The Holy Spirit - Comforter, Cousellor, Helper.

I was just reading CH Spurgeon's 'Morning and Evening' for today (if you don't have a copy I'd highly recommend one or click here.)The passage was based on John 14: 26 and made reference to the 'comforter that is the Holy Spirit. The verse reads:

"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."

Now clearly the context here is of the Holy Spirit being a teacher, a guide if you like. So why use the word 'comforter'? Spurgeon explains it thus:

"It is His (The Holy Spirit's) office to console the hearts of God's people. He convinces of sin; He illuminates and instructs; but still the main part of His work lies in making glad the hearts of the renewed, in confirming the weak, and lifting up all those that he bowed down... The Holy Spirit consoles, but Christ is the consolation.... The Holy Spirit is the physician, but Jesus is the medicine... If one be the Comforter, the other is the Comfort." Read the whole thing here.

Now I'm glad Spurgeon was so enlightened as to the traits of the Holy Spirit and could put it as eloquently and succinctly as that. He also manages so well to convey the unity of the trinity by wording it like this, the interwoven traits of each triune part.

It may seem so obvious to you now reading this but I was mightily confused. Why?

Because I skim read Spurgeon's words first time round. Then I looked up the verse his writing was based on and saw that in the NIV it used the word 'counsellor' where the KJV used 'comforter'... to make matters more puzzling I then checked in the ESV, only to find that it used 'helper' and the footnotes read "Or advocate, or counsellor".

So I was confronted with the Holy Spirit as a Comforter, Cousellor, Helper and Advocate. In light of Spurgeon's words I think he managed to convey each of those traits admirably! And he didn't have 2 of those 3 versions to compare!

Re-read the quote I put in from Spurgeon and see if you can see where each trait is referenced. It makes an interesting study to compare words in different versions. In this case I enjoyed seeing the attributes of God summarised so neatly.

"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name..." (ESV)

Father, Son and Holy Spirit working as one and fulfilling every promise, comforting every soul, loving, teaching, guiding, protecting, chastising, redeeming, justifying, sanctifying and one day glorifying.

Triune, Sovereign God!