To Keep Them From Falling Away
TO KEEP THEM FROM FALLING AWAY
JOHN 16:1-7
Here Jesus continues to warn the disciples about the opposition they should expect, much of which comes from religious people.
Jesus had been aware all along, not only of the presence of a traitor in the apostolic band, but also of the great weakness both in understanding and in character of those who sought to be loyal to him. This teaching, he tells them, was to keep them from falling away. There were going to be many temptations for them to do that. Excommunication from the synagogue could be a powerful pressure on them. But things would go much beyond that. The time was coming when religious bigots, no doubt convinced in themselves of the rightness of their attitude, would do their best to kill them and really believe that this was something which was for the service of God. This was an attitude well illustrated by Saul of Tarsus who was convinced that he ought to act in the way that he did (Acts 26:9-11). Jesus himself was threatened with death on grounds of God’s honor (10:31-33) as well as of the welfare of God’s people (11:50). The reason for persecution of the Christians will be theological—lack of knowledge of Father or Son.
Jesus emphasizes that he is telling them things now which they did not need to know before when he was with them. These things must be said because of his imminent departure. They had not asked where he was departing to, but the fact that he was going had become a source of sorrow for them instead of one of joy (14:28). Paradoxical as it may have seemed to them it was for their benefit that he went. Without his departure the arrival of the Paraclete would be impossible. In view of what had already been said about the Holy Spirit, they should have realized how they (with all Christians who followed them) would be better off. So long as their love for Christ, their knowledge of him and their joy in him, were links to his physical life, they were vulnerable. Separation or death could destroy everything at a stroke. Now, “nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:39, cf. John 16:22).
Notes 16:2: cf. the threat of expulsion in 9:22. There was a Jewish saying that “everyone who sheds the blood of the godless is like one who brings an offering.” 16:4: cf. 13:19, where such information would help them to believe in him. 16:5: they had of course asked in 13:36 and 14:5 but they had become so involved in their own sorrow that they had not pursued the question further on this occasion. 16:7: ironically enough Caiaphas had seen the advantage of Jesus’ going away (it is the same Greek word in 11:50; 18:14).