It is an essential aspect of saving faith, springing from our love for Him (vv. 15,21,23-24; see Mat 7:21). Without love for Christ, trying to obey His commands becomes legalism. (2) To the person who loves Christ and strives to obey His commands consistently, Christ promises a special love, grace and His deepest inward presence (cf. v. 23).

14:23, “we will … make our abode with him.” Those who truly love Jesus and obey His words will experience the immediate presence and love of the Father and the Son. The Father and the Son come to believers by means of the Holy Spirit (see v. 18). It should be noted that the Father’s love is conditioned on our loving Jesus and being loyal to His Word.

14:24 “He does not love me.” Those who do not obey Christ’s teachings do not have a personal love for Him, and without love for Jesus Himself, true saving faith will not exist (1 John 2:3-4). To say that people remain saved even though they cease to love Christ and begin to live in gross sin directly contradicts these and other words of Jesus concerning love, obedience and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

14:26 “Holy Spirit.” The Counselor is identified here as the “Holy Spirit.” For the NT Christian, the most important thing about the Spirit is not His power (Acts 1:8), but that He is “Holy.” His holy character, along with the manifestation of that holy character in the lives of believers, is what matters most (cf. Rom 1:4; Gal 5:22-26).

14:27, the end result of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives is deep and lasting peace. Unlike worldly peace, which is usually defined as the absence of conflict, this peace is confident assurance in any circumstance; with Christ’s peace, we have no need to fear the present or the future. If your life is full of stress, allow the Holy Spirit to fill you with Christ’s peace (see Philippians 4:6,7 for more on experiencing God’s peace).

16:7, “if I depart, I will send him.” The Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit will occur only after Christ goes away (cf. Acts 2:33). This outpouring at Pentecost fully ushered in the age of the Spirit.

16:8 “reprove the world.” When the Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost, His principal work with respect to proclaiming the gospel will be that of convicting. The term “reprove” (Gk elenchö) means to expose, refute, convict and convince.

(1) The Spirit’s ministry of convicting operates in three areas. (a) Sin. The Holy Spirit will expose sin and unbelief in order to awaken a consciousness of guilt and need for forgiveness. Conviction also makes clear the fearful results if the guilty persist in their wrongdoing.