Godlythinking         

Another Counselor

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. John 14:16

Normally, when someone asks for another helper the demand is not fulfilled until an additional person shows up to work beside the person that is asking.  However, theologians are primarily concerned  that everyone knows the another counselor is the Holy Spirit. To interpret the term “another counselor” from this passage correctly, we need to determine in the order that the disciples received the teaching about the counselor.   Follow along as I am using the content of John 14:15-26 as the foundation for this article.

Keeping the order of Christ’s teaching intact, John 14:16 was the first time the disciples heard Jesus speak about another counselor but it was something entirely new for them to grasp. By taking a closer look, the Holy Spirit was not introduced as the counselor for another nine verses. In those nine verses Jesus gives a huge amount of information that most Christians don’t understand or talk about.

One way to keep things on context is to ask – What was Jesus’ reason for asking for another counselor? If this is a clear teaching about the Holy Spirit, why didn’t Jesus ask the father to send the Holy Spirit, rather than another counselor? Its questions like these that change how we look at this passage.

What was Jesus’ reason for asking for another counselor? At Christmas time, one of the favorite passages used to announce the birth of Jesus Christ is Isaiah 9:6. According to this passage the son that was given was to be called Wonderful Counselor among other titles.  

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

From a position of grammar, the title of wonderful counselor gave Jesus the proper way to ask for “another counselor” in John 14:16.  In other words because Jesus was a “counselor” it predicated the need to ask for another counselor. If Jesus had asked for the Holy Spirit the emphasis of his teaching would not have revealed the person Christ was introducing or the role he has in our lives.

The term another counselor brings out a secondary point that the Christian’s seldom hear about. When the counselor Jesus spoke of comes to his side every Christian would have a total of two counselors living with us forever. Let’s consider the word counselor is derived is also rendered advocate and according to several bible versions Jesus Christ is an advocate (counselor) with the Father.

My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: 1 John 2:1 KJV

The world cannot accept the counselor because they refuse to love and obey God, instead they shrink away without listening to him. The pride of the world accepts that God created the universe, but keeps them from inquiring into the plan God has or what God created them specifically for. Jesus is not their Lord and they consider that his commands have little value in the world they live in. On the other hand Christian’s meet the requirements of John 14:15 to love Jesus Christ and obey his commands.

Jesus said John 14:18, I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. The word Orphan is an unusual word to be used of Christians because of our father in heaven. Therefore, we need to know what an orphan is and how it connects with another counselor according to the teaching of Christ is giving his disciples. It’s not hard to understand that all orphans are without parents. At one time Satan was our absentee father whose parenting skills brought us more trouble than a good life. The point is, after hearing the gospel, we chose to be adopted by God and have become one of his children.

The word “Orphan” has a direct connection with the definition of the word Counselor. The word counselor and advocate are derived from the Greek word “parakletos” and refers to one called alongside, who counsels and protects. Jesus Said, I will not leave you as orphans or in other words, I will not leave you without parents. According to a dictionary a parent is one who begets, nurtures and raises a child. In this case we need to consider that a parent is always close to their children, guiding their personal decisions with a strong desire to protect them from harm.

Notice that Jesus said that he would come to you (verse 18).  This happens at when you first meet Jesus at the cross and asked Jesus into your life the moment you accepted him as Lord of your life. Verse 20 says something amazing that is not generally known to Christians. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. That day is referring to the day Christ enters our hearts and unites with us. However, this concept of how God is united to other members of the divine is not completely understood by those who teach the word of God. It was an important idea to Jesus as he taught the concept that he was in the father and the father was in him several times throughout John. If anyone knew how God was united to man, it would be Jesus Christ.

To clarify John 14:20 Jesus said by loving him and obeying him the father would respond to your acts of love and obedience. According to verse 23 these two qualities of devotion are what God is looking for and in his response to his promise he will love us and come with Christ to make their abode with (in) us. By keeping John 14:18-23 in context we learned about another counselor and why he comes to dwell in us.  He said he would not leave you as an orphan and when you think about it, we are no longer orphans, because Jesus brought our father with him to dwell in us.

In verse 26 Jesus spoke of the Counselor and the Holy Spirit as if they were names for the same person. It was the first and only time that Jesus made reference to the counselor being the Holy Spirit.  In the passages leading up to verse 26 Jesus taught that the father was another counselor that came with Christ to make their abode in our body. However we need to decide between the term another counselor in verse 16 and what Jesus meant with the term the counselor in verse 26 and how it applies to the rest of scripture.

The outcome of God abiding in us made our bodies a Holy temple. Remember that Paul said we are the temple of the living God (2 Corinthians 6:16) a holy temple in our Lord (Ephesians 2:21) God’s temple where he lives by his spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16) and your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19.) This makes me wonder why the church body focuses on the issue that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?

Just as the Holy Spirit will teach you all things and he will remind you of everything I have said to you. Let’s consider how many times as human parents it took to remind our children to wash behind their ears before they did it on their own.  Through repeated teachings Jesus revealed his father to his disciples and taught his disciples how his relationship with the father would affect the remainder of their lives.  

I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them." John 17:26