John 16:1 - Meaning and Application

Christ dealt faithfully with his disciples when he sent them out, because he told them the worst ahead of time. He wanted them to sit down and count the cost. In the chapter before, he had already told them to expect the world’s hatred. Now he gives the reason for speaking so plainly: “I have told you these things so that you will not be offended,” or shaken away from him (John 16:1).

Christ’s followers are very ready to stumble at the cross, that is, to be troubled by suffering and shame. The offense of the cross is a serious temptation, even for good people, because it can make them turn back from God’s ways, drift off course, or grow weary in them. It can lead them to give up either their integrity or their comfort. For that reason, a time of suffering is called an hour of temptation.

Our Lord wanted to warn us beforehand so that trouble would not terrify us as a surprise. In this world of troubles, few things disturb our peace more than disappointment. It throws us into confusion. But we can better welcome a visitor we expected, and when we are warned ahead of time, we are armed ahead of time.

He then foretells more specifically what his disciples would suffer: “They will put you out of the synagogues, and the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is serving God” (John 16:2). Here are, as it were, two swords drawn against the followers of Jesus, one from religion and one from the state.

First, there is the sword of church discipline used wrongly. The Jews, who claimed church authority, would cast them out of the synagogues. That means they would excommunicate them, cutting them off from the outward fellowship of God’s people. At first, they would punish them in their synagogues as people who despised the law (Matthew 10:17). Later, they would cast them out as beyond correction. They would also shut them out from the national privileges of Israel, treating them like outlaws or outsiders, as though they were Samaritans, Gentiles, or tax collectors. Many a good truth has been condemned this way, and many a child of God has been handed over to Satan. It has often been the lot of Christ’s disciples to be unjustly excommunicated.

Second, there is the sword of civil power. “The hour is coming,” Jesus says, and things will become worse than before. When they are cast out as heretics, they will be killed, and others will think they are doing God a favor. Christ’s sheep have often been treated like sheep for slaughter. We are told that all the apostles, except John, were put to death. Jesus had said, “You will bear witness,” meaning they would become martyrs, sealing the truth with their blood.

These persecutors would also seem conscientious. They would think they were offering service to God, as if they were presenting a proper sacrifice to him. Like those in Isaiah’s day who cast out God’s servants and said, “Let the Lord be glorified” (Isaiah 66:5), they would dress cruelty in the language of duty. It is possible for real enemies of God’s service to pretend to be very zealous for it. The devil’s work has often been done in God’s clothing. It is also common to cover hatred of religion with a show of duty to God and care for his church. God’s people have suffered the hardest blows from persecutors who thought they were right. Paul himself once thought he ought to do what he did against Jesus’ name. That does not reduce the sin of persecutors, because evil deeds are not made holy by attaching God’s name to them. But it does make the sufferings of the persecuted heavier, because they die under the charge of being enemies of God. Still, names as well as bodies will rise again in the great day.

Jesus then tells them the real reason the world would hate and rage against them: “They will do these things because they have not known the Father or me” (John 16:3). This should comfort believers, because only the worst sort of people will be their enemies.

Many who claim to know God are deeply ignorant of him. The people who said they were serving God while persecuting Christ’s followers thought they knew him, but their idea of God was wrong. Israel broke the covenant and still cried, “My God, we know you” (Hosea 8:1-2). People cannot truly know God if they reject Christ. It is useless to claim knowledge of God and religion while despising Christ and Christianity. Those who think it is a good service to persecute godly people are very ignorant of both God and Christ. Anyone who truly knows Christ knows that he came not to destroy lives, but to save them. He rules by truth and love, not by fire and sword.

Jesus also explains why he told them this now, and not earlier. He did not want to discourage them or add to their present sorrow. He was not warning them so they could avoid trouble, but so that when the time came, they would remember that he had told them. When suffering comes, it helps us to remember what Christ said about suffering. That strengthens our trust in his foresight and faithfulness, and it also makes the trouble less bitter, because we were warned before. We entered his service expecting this kind of cost, so it should not surprise us or seem unfair. As with Christ’s own sufferings, so with his followers’ sufferings, we should keep an eye on the fulfillment of Scripture.

He had not spoken this from the beginning, because he was still with them. While he was with them, he bore the full force of the world’s hatred himself and stood in the front of the battle. The powers of darkness aimed all their strength at him, the King of Israel, so the disciples did not yet need as many warnings about suffering. Even so, he had from the beginning told them to be ready for suffering. The later part of this seems to point more to the promise of another Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Jesus had said little about that at first because he himself was present with them to teach, guide, and comfort them, and they did not yet need the Spirit’s extraordinary presence in the same way.

The children at a wedding feast do not need a comforter so much while the bridegroom is still with them. Jesus speaks with deep care about the sadness his disciples felt after what he had just said (John 16:5, John 16:6). “Now I am going away to the one who sent me,” he says in effect, “to rest there after my work. Yet none of you asks with courage, ‘Where are you going?’ Instead of asking what would comfort you, you keep looking at what seems sad, and sorrow has filled your hearts.”

Jesus had told them plainly that he was leaving. He was not forced away, but went willingly. His life was not taken from him by force, but given up by his own choice. He was going to the one who sent him, to give an account of the work he had been given. In the same way, when we leave this world, we go to the one who sent us here. That should make us careful to live well, since we have work to finish and must answer for it one day.

He had also told them that hard times would come after he was gone, and that they should not expect the easy life they had known with him. If these were the only gifts he seemed to leave to those who had given up everything for him, they might think they had made a poor choice. So he shares their distress, but he also corrects them. They were not using the means of comfort as they should. They did not keep asking, “Where are you going?” Peter had asked this before (John 13:36), and Thomas had followed with a similar question (John 14:5), but they did not keep pressing for the answer. They stopped short of full understanding and did not keep seeking it.

This shows how kind Jesus is as a teacher, especially to the weak and unlearned. Many teachers will not bear with repeated questions, but Jesus knows how to teach children who need one instruction after another. If the disciples had looked more carefully, they would have seen that his going away meant his greater glory, so they should not have been overly troubled by it. It also meant their own good, because seeing Jesus at the right hand of God would strengthen them, as it later strengthened Stephen. A humble and believing search into the purpose of God’s darkest dealings would help us accept them. It would make us grieve less and fear less, because we would ask not where they came from, but where they are going. We know they work together for good (Romans 8:28).

Their sorrow also came from thinking too much about what made them sad. Jesus had already said enough to fill them with joy (John 15:11), but they kept looking only at what was against them and not at what was for them. So their hearts were so full of sorrow that there was no room left for joy. This is a common weakness in gloomy Christians. They stay on the dark side of the cloud, think only about trouble, and shut their ears to words of joy and gladness.

What weighed down the disciples most was their strong love for this present life. They had hoped for their Master’s outward kingdom and glory, and they expected to share in it and shine with him. Now they heard instead about suffering, chains, and trouble, and that filled them with grief. Nothing harms our joy in God more than love for the world, and the sorrow that follows it.