John 14:15-29

Contemporary English Version

The Holy Spirit Is Promised

^15 (A) Jesus said to his disciples:

If you love me, you will do as I command. ¹⁶ Then I will ask the Father to send you the Holy Spirit who will help^[a] you and always be with you. ¹⁷ The Spirit will show you what is true. The people of this world cannot accept the Spirit, because they don't see or know him. But you know the Spirit, who is with you and will keep on living in you.

¹⁸ I won't leave you like orphans. I will come back to you. ¹⁹ In a little while the people of this world won't be able to see me, but you will see me. And because I live, you will live. ²⁰ Then you will know I am one with the Father. You will know you are one with me, and I am one with you. ^21 (B) If you love me, you will do what I have said, and my Father will love you. I will also love you and show you what I am like.

²² The other Judas, not Judas Iscariot,^[b] then spoke up and asked, “Lord, what do you mean by saying that you will show us what you are like, but you will not show the people of this world?”

²³ Jesus replied:

If anyone loves me, they will obey me. Then my Father will love them, and we will come to them and live in them. ²⁴ But anyone who doesn't love me, won't obey me. What they have heard me say doesn't really come from me, but from the Father who sent me.

²⁵ I have told you these things while I am still with you. ²⁶ But the Holy Spirit will come and help^[c] you, because the Father will send the Spirit to take my place. The Spirit will teach you everything and will remind you of what I said while I was with you.

²⁷ I give you peace, the kind of peace only I can give. It isn't like the peace this world can give. So don't be worried or afraid.

²⁸ You have already heard me say I am going and I will also come back to you. If you really love me, you should be glad I am going back to the Father, because he is greater than I am.

²⁹ I am telling you this before I leave, so when it does happen, you will have faith in me.