“Spirit of truth” = Why is it important to the disciples that the Advocate the Father is sending to replace Jesus is called the “Spirit of truth”? Because they will be able to trust Him completely.

It is interesting to note that the Spirit is so closely associated with truth when Jesus just called Himself “the truth” (14:6) and those who worship the Father must do so in truth (4:23-24). Truth is inseperable from God, Who not only does not lie, but cannot (Titus 1:2, Heb 6:18) unlike His opponent the devil (8:44). Why is this important for you?

John 14:6  Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.

John 4:23-24  Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.  God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

Titus 1:2  a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time,

Hebrews 6:18  God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.

John 8:44  You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

“whom” (KJV) and later in the verse “him” (NIV) are rightly translated because the Holy Spirit is a person and not an influence. He is as much a Person as the Father or as Jesus and we would never even consider calling them “it.” He is never called “it” in the Bible and should never be called “it” by us.

“cannot accept” = Left to itself the sinful world is helpless (1 Cor 2:14; Rom 8:7). Edersheim notes that the reason the world “would not  listen to his pleadings, nor accept Him as their Guide” was that “the only evidence by which they judged was that of outward sight and material results.” The Spirit doesn’t work that way (John 3:8).

1 Corinthians 2:14  The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Romans 8:7  the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

John 3:8  The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

“it neither sees him nor knows him” = The world lacks spiritual insight and spiritual knowledge. It failed to recognize Jesus (1:10) and it will fail to recognize the Holy Spirit.

John 1:10  He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him.

The gift of the Holy Spirit is conditioned upon belief and obedience (Joh 7:38-39, Acts 2:38, 5:32). Does this mean that we “earn” the gift of the Holy Spirit by our acts of obedience? What relationship do obedience and belief have? (See the commentary on John 14:15.)

John 7:38-39  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”  By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Acts 2:38  Peter replied, “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 5:32  We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

Bengel rightly points out that here is the beginning of the essential difference between believers and the world. Edersheim observes that “The Son was sent into the world; not so the Holy Spirit. Again, the world receives not the Holy Spirit, because it knows Him not; the disciples know Him, because they possess Him.” Knowing and having the Spirit are seemingly interdependent. If you don’t know Him, you cannot have Him; and if you do not have Him, you cannot know Him. Both come at the same time.