The Holy Spirit’s Dwelling in Believers
August 7, 2022
Commentary
Do you love the Lord? True love is demonstrated by obedience to the Lord’s commandments (v. 15). If you are married, the same is true of your marriage vows. Love is not some emotional experience. It is commitment. Christ has set the pattern of love and obedience.
In the Old Testament the Spirit came on some believers for special purposes, but after Pentecost, He indwells every believer permanently. He has replaced Jesus’ physical presence as He now mediates between the believer and God. The Holy Spirit does not work instead of us, or despite us, but in us and through us. The world cannot accept Him because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. It is sort of like radio waves. Without a radio you would never know that there are radio waves, and they go unnoticed. The Holy Spirit is unnoticed by the unsaved who have no spiritual life. Jesus said that soon the world that hated Him would not be able to see Him. However, the disciples would see Him because they were spiritually alive, and the Holy Spirit would make Christ known to them. He would not only be in their midst, but He would be in them (v. 17). During this time the people would recognize the relationship between the Father, the Son and themselves. Christ in the Father, the disciples in Christ, and Christ in the disciples (v. 20). The same is true today. He will reveal Himself to believers through the Holy Spirit and the Word (v. 21).
The Judas referred to in this passage is not Judas Iscariot (v. 22). It is thought that he may have been the same man called Thaddaeus (Mark 10:3). Judas thought that Jesus would reveal Himself to the world as Messiah. It puzzled him that Jesus would limit Himself to just them. Jesus said that He would not make Himself known to those who are disobedient to His teaching (vv. 23-24). The Father and the Son, through the Holy Spirit, come only to those who prove their love for Him by obedience. Jesus saves the deepest revelations of Himself for those who love Him.
Application
Just like the comparison of the radio waves above to the Holy Spirit, the radio must be connected to the power in order to know they are in the air. The same is true in my life concerning the Holy Spirit. The only way I know He is there is by being connected to Jesus Christ.
John 14:15– 24 (NET)
15 “If you love me, you will obey my commandments. 16 Then I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it does not see him or know him. But you know him, because he resides with you and will be in you.
18 “I will not abandon you as orphans, I will come to you. 19 In a little while the world will not see me any longer, but you will see me; because I live, you will live too. 20 You will know at that time that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you. 21 The person who has my commandments and obeys them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.”
22 “Lord,” Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “what has happened that you are going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” 23 Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him. 24 The person who does not love me does not obey my words. And the word you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.
Illustration: The Holy Spirit Forgotten
In many Christian circles the Holy Spirit is either neglected, forgotten, or misunderstood. The One given to unite the body of Christ is the center of controversy. So often Christian work is so rigidly programmed that it seems we need no longer depend on Him, yet Jesus said, “Without Me you can do nothing.” The late Dr. A. W. Tozer, author and pastor, said, “If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament Church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference.” (Alan Redpath in “Christian Life” magazine. Christianity Today, Vol. 29, no. 18).