and the Pope agree in holding this as a principle of their religion: that Scripture does not contain the fullness of doctrine, but that something loftier has been revealed by the Spirit. From the same point, the Anabaptists and Libertines, in our own time, have derived their absurd notions.

But the spirit that introduces any doctrine or invention apart from the Gospel is a deceiving spirit, and not the Spirit of Christ. What is meant by the Spirit being sent by the Father in the name of Christ, I have already explained.