John 14:16

John 14:16. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, that he may be with you for ever. The word here translated in our English Version ‘Comforter,' and partially introduced into the English language as ‘Paraclete,' means properly, One called to stand by us for our help, our Advocate, Helper, Representative. ‘Comforter' is not its meaning. And the unfortunate use of this term, so dear to the Christian amidst the troubles of the world, has tended in no small degree to make believers think less of strength than of comfort, of the experience of a private Christian who needs consolation instead of that of one who has to face the opposition of the world in his Master's cause. The ‘Paraclete' is really One who stands by our side, sustains us in our Christian calling, and breathes into us ever new measures of a spirit of boldness and daring in the warfare we have to wage. He is the representative of the glorified Lord with His militant people upon earth. The promise of this Paraclete or Advocate is given four times in the Chapter s before us (the only other passage in the New Testament where the word occurs being 1 John 2:1); and in the first two, chap. John 14:16; John 14:26, it has reference mainly to the preparation of the heart and mind of the disciples; in the other two, chaps, John 15:26; John 16:7, to their actual work.

The Advocate thus spoken of is further marked out by the remarkable addition of the word ‘ another;' and the word implies that the first Advocate had been Jesus Himself, whose ‘going away' prevented His continuing to be still the Advocate and Helper of His disciples. In this sense we find Him described by the very term here used in 1 John 2:1: ‘We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.' It is in the idea of representation that the two designations meet. Jesus glorified represents us before the Father's throne; the Holy Spirit abiding with us represents Jesus gone to the Father. This word ‘other' is thus full of the most precious meaning. It tells us that Jesus when on earth had been the Paraclete, the Advocate of His disciples. It suggests that what He had been to them during His earthly life, His representative will be after He has ‘gone away,' so that every narrative of what He had done for them becomes a prediction of what the Holy Spirit will do for them and for us who come after them. The verb ‘ask' of this verse is different from that so translated in John 14:13-14; and it can be used only of One who stands in that closeness of relation, in that intimacy of union with the Father, in which Jesus is represented throughout these Chapter s as standing to Him (comp. chaps, John 16:26; John 17:9; John 17:15; John 17:20).