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 What’s in a name? Parakletos is the Fourth Gospel’s term
of choice for the Spirit. The accurate translation? parakaleo = "to exhort and
encourage," "to comfort and console," "to call upon for help,"
and "to appeal." The noun form (Parakletos) can mean, "the one who
exhorts," "the one who comforts," "the one who helps," and
"the one who makes appeals on one’s behalf."[1]
The use of parakletos suggests how the Johannine community understood their Christian
faith after Jesus’ death and ascension. The Spirit remains in the community and will
continue to illuminate truth even as Jesus did. [2] Allos (verses 16-17) -
"another;" the modifier suggests that Jesus was/is also a Parakletos and not
just another name for Spirit (compare 1 John 2:1 where Jesus is explicitly identified as
Parakletos). The P-word is not simply another name for the Spirit, but a particular way of
describing the functions of the Spirit, functions held in common with Jesus.
Can the disciples still love him, when he has gone?
John 14:12-24 answers yes to this question, but it may be a yes that surprised even
Jesus’ first disciples. The disciples can still love Jesus, but neither by clinging
to a cherished memory of him nor by retreating into their private experience of him.
Rather, they can continue to love Jesus by doing his works (14:1-14) and by keeping his
commandments (14:14-24). That is, when they move outside of their own private experience
of Jesus , when they live what Jesus has taught them and demonstrated in his own life,
then they will find themselves once again in his love. [3]
 What’s love got to do with
it? Craddock: "In order to understand this and other passages in this Gospel . . .
the reader must think of love as other than feeling. Feelings are not commanded but love
can be . . ." [4]
Define from your own experience or provide examples of love-as-feeling and
love-as-obedience. The Fourth Gospel writer urges the latter as the true definition of
love: to act for another’s good, to do that which brings benefit to the other. [5]
 For a sermon on this passage, please
see Barbara Brown Taylor’s, "Good News for Orphans" in her book, Gospel
Medicine (MA: Cowley Press, 1995), page79.
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1 The New Interpreter’s Bible IX (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), page 497.
2 Such forms part of Raymond Brown’s imaginative reconstruction of the Johannine
community. Raymond E. Brown, The Community of the beloved Disciple (NY: Paulist Press,
1979), p. 139.
3 NIB, page 748.
4 In Preaching the New Common Lectionary: Year A (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1986), page
215.
5 Ibid, page 215.
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