Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 16:25
These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father.
25 33. Summary and conclusion of these discourses
25. These things ] As in Joh 16:1 there is some uncertainty as to how much is included. Some refer ‘these things’ to Joh 16:19-24; others to Joh 15:1 to Joh 16:24. Perhaps even the latter is too narrow a limit. The words can apply to all Christ’s teaching, of which there was much which the multitudes were not allowed (Mat 13:11) and the Apostles were not able (Joh 2:22) to understand at the time.
in proverbs ] Better, in allegories (see on Joh 10:6).
but the time cometh ] Better, there cometh an hour (Joh 4:21; Joh 4:23, Joh 5:25, Joh 16:2; Joh 16:32). Omit ‘but’ with the best authorities.
shew ] Or, declare, as in Joh 16:13-15. The best MSS. give a different compound of the same verb as is used in Joh 16:13-15, but the difference cannot well be marked in English.
plainly ] Frankly, without reserve (see on Joh 7:4 and comp. Joh 7:13; Joh 7:26, Joh 10:24, Joh 11:14; Joh 11:54, Joh 18:20).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
In proverbs – In a manner that appears obscure, enigmatical, and difficult to be understood. It is worthy of remark, that though his declarations in these chapters about his death and resurrection appear to us to be plain, yet to the apostles, filled with Jewish prejudices, and unwilling to believe that he was about to die, they would appear exceedingly obscure and perplexed. The plainest declarations to them on the subject would appear to be involved in mystery.
The time cometh – This refers, doubtless, to the time after his ascension to heaven, when he would send the Holy Spirit to teach them the great truths of religion. It does not appear that he himself, after his resurrection, gave them any more clear or full instruction than he had done before.
I shall show you plainly – As Jesus said that he would send the Holy Spirit Joh 16:7, and as he came to carry forward the work of Christ, so it may be said that the teachings of the Holy Spirit were the teachings of Christ himself.
Of the Father – Concerning the will and plan of the Father; particularly his plan in the establishment and spread of the Christian religion, and in organizing the church. See Acts 10.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Joh 16:25-28
These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs
Christ in heaven, the Church on earth
I.
CHRIST IN HEAVEN.
1. As the Revealer of the Father. He came to be this here, and did reveal the Father, but chiefly in parables, figures, dark sayings. There was a sort of veil over what He said regarding the Father. But when He departed, all that dimness went. From Pentecost there was the plain and full revelation of the Father. This the Epistles contain. There may be in them things hard to be understood: but they are the plainest and fullest revelation that man has had. This unfolding is what the world needed and needs still. Acquaintance with God removes the worlds darkness, and heals its wounds.
2. As the medium of communication between us and the Father. He is in heaven as Advocate and High Priest. As such He carries on the intercourse between us and God, and through Him we have access by one Spirit unto the Father. I do not say that I will pray (or make inquiries for you like the high priest with Urim and Thummim) the Father; i.e., I need not say that I will act thus as your High Priest, and yet this is not because the Father requires to be persuaded to love you; for He loves you already.
II. THE CHURCH ON EARTH.
1. Receiving revelations of the Father. He speaks and she listens. As a willing listener to what Jesus speaks of to the Father, she goes on her way here and does the Fathers work. She learns each day more fully the meaning of the marvellous words, God is love, and he that dwelleth in love, &c. It is this revelation that she preaches us glad tidings of great joy.
2. Praying in Christs name. In a sense, that name had been known from the beginning. The seed of the woman with the bruised heel was known as He through whom all communications were made between the sinner and God. On the credit of His name, prayer got its answer all along. But still that name was but dimly known, and not known as that of Jesus of Nazareth. Hence-forth in that name all prayer was to be presented, and success thus assured. Christ gives us this name to make use of in all our dealings with
God, and we need nothing else. Never, then, let us go to God without it, but going with it, let us be confident. Let us not dishonour that name by distrust.
3. Enjoying the Fathers love. This is no doubtful thing, but as sure as it is blessed. This love is the sunshine of life. But it is love through Christ. God loves us as lovers of, and believers in, His Son,
4. Loving the Son. In an unloving world, the Church loves Him whom the Father loveth. This marks her out from all around. To her He is the altogether lovely. My Beloved is the name she gives Him. The question He asks is, Lovest thou Me?
5. Believing that He came out from God. This is the first thing though it comes last. This brings us into the circle of discipleship and sonship. What think ye, then, of Chirst? (H. Bonar, D. D.)
The day of the Spirit
That day is
1. A long day. It began at Pentecost, and will last till the restitution of all things.
2. It is the best day that has dawned on humanity since the Fall–better than the prophetic day, or the day of Christs earthly ministry.
3. It is a day that will grow brighter and brighter until it floods all souls with the sunshine of infinite love.
4. It is the notable day of the Lord, a day in which moral wonders multiply every hour.
5. It runs into the endless day of retribution. The text suggests two thoughts concerning it. It is a day
I. IN WHICH CHRISTLY TEACHING BECOMES MORE AND MORE INDEPENDENT OF WORDS. Proverbs, words, language, are not truth; at best they are mere vehicles. They are no more truth than water pipes are water. The pipes may be broken, but the water still flows, and will find other channels. Christ used words to convey truth. Sometimes they conveyed truth to His disciples spirits, sometimes not. When He says, therefore, I will no more speak unto you in proverbs, He points to a more direct, thorough, and effective way, the way in which the Paraclete would bring all things to their remembrance. The men who are under the influence of this Paraelete are seldom able to trace their most sacred impressions, aspirations, resolves, experiences to any words. No words, e.g., can plainly show the Father. He can only be seen by the loving and pure heart.
II. WHEN FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER BECOMES MORE AND MORE INDEPENDENT OF THE MEDIATION, Christ seems to say, in illustration of this
1. That His disciples in this day will pray in His name, and therefore will not require Him to pray for them (verse 26). He had just said, Hitherto ye have asked nothing in My name. Why? At that time they had not received the Paraelete; but when He came, they would pray in His name, i.e., the Holy Spirit would so inspire them with the sentiments and purposes of Christ, that they would always pray in the spirit of Christ, and therefore their prayer would be real and effective.
2. That His disciples will have a special sense of the Fathers love (verse 27). Observe
(1) That God loves men individually. He loves all, but does not overlook the individual in the millions. His love embraces each, as if each were the whole.
(2) That God loves the individuals especially who love His Son. He loves all, but He has a special love for those who love His Son. No man can love the Father who does not love His image and Revealer. And no man who does not love the Father can be conscious of the Fathers love for him. The mutual love provides direct communication. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 25. In Proverbs] That is, words which, besides their plain, literal meaning, have another, viz. a spiritual or figurative one. I have represented heavenly things to you through the medium of earthly.
The time cometh] viz. the interval from his resurrection to his ascension, which consisted of forty days, during which he instructed his disciples in the most sublime mysteries and truths of his kingdom. Ac 1:3.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That by proverbs is meant any dark sayings, is plain from the opposition in the text of that term
plainly. Christ had spoken, though not all things, yet many things to them in dark phrases, and under many figurative expressions;
but (saith he) the time cometh, when I shall show you plainly of the Father: that time is either Christs second coming, or after the pouring out of the Spirit, which latter is most probably what our Saviour doth here intend, because of those great measures of knowledge which at and after that time were given out. He had before given to his disciples to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, far beyond others, Mat 13:11; but yet it appears by Joh 14:1-6, and many other texts, that they had a very confused and imperfect knowledge of the Trinity, and Christs oneness with the Father, and their mutual personal relation one to another.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
25. in proverbsin obscurelanguage, opposed to “showing plainly”that is, by theSpirit’s teaching.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs,…. Concerning his Father, and his Father’s house, and the many mansions in it, of his going to prepare a place for them there, and of the way unto it, all which they seemed not to understand; of the nature of communion with him and his Father, and of the manifestation of them to them, so as not unto the world, which they could not account for; of their union to him under the simile of the vine and its branches; and of his departure from them, and return unto them; and of the sorrow that should follow upon the one, and the joy that should attend the other, set forth in the case of a woman in travail, having sorrow, and being joyful when delivered. All which, one would think, were plain and easy to be understood; but such was the then present state and case of the disciples, that these all seemed as proverbs, parables, and dark sayings, which they did not clearly understand: wherefore our Lord says,
but the time cometh; meaning either the time of his appearing unto them, after his resurrection, or the day of Pentecost:
when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show plainly of the Father; by pouring forth his Spirit upon them, who should not only take of his things, but of his Father’s also, and show them unto them clearly and plainly; so as that they should have a clear understanding of them, as they were capable of; of the perfections of his nature, his distinct personality, his being the Father of Christ, and of all the elect in him; of his everlasting love to their persons; of his choice of them in Christ; of his covenant with them in him; of his mind and will concerning them, and his gracious designs towards them; of his Father’s house, and the way to it; and of the nature, design, and usefulness of his going to him; of the distinction between speaking in parables and dark sayings, and speaking plainly, openly, and apparently; see Nu 12:8.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In proverbs ( ). See on 10:6 for this word.
Shall tell (). Future active of , to report, correct text and not (verses John 16:13; John 16:14; John 16:15), as in 1Jo 1:2f.
Plainly (). See on 7:13 for this word.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Proverbs [] . See on parables, Mt 13:3. He had spoken under figures, as the vine, and the woman in travail.
Shall shew [] . Rev., tell. See on ver. 13. The best texts read ajpaggelw, the original force of which is to bring tidings from [] something or someone.
Plainly [] . See on 7 13.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs:” (tauta en paroimiais lelaleka humin) “I have spoken these things in allegories or proverbs to you all,” concerning going away and coming in a little while, Joh 16:16-24. In parabolic form, a dark or uncertain form of speech, figurative language, in “riddles,” as in Joh 10:6.
2) “But the time cometh,” (erchetai hora) “But an hour of time approaches,” of its own nature, in fulfillment of prophecies of my death and resurrection, Psa 16:10-11; Act 2:25-31.
3) “When I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs,” (hote oukete en paroimiais humin) “When I will no longer speak to you in allegories,” in covert, figurative language, to avoid extreme emotional excitement among them, because they could not themselves absorb the plain language that would shock them too badly, regarding His immediate suffering and separation from them, Joh 16:12.
4) “But I shall shew you plainly of the Father.” (alla parresia peri tou patros apangelo humin) “But I will announce to you clearly or plainly concerning the Father,” your Father and mine, the Father you asked me to show you, Joh 14:8-9; Joh 16:28; Joh 20:17. In the riddle, parabolic, dark saying language of the past, often they had not understood, Joh 10:6.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
25. These things I have spoken to you in proverbs. The intention of Christ is to give courage to his disciples, that, entertaining good hopes of making better progress, they may not think that the instruction to which they now listen is useless, though there be but little of it that they comprehend; for such a suspicion might lead them to suppose that Christ did not wish to be understood, and that he purposely kept them in suspense. He declares, therefore, that they will soon perceive the fruit of this doctrine, which, by its obscurity, might produce disgust in their minds. The Hebrew word, משל ( mashal) sometimes denotes a proverb; but as proverbs most commonly contain tropes and figures, this is the reason why the Hebrews give the name of משלים ( meshalim) to enigmas or remarkable sayings, which the Greeks call ( ἀποφθέγματα) apophthegms, which have almost always some ambiguity or obscurity. The meaning therefore is, “You think that I now speak to you figuratively, and not in plain and direct language; but I will soon speak to you in a more familiar manner, in order that there may be nothing puzzling or difficult to you in my doctrine.”
We now see what I mentioned a little ago, that this is intended to encourage the disciples by holding out to them the expectation of making greater progress, that they may not reject the doctrine, because they do not yet understand what it means; for, if we are not animated by the hope of profiting, the desire of learning must, unavoidably, be cooled. The fact, however, clearly shows that Christ did not employ terms purposely obscure, but addressed his disciples in a simple and even homely style but such was their ignorance that they hung on his lips with astonishment. That obscurity, therefore, did not lie so much in the doctrine as in their understandings; and, indeed, the same thing happens to us in the present day, for not without good reason does the word of God receive this commendation, that it is our light, (Psa 119:105; 2Pe 1:19😉 but its brightness is so obscured by our darkness, that, what we hear we reckon to be pure allegories. For, as he threatens by the prophet, that he will be a barbarian to the unbelievers and reprobate, as if he had a stammering tongue, (Isa 28:11😉 and Paul says that
the Gospel is hidden from such persons, because Satan hath blinded their understandings, (2Co 4:3😉
so to the weak and ignorant it commonly appears to be something so confused that it cannot be understood. For, though their understandings are not completely darkened, like those of unbelievers, still they are covered, as it were, with clouds. Thus God permits us to be stupefied for a time, in order to humble us by a conviction of our own poverty; but those whom he enlightens by his Spirit he causes to make such progress, that the word of God is known and familiar to them. Such, too, is the import of the next clause:
But the time cometh; that is, the time will soon come, when I shall no more speak to you in figurative language. The Holy Spirit, certainly, did not teach the apostles anything else than what they had heard from the mouth of Christ himself, but, by enlightening their hearts, he drove away their darkness, so that they heard Christ speak, as it were, in a new and different manner, and thus they easily understood his meaning.
But will tell you plainly about the Father. When he says that he will tell them about the Father, he reminds us that the design of his doctrine is to lead us to God, in whom true happiness lies. But another question remains: How does he say, elsewhere, that
it was given to the disciples to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven? (Mat 13:11.)
For here he acknowledges that he has spoken to them in obscure language, but there he lays down a distinction between them and the rest of the people, that he speaketh to the people in parables, (Mat 13:13.) I reply, the ignorance of the apostles was not so gross that they had not, at least, a slight perception of what their Master meant, and, therefore, it is not without reason that he excludes them from the number of the blind. He now says that his discourses have hitherto been allegorical, in comparison of that clear light of understanding which he would soon give to them by the grace of his Spirit. Both statements are therefore true, that the disciples were far above those who had no relish for the word of the Gospel, and yet they were still like children learning the alphabet, in comparison of the new wisdom which was bestowed on them by the Holy Spirit.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
HIS VEILED SAYINGS WILL SOON BE MADE PLAIN
Text: Joh. 16:25-33
25
These things have I spoken unto you in dark sayings: the hour cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in dark sayings, but shall tell you plainly of the Father.
26
In that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you;
27
for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father.
28
I came out from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go unto the Father.
29
His disciples say, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no dark saying.
30
Now know we that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.
31
Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe?
32
Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
33
These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye may have peace. In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
Queries
a.
What are the dark sayings and when were they made plain?
b.
Was Jesus critical of the belief of the disciples (Joh. 16:31)?
c.
Why would they soon scatter and leave Jesus alone?
Paraphrase
I have spoken to you during My ministry, and especially these last hours, in veiled and disguised sayings. But the time is coming very soon when I shall come to you again no longer speaking in this veiled way but reporting to you plainly concerning the Father. When that time comes I shall no longer have to treat you as children who do not know how to pray to the Father for themselves as they ought, but you will have matured and know to pray in My namein accord with My will and purpose for you. And you will have your requests answered by your loving Father and He has such love toward you because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from the presence of the Father. It is indeed true that I came from the very presence of the Father and came into the world to accomplish My mission. Now, having almost completed My mission, I am about to leave the world and return unto the presence of the Father. His disciples then said, Ah, now you are no longer speaking to us in veiled sayings but in plain words. Now we know that every hidden thing is known by you and you have no need of anyone to ask you a question before you know what he is thinking. Because of this demonstration of omniscience we believe you have come from God. Jesus replied, Are you now so sure of Me as you thinkdo you now really believe? I say to you the time is very nearly here when you shall all be scattered, each going to his own interests, leaving me alone. However, I shall not really be left alone at all for My Father is with Me. I have told you all of these things so that your faith in Me may be strengthened and thus you may have peace in Me. In the world you have anxiety and pressure but be courageous for I have conquered the world and all its fears and anxieties.
Summary
Jesus promises that the time is coming very soon when all His dark sayings will be made plain. The disciples will not be able to endure the brutal frankness of some of it and will be temporarily scattered.
Comment
The these things of Joh. 16:25 refers especially to what Jesus had been teaching His disciples that very night concerning His going away and coming again. And, as a matter of fact, He had been speaking the truth of God to them with a veil upon it all through His public ministry (cf. Mat. 11:25-30; Mat. 13:10-17). In Mat. 13:10-17 Jesus quotes Isa. 6:1-13 and gives one reason it was necessary for Him to speak in riddles, parables and veiled sayingsthe hardness of the hearts of those who listened. Another reason is given in Mat. 11:25-30 and that is the concern of the Lord for the spiritually immature. The disciples fell into one or the other of these categories practically all of their days with Jesus before the resurrection. They had cluttered their minds with thoughts of an earthly kingdom and they were not prepared to be taught plainly (although Jesus did speak plainly with them at times) all the things Jesus had to teach them concerning His relationship to the Father and the Kingdom of God. Of course, Jesus was also prevented from speaking plainly about the whole work of redemption because the whole work of redemption had not yet been accomplished. He had spoken previously in veiled sayings concerning:
a.
His resurrectionraising up the temple in three days.
b.
His crucifixionlifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.
c.
Partaking of His divine natureeating His flesh and drinking His blood.
d.
The indwelling of the Holy Spiritthe water of life which flows out from future believers.
And in these last hours He had spoken of the resting places He was going to prepare; of seeing the Father in Him; of abiding in Him as branches in the Vine; of His going away and coming again by send-in the Comforter; of the hatred of the world but His conquest of the world. All the truth represented by these parables and allegories would have been even less comprehensible to the disciples had it been spoken bluntly and plainly. Their immature but growing faith in Jesus might have been wounded beyond healing had He spoken openly. It is highly possible that they would have been so offended (cf. Mat. 16:21-28) at continued plain teaching about His death and the spiritual kingdom as to leave Him never to return.
But Jesus knew just how plain and just how veiled to be with these men and thus fan the spark of faith within their hearts into a fire that would endure. And this fire, after being refueled with the power of the resurrection and the Holy Spirit, would radiate and empower them to spread the flame of the gospel to the whole world.
One only need turn from the parabolic teachings of Jesus in the Gospels to the plain and unveiled teachings of Jesus (through the apostles) in the epistles to see the fulfillment of the promise in Joh. 16:25. The atonement, justification, the church, godlinessall are made plain in the epistles. When the Spirit came He led them into all truth. He made the way so plain that even the wayfaring men would not err therein (cf. Isa. 35:8). The way to come into covenant relationship with the salvation provided by Christ is plain enough for children to understand in the book of Acts. Exhortations on living the Christian life are just as plainly stated in the epistles. Someone has said that the epistles are amplifications and interpretations by the Spirit openly of all that Jesus taught parabolically and in guarded form in the gospels. There seems to be some justification for this idea in a comparison of the gospels with the epistles.
Be that as it may, one of the important points to notice here is that the One who is going to make the dark sayings to become plain is none other than Jesus Himself returned to the disciples in the Spirit.
Besides the fact that upon His return in the Spirit will they have the hidden made plain, they will also pray with a new frankness and openness. Before they did not know how to pray as they ought (cf. Luk. 11:1-4 ff). Jesus had to teach them the things that were within the scope of His purpose and will for which they should pray. He had to teach them how to praypersistently, humbly, and forgivingly. And so He informs them that in that day (the day when He should come in the Spirit) they would not only know how to pray and what to pray for in His name (according to His will), but they would also enjoy a new relationship to the Father through the atonement which Jesus would accomplish for them. Jesus will be their High Priest, constantly interceding on their behalf, but they will approach the Father directly through Him. All barriers would be removed. By prayer they, themselves, might henceforth come into the very presence of God their Father, whereas before His atonement all men were prohibited from the presence of God and approached Him only through an earthly priest.
This new relationship of the disciples with the Heavenly Father is founded upon the Fathers love for them because of Jesus. It is interesting to see the eternal love triangle worked out here in Joh. 16:27. God sent His Son Jesus and loved us first that we might be drawn to love Him. When we then love His Son and believe that He came forth from God, God loves us even more because of our love for His Son, (cf. 1Jn. 4:9-10).
In one concise statement (Joh. 16:28) Jesus sums up the central act of redemption. He relinquished the glories of heaven for a season to become the obedient servant (cf. 2Co. 8:9; Php. 2:5-11). He came into the world in flesh incarnate and revealed the love of God. He is about to leave the world by the cross, the resurrection and the ascension. This statement is direct and clear. It is more direct than the statement in Joh. 16:16 which caused so much consternation among the disciples (Joh. 16:17). So the disciples are highly pleased that He is now speaking plainly. Their pleasure turns into amazement and then into a profession of increased belief of the deity of Jesus as they realize that Jesus did not need to ask any man anything. In Joh. 16:16-18 we find them discussing what Jesus had said in Joh. 16:16 which was such a puzzle to them. Beginning in Joh. 16:19 Jesus begins to answer their questions without asking them what their questions were. Jesus read their hearts like an open book. Suddenly it dawned on them that they were in the presence of One who had truly come forth from God and so they said, Now we believe . . .
What did Jesus mean by His reply in Joh. 16:31? Does He mean to deny their belief? No. It is not that the Lord is denying what belief they have professed, but that He is warning them not to be too sure of their own estimates of themselves. Jesus constantly warned the disciples against overestimating their own strength and abilities (cf. Mat. 26:31-35; Mar. 14:27-31; Luk. 22:31-34; Joh. 13:36-38). So now He says, I accept your confession as genuine and sincere, but will your belief be strong enough to weather the coming storm? When He should willingly surrender and allow Himself to be crucified as a common criminal would they still profess their belief in Him as One sent from the Father? It was not that Jesus was critical of what faith they had but He was fully aware of their weaknesses as well as their strengths. He was warning them against the fatal mistake of overestimating their own capabilities. What makes this so fatal is that one puts all his trust in his own capabilities and when failure comes (as it surely does to everyone) all hope for an overcoming power and all assurance of victory is gone. Paul the great apostle found this to be true in his own life. He found that in him dwelt no good thing. He came to the conclusion Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom. 7:15-25). And then he went on to show how victory is possible in Christ (Rom. 8:1-39).
Paul was constantly aware of the danger of overconfidence in oneself or the flesh and buffeted his body lest after preaching to others he himself might become a castaway (cf. 1Co. 9:27).
There is a great lesson for us here. We must beware of being too quick to say We are able (cf. Mat. 20:22). We must always remember the man who prayed, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief (Mar. 9:24).
There is a prophecy from Zechariah Joh. 13:7 implied here in Joh. 16:32. The prophecy was quoted by Jesus in Mat. 26:31 and Mar. 14:27. When Jesus was arrested the disciples at first made good their promise to fight for Him to the death. Peter drew his sword and would have fought there and laid down his life for his King. But when they realized that Jesus was going to offer no resistance but that He was going to submit to such humiliation, they forsook him and fled (cf. Mat. 26:47-56; Mar. 14:43-52).
Just what Jesus meant when He said they would all be scattered, every man to his own, is not certain. Probably He meant to say that each would return to his own home and daily pursuits. After having seen Him die they assumed that His work was defeated (cf. Luk. 24:13-24) and when the women reported that the tomb was empty and that evidently someone had taken His body Peter and John assumed the women to be correct and went away again to their own home (cf. Joh. 20:10). Luk. 24:24 indicates their discouragement even at the empty tomb. They went away and left Him alone, but Jesus was not alone for the Father was with Him in the darkest hours and raised Him from the tomb.
Jesus has spoken these things, foretelling the future, showing the fulfillment of prophecy, so that after they come to pass their faith will be strengthened and thus find peace by trusting in His omniscience and omnipotence. There are two sides to the peace which the believer has in Jesus. First there is the judicial peace which Jesus accomplishes on behalf of man between God and man. This judicial peace is accomplished at the cross where in His body He suffered the sentence and penalty of sin and took out of the way all the commandments that were against man (cf. Eph. 2:11-22; Col. 2:8-15) which we appropriate by being buried with Him by baptism. Having been united with His death by faith and obedience (Rom. 6:1-11; Gal. 3:26-27) and having appropriated that judicial peace to our souls, we find and realize that subjective peace of heart and soul which passes understanding (cf. Php. 4:7).
We have this peace by trusting in Him even in the midst of a world filled with tribulation. Even though Christians must endure tribulation in the world they may be courageous and cheerful for Jesus has overcome the world. He has conquered and won the victory over all that the world can do. There is nothing that Satan or the world can do to defeat Jesus and His beloved children. Thus Jesus ends the dark and veiled sayings of this ominous night on a glorious note of victory! And the New Testament from the resurrection and appearances to the end of the book of Revelation is one grand shout of victory! (cf. for example Rom. 8:31-39; 1Co. 15:50-58; 2Co. 4:16Joh. 5:21; 1Jn. 5:1-6).
The constant theme of the Old Testament prophets is that of Gods ultimate victory over all His enemies.
Let this be the clarion call of twentieth century preachingVICTORY IN JESUS! Men and women need victory for living in the here and now and victory when death makes its pretense of defeat. The surest way to make the preaching of the gospel relevant for this generation is to convince people of VICTORY IN JESUS!
Quiz
1.
Why did Jesus speak to the disciples in veiled sayings?
2.
When and how were these veiled things made plain?
3.
What did Jesus mean by saying He would not pray for them?
4.
What was Jesus purpose in questioning their belief (Joh. 16:31)?
5.
How did they scatter and go each man to his own?
6.
What theme was used to end His dark sayings this dark night?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(25) These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs.Better, as in the margin, . . . in parables. So in the second clause of the verse and in Joh. 16:29. (Comp. Note on Joh. 10:6.) These things refers specially to what He had just said from Joh. 16:16 onwards. There is a sense in which it is necessarily true of all Christs teaching, and of all teaching in words. They are but parables until the truth which they contain has been thought out by the man that hears them. For the disciples much of Christs teaching remained in a parabolic form, until the Spirit brought all things which He had said to the mind, and quickened their minds so that they could grasp its meaning. (Comp. e.g., Joh. 2:20-22.)
But the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs.For proverbs, read parables, as in last verse. For the time referred to, comp. Joh. 16:16; Joh. 16:23. In that time He will be present with them in the Advocate, and will no longer need parables or words, but will, to the depth of their spirit, communicate to them in all fulness and plainness the eternal truth of the Father (Joh. 16:13 et seq.).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
25. These things To Joh 16:28 Jesus now opens a new promise. The obscurity now resting upon his words to their minds should be withdrawn. New facts and new revelations should be made, which should throw back their broad light upon his past discourses.
Proverbs The proverb, as the word is here used, is a brief expression of a great truth in language concise and somewhat enigmatical. Its very riddle detains the attention of the mind upon it, and so fastens it upon the memory. Our Lord had discoursed in what were to a great degree enigmas; but those very enigmas served as vehicles to hold fast the truth until the day of explanation.
Time cometh The time was doubtless the period of the forty days after his resurrection. And yet in spirit it covered the whole period of their apostolic office.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“I have spoken these things to you in parables. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in parables, but will tell you plainly of the Father.”
By ‘parables’ or ‘sayings with a hidden meaning’, Jesus is necessarily referring to what He has been revealing to them, for until He has been crucified and raised from the dead how can they begin to understand? They are dealing with the unknown and the inconceivable.
His words are looking from their viewpoint. It is they who see all He has said to them as a mystery, not the fact that He has not spoken plainly. It has all been so new and so revolutionary that they have not been able to grasp it. However, He says, they may be puzzled now but one day soon all will be made plain to them. The Holy Spirit will illuminate their minds. They will learn the Father’s plans and understand His ways, in so far as it is possible for man. A glance at the sermons in Acts and the teachings of the epistles immediately brings out the truth of these sayings. Their whole thinking had been turned upside down. Thus the revelation by the Spirit interpreting the coming events are here described as ‘I will tell you plainly’. Once again Jesus and the Spirit work as one.
‘These things’ may refer to the whole of Jesus’ teaching, or just to the words in the Upper Room. As we know, using specific parables was a favourite method of teaching for Him, and these hid as well as revealing. To those whose hearts were open and sought humbly to know more they provided light, but to those who were only casually interested their true message was veiled. They enjoyed the story but did not grasp the message. And indeed much of Jesus’ teaching, even when not strictly parabolic, had to be in picture form, for He was speaking of things which were not of this world, and He was speaking to veiled minds.
Furthermore, even the disciples after a number of years of Jesus’ ministry were still bound by prejudices, confidence in the rightness of their own cherished beliefs, and an unreadiness to accept that what they had come to believe in the past was wrong. And they saw things in that light. Their minds were veiled. We know from their response when Jesus spoke plainly how difficult it was for them to move from their old ideas (e.g. Mar 8:31-32; Mar 9:31-32; Mar 10:32). And He often had to rebuke them gently because they could not shake off those old ideas. We must remember that much of what He was teaching turned their own ideas upside down. We sometimes begin to wonder how the disciples could have been so dim, but that is because centuries of exposition of Scripture have made more clear what would otherwise have been difficult to understand. Had we been in their shoes we would have been even more puzzled than they.
We have only to read the early church fathers to see how difficult they found it to understand the teaching of Jesus and Paul. They interpreted them in the light of their own ideas and regularly missed the point. To move from the New Testament writings to the teachings of early church literature is like a backward step into the semi-dark. We may think that we are not like that, but we are. How much of modern popular belief among Christians is really the result of our own environment and our current philosophies. We interpret Scripture in the light of these. It is just that we have the advantage of centuries of men of God meditating on the Scriptures and opening them to us, and their multitude of books, which help to correct us.
When Jesus came to His disciples and breathed the Holy Spirit into them (Joh 20:22) He was preparing them to recover from the most shattering period of their lives when everything that they thought that they knew was torn apart. They were in for the most severe period of rethinking of their lives. They had experienced Gethsemane, they had watched what happened to Jesus in His trial and on the cross, they had stood before an empty tomb and they were totally bewildered. Their whole belief pattern had to be transformed. Everything had to be rethought. Whatever they had learned to expect of the future, as interpreted by themselves, it was not like this. None of what Jesus had taught them had fully prepared them for this, not because He had not told them but because their minds had not been willing to accept it. Even His plainest words had been a mystery to them. But when the Holy Spirit came He brought back to them lessons that Jesus had spoken which they had put to one side or misunderstood and it all began to make sense. It was a miracle of rethinking and transformation of understanding. It heralded a new beginning. Now He could tell them plainly of the Father because their prejudices had been utterly broken down and they were at last open to receive it.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 16:25. I shall shew you plainly of the Father. I will then make a free, open, and full discovery of my Father; of his gracious counsels concerning the church; of the nature and design of my sufferings and death; of the reasons of my going to him; of the business which I go to transact with him; of the confidence which on these accounts you may have towards him; and of the way in which you are to address him, through me, for obtaining all the blessings that you need.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Joh 16:25 . ] that, namely, after which the disciples, in Joh 16:17-18 , had asked, and what He Himself, Joh 16:20 ff., had more fully carried out; that, consequently, which had been spoken of His departure and of His being seen again, and its circumstances and consequences. He has uttered this in improper, allegorical expressions ( ., comp. on Joh 10:6 , and on the generic plur., Mar 12:1 ), proportioned to their capacity of comprehension; but when the hour of the fulfilment of the promise of the Paraclete shall have arrived, He will then, and that by means of the Paraclete, no longer speak to them under such sensuous veils of thought, but without circumlocution, and directly, frankly and freely ( , adverbial instrumental dative, as in Joh 11:14 ), give them tidings of the Father. In answer to Luthardt, who refers to all that was previously said, including the discourse on the vine (comp. also Godet), Joh 16:1 is already decisive, and also the fact that before Joh 16:19 the disciples have spoken.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
25 These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father.
Ver. 25. These things have I spoken, &c. ] He spake plain enough, but they were so slow of hear and dull of hearing, that they thought he spake to them in riddles and parables. Legum obscuritate non assignemus culpae scribentium, sed inscitiae non assequentium. (Sex. Cecil. apud Gell.) So though the prophet dealt with the people as with little ones newly weaned, mincing and masticating their meat for them, laying before them “precept upon precept, line upon line,” &c., yet was he to them (through their singular stupidity) as one that lisped half words, or spake in a strange tongue, Isa 28:10-12 . Ac si btaeais esset labiis.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
25 33. ] Their present real weakness and imperfection, though fancied strength: their future high blessedness and share in His triumph, though in tribulation in the world .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
25. ] , properly, a proverb: but implying generally in Scriptural and oriental usage something dark and enigmatical: see especially Sir 6:35 ; Sir 8:8 ; Sir 39:3 ; Sir 47:17 ; “in dictis tectioribus,” Bengel.
This is true of the whole discourse and of the discourses of the Lord in general, as they must then have seemed to them, before the Holy Spirit furnished the key to their meaning.
, viz. the same as that indicated in Joh 16:16 ; Joh 16:23 ; but here again, not one only exclusive of all others, but to be understood of the several steps of spiritual knowledge.
Olshausen finely remarks, that all human language is a , only able to hint at, not to express fully, the things of God; and that the Lord contrasts the use of this weak and insufficient medium, with the inward teaching of the Holy Spirit. This inward teaching, because it is a real imparting of the divine Nature and Life, brings with it not only prayer in the name of Jesus , but a free access to the Father Himself . This however, he continues, is spoken of here by the Lord in its ideal perfection (as it will hereafter be): and is only approximated to on earth; for, as long as the old man yet lives in us, we require still the Lord’s intercessory prayer (ch. Joh 17:15 ), daily washing from the pollution of the world; by which Intercession alone the faithful man notwithstanding his imperfection can enjoy in peace the grace of God vouchsafed to him.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 16:25 . Another great change would characterize the economy into which they were passing. Instead of dark figurative utterances which only dimly revealed things spiritual, direct and intelligible disclosures regarding the Father would be made to the disciples: . . See Joh 10:6 ; “dark sayings” or “riddles” expresses what is here meant. It is opposed to , open, plain, easily intelligible, meant to be understood. He does not refer to particular utterances, such as Joh 15:1 , Joh 16:21 , etc. but to the reserved character of the whole evening’s conversation, and of all His previous teaching. “The promise is that the reserve imposed by a yet unfinished history, by a manifestation in the flesh, by the incapacity of the hearers, and by their gradual education, will then be succeeded by clear, full, unrestricted information, fitted to create in those who receive it that ‘full assurance of understanding’ which contributes so largely to the ‘full assurance of faith’.” Bernard. , the Father is the central theme of Christ’s teaching, both while on earth and above.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
John
THE JOYS OF ‘THAT DAY’
Joh 16:25 – Joh 16:27
The stream which we have been tracking for so long in these discourses has now nearly reached its close. Our Lord, in these all but final words, sums up the great salient features which He has already more than once specified, of the time when His followers shall live with an absent and yet present Christ. He reiterates here substantially just what He has been saying before, but in somewhat different connection, and with some slight expansion. And this reiteration of the glad features of the day which was about to dawn suggests how much the disciples needed, and how much we need, to have repeated over and over again the blessed and profound lessons of these words.
What a sublime self-repression there was in the Master! Not one word escapes from His lips of the personal pain and agony into which He had to plunge and be baptized, before that day could dawn. All that was crushed down and kept back, and He only speaks to the disciples and to us of the joy that comes to them, and not at all of the bitter sorrow by which it is bought. There are set forth in these words, as it seems to me, especially three characteristics which belong to the whole period between the ascension of Jesus Christ and His coming again for judgment. It is a day of continual and clearer teaching by Him. It is a day of desires in His name. It is a day of filial experience of a Father’s love. These are the characteristics of the Christian period, and they ought to be the characteristics of our individual Christian life. My brother! are they the characteristics of yours?
Let us note them in order.
I. First, our Lord tells us that the whole period of the Christian life upon earth is to be a period of continuous and clearer teaching by Himself.
Now the first thing that strikes me here is this strange fact. Here is a man who knew Himself to be within four-and-twenty hours of His death, and knew that scarcely another word of instruction was to come from His lips upon earth, calmly asserting that, for all the subsequent ages of the world’s history, He is to continue its Teacher. We know how the wisest and profoundest of earthly teachers have their lips sealed by death, so as that no counsel can come from them any more, and their disciples long in vain for responses from the silenced oracle, which is dumb whatever new problems may arise. But Jesus Christ calmly poses before the world as not having His teaching activity in the slightest degree suspended by that fact which puts a conclusive and complete close to all other teachers’ words. Rather He says that after death He will, more clearly than in life, be the Teacher of the world.
What does He mean by that? Well, remember first of all the facts which followed this saying-the Cross, the Grave, Olivet, the Heavens, the Throne. These were still in the future when He spoke. And have not these-the bitter passion, the supernatural resurrection, the triumphant ascension, and the everlasting session of the Son at the right hand of God-taught the whole world the meaning of the Father’s name, and the love of the Father’s heart, and the power of the Father’s Son, as nothing else, not even the sweetest and tenderest of His utterances, could have taught them? When, then, He declares the continuance of His teaching functions unbroken through death and beyond it, He refers partly to the future facts of His earthly manifestation, and still more does He refer to that continuous teaching which, by that divine Spirit whom He sends, is granted to every believing soul all through the ages.
This great truth, which recurs over and over again in these discourses of our Lord, is far too much dropped out of the consciousness and creeds of the modern Christian Church. We call ourselves Christ’s disciples. If there be disciples, there must be a Master. His teaching is by no means merely the effect of the recorded facts and utterances of the Lord, preserved here in the Book for us, and to be pondered upon by ourselves, but it is also the hourly communication, to waiting hearts and souls that keep themselves near the Lord, of deeper insight into His will, of larger views of His purposes, of a firmer grasp of the contents of Scripture, and a more complete subjection of the whole nature to the truth as it is in Jesus. Christian men and women! do you know anything about what it is to learn of Christ in the sense that He Himself, and no poor human voice like mine, nor even merely the records of His past words and deeds as garnered in these Gospels and expounded by His Apostles, is the source of your growing knowledge of Him? If we would keep our hearts and minds clearer than we do of the babble of earthly voices, and be more loyal and humble and constant and patient in our sitting on the benches in Christ’s school till the Master Himself came to give us His lessons, these great words of my text would not, as they so often do in the mass of professing Christians, lack the verification of experience and the assurance that it is so with us. Have you sat in Christ’s school, and do you know the secret and illuminative whispers of His teaching? If not, there is something wrong in your Christian character, and something insincere in your Christian profession.
Notice, still further, that our Lord here ranks that subsequent teaching before all that He said upon earth, great and precious as it was. Now I do not mean for one moment to allege that fresh communications of truth, uncontained in Scripture, are given to us in the age-long and continuous teaching of Jesus Christ. That I do not suppose to be the meaning of the great promises before us, for the facts of revelation were finished when He ascended, and the inspired commentary upon the facts of revelation was completed with these writings which follow the Gospels in our New Testament. But Christ’s teaching brings us up to the understanding of the facts and of the commentary upon them which Scripture contains, so that what was parable or proverb, dimly apprehended, mysterious and enigmatical when it was spoken, and what remains mysterious and enigmatical to us until we grow up to it, gradually becomes full of significance and weighty with a plain and certain meaning. This is the teaching which goes on through the ages-the lifting of His children to the level of apprehending more and more of the inexhaustible and manifold wisdom which is stored for us in this Book. The mine has been worked on the surface, but the deeper it goes the richer is the lode; and no ages will exhaust the treasures that are hid in Christ Jesus our Lord.
He uses the new problems, the new difficulties, the new circumstances of each successive age, and of each individual Christian, in order to evolve from His word larger lessons, and to make the earlier lessons more fully and deeply understood. And this generation, with all its new problems, with all its uneasiness about social questions, with all its new attitude to many ancient truths, will find that Jesus Christ is, as He has been to all past generations,-the answer to all its doubts, using even these doubts as a means of evolving the deeper harmonies of His Word, and of unveiling in the ancient truth more than former generations have seen in it. ‘Brethren, I write unto you no new commandment. Again, a new commandment I write unto you.’ The inexhaustible freshness of the old word taught us anew, with deeper significance and larger applications, by the everlasting Teacher of the Church, is the hope that shines through these words. I commend to you, dear brethren, the one simple, personal question, Have I submitted myself to that Teacher, and said to men and systems and preachers and books and magazines, and all the rest of the noisy and clamorous tongues that bewilder under pretence of enlightening this generation-have I said to them all, ‘Hold your peace! and let me, in the silence of my waiting soul, hear the Teacher Himself speak to me. Speak, Lord! for Thy servant heareth. Teach me Thy way and lead me, for Thou art my Master, and I the humblest of Thy scholars’?
II. In the next place, another of the glad features of this dawning day is that it is to be a day of desires based upon Christ, and Christlike.
Note how beautifully this thought, of wishes moulded into conformity with Jesus Christ, and offered in reliance upon His great sacrifice, follows upon that other thought, ‘I will tell you plainly of the Father.’ The Master’s voice speaks, revealing the paternal heart, the scholar’s voice answers with desires kindled by the revelation. Longings and aspirations humbly offered for His sake, and after the pattern of His own, are our true response to His teaching voice. As the astronomer, the more powerful his telescope, though it may resolve some of the nebulae that resisted feebler instruments, only has his bounds of vision enlarged as he looks through it, and sees yet other and mightier star-clouds lying mysterious beyond its ken-so each new influx and tidal wave of knowledge of the Father, which Christ gives to His waiting child, leads on to enlarged desires, to longings to press still further into the unexplored mysteries of that magnificent and boundless land, and to nestle still closer into the infinite heart of God. He declares to us the Father, and the answer of the child to the declaration of the Father is the cry, ‘Abba! Father! show me yet more of Thy heart.’ Thus aspiration and fruition, longing and satisfaction in unsatiated and inexhaustible and unwearying alternation, are the two blessed poles between which the life of a Christian may revolve in smoothness and music.
My friend! is that anything like the transcript of our experience, that the more we know of God, the more we long to know of, and to possess, Him? and the more we long to know of, and to possess, Him, the more full, gracious, confidential, tender, and continuous are the teachings of our Master? Is not this a far higher level of Christian life than that we live upon? And why so? Is Christ’s word faithless? Hath He forgotten to be gracious? Was this promise of His idle wind? Or is it that you and I have never grasped the fulness of privileges that He bestows upon us?
III. Note, lastly, that that day is to be a day of filial experience of a Father’s love.
And now note that God loves the men who love Jesus Christ. So completely does the Father identify Himself with the Son, that love to Christ is love to Him, and brings the blessed answer of His love to us. Whosoever loves Christ loves God.
Whosoever loves Christ must do so, believing that He ‘came forth from God.’ There are the two characteristics of a Christian disciple,-faith in the divine mission of the Son, and love that flows from faith. Now, of course, it does not follow from the words before us, that this divine love which comes down upon the heart which loves Christ is the original and first flow of that love towards that heart. ‘We love Him because He first loved us.’ Christ is not here tracking the stream to its source, but is pointing to it midway in its flow. If you want to go up to the fountain-head you have to go up to the divine Father’s heart, who loved when there was no love in us; and, because He loved, sent the Son. First comes the unmotived, spontaneous, self-originated, undeserved, infinite love of God to sinners and aliens and enemies; then the Cross and the mission of Jesus Christ; then the faith in His divine mission; then the love which is the child of faith, as it grasps the Cross and recognises the love that lies behind it; and then, after that, the special, tender, and paternal love of God falling upon the hearts that love Him in His Son. There is nothing here in the slightest degree to conflict with the grand universal truth that God loves enemies and sinners and aliens. But there is the truth, as precious as the other, that they who have ‘known and believed the love that God hath to us’ live under the selectest influences of His loving heart, and have a place in its tenderness which it is impossible that any should have who do not so love. And that sweet commerce of a divine love answering a human, which itself is the answer to a prior divine love, brings with it the firm confidence that prayers in His name shall not be prayers in vain.
So, dear friends, growing knowledge, an ever-present Teacher, the peace of calm desires built upon Christ’s Cross and fashioned after Christ’s Spirit, and the assurance in my quiet and filial heart that my Father in the heavens loves me, and will neither give me ‘serpents’ when I ask for them, thinking them to be ‘fishes,’ nor refuse ‘bread’ when I ask for it-these things ought to mark the lives of all professing Christians. Are they our experience? If not, why are they not, but because we do not believe that ‘Thou art come forth from God,’ nor love Thee as we ought?
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Joh 16:25-28
25″These things I have spoken to you in a figurative language; an hour is coming when I will speak no more to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the Father. 26In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf; 27for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father. 28I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father.”
Joh 16:25 “figurative language” Jesus’ teachings had a two-fold effect: (1) it opened up understanding and (2) it blocked understanding (cf. Mar 4:10-11; Isa 6:9-10; Jer 5:21). The heart of the hearer is the key to effectual understanding. However, there were truths that even the saved could not grasp until after the Passion week events (crucifixion, resurrection, resurrection appearances, ascension) and Pentecost.
The post-resurrection appearance to the two on the road to Emmaus (cf. Luk 24:13-35) may give a clue as to how Jesus taught the Apostles (cf. Joh 16:25-27; Joh 16:29). He Himself in His post-resurrection appearances showed how the OT applied to and foreshadowed His ministry. This set the pattern for Peter’s preaching in Acts (kerygma, see Special Topic at Joh 5:39).
“will tell you plainly” See Special Topic: Boldness (Parrhsia) at Joh 7:4.
Joh 16:26 “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf” This verse expresses an important truth. Many modern Christians feel they cannot approach God directly! However, the Bible teaches that
1. the Spirit prays for believers (cf. Rom 8:26-27)
2. the Son intercedes for believers in 1Jn 2:1
3. believers can approach God directly in prayer because of Christ
Joh 16:27 “for the Father Himself loves you” This term for “love ” is phile, which is also used in Joh 5:20 for the Father’s love for Jesus. What a tremendous statement which reinforces Joh 3:16 (which uses agapa). It is not a reluctant God whom Jesus has to placate, but a loving Father with whom Jesus works to accomplish Their redemptive purposes!
NASB”from the Father”
NKJV, NRSV,
TEV, NJB”from God”
There are two Greek manuscript variants: (1) “God” or “Father” and (2) the presence or absence of the article. “God” appears in MSS P5, cf8 i2, A, and N, while “the God” appears in MSS C3 and W. This seems to be the more difficult and unusual wording. It is one of the tenants of Textual Criticism (see Appendix) that the most difficult or unusual text is probably the original that scribes tended to alter. The United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament gives it a “C” rating (difficulty in deciding).
However “Father” appears in cf8 i1 and “the Father” in B, C*, D, and L. It fits the context best.
“because you have loved Me and believed that I came forth” These are two perfect active indicatives. Love and belief in Jesus set the stage for fellowship with the Father. The statement in A Translator’s Handbook on the Gospel of John by Barclay Newman and Eugene Nida is very interesting:
“These statements indicate that for John the concepts of love, obedience, and faith are simply different ways of expressing one’s relation to the Son” (p. 518).
For “believed” see Special Topic: John’s Use of “Believe” at Joh 2:23.
Joh 16:28 “I came forth. . .and have come” This is an aorist tense followed by a perfect tense. Jesus was born at Bethlehem (Incarnation) and the results of His coming abide (i.e., “I am with you always,” cf. Mat 28:20).
The fact that Jesus “came forth from the Father” (cf. Joh 16:27; Joh 16:30; Joh 8:42; Joh 13:3; Joh 17:8) asserts
1. His pre-existence
2. His divinity
3. His full revelation of the Father
“I am leaving the world again and going to the Father” This refers to the upcoming ascension and the beginning of the ministry of the “Helper” and the intercessory ministry of Jesus (cf. Heb 7:25; Heb 9:24; 1Jn 2:1). As pre-existence was asserted in Joh 1:1, so Jesus’ restoration to glory and power is asserted in this verse (cf. Joh 17:5; Joh 17:24).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
proverbs. Greek. paroimia, a wayside saying. Occurs five times: here (twice); Joh 16:29; Joh 10:6 (parable); and 2Pe 2:22. In the Septuagint it is found in Pro 1:1 and at the title of the book. Elsewhere parabole is used. In N.T. parabole is frequent, rendered “parable”, save Mar 4:30 (comparison); Luk 4:23 (proverb); and Heb 9:9; Heb 11:19 (figure).
but. Omit.
the time = an hour.
plainly = in free speech, openly. See Joh 11:14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
25-33.] Their present real weakness and imperfection, though fancied strength: their future high blessedness and share in His triumph, though in tribulation in the world.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 16:25. , in more covert words, in somewhat dark sayings) In antithesis to , openly, plainly, without a veil: , is one who is somewhere about the way (), but not in the way, whence (ch. Joh 10:6) is a mode of speaking whereby is meant not the literal thing, which the words express to the ear, but yet something not unlike it (from which notion also the term , , is formed). Such was that expression, , a little while; Joh 16:16, whereupon the disciples said, What is this? Joh 16:18.-, concerning) The same particle occurs in the following verse. I shall show you concerning the Father, and in Joh 16:26, I will pray (request) the Father concerning (for) you, are sweetly correlative.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 16:25
Joh 16:25
These things have I spoken unto you in dark sayings: the hour cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in dark sayings, but shall tell you plainly of the Father.-These things he teaches now in parables or illustrations, but when his death and resurrection were accomplished, he would speak plainly and they would then have learned enough to understand.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Good Cheer for Hours of Trial
Joh 16:25-33
God still speaks to us in proverbs. We could not understand or receive the perfect discovery of Himself. These are but part of His ways, Job 26:14. But in a little while, when the entire mystery of His will has been fulfilled, we shall see Him face to face, and He will speak to us plainly about the things that we do not now understand.
There is a close connection between prayer and joy. In the midst of a battle, when the soldiers are weary, galled with fire and grimed with smoke, if the general rides into their midst, to cheer them with hearty words and to assure them that the key to the position is already taken, they fight with the inspiration of victory. So down the line our Leader and Commander sends this encouragement. Let us carry His peace in our hearts, and be of good courage, 1Jn 5:4-5.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
proverbs: or, parables, Joh 16:12, Joh 16:16, Joh 16:17, Psa 49:4, Psa 78:2, Pro 1:6, Mat 13:10, Mat 13:11, Mat 13:34, Mat 13:35, Mar 4:13
but: Joh 16:28, Joh 16:29, Act 2:33-36, 2Co 3:12-18, 2Co 4:2
Reciprocal: Deu 27:8 – very plainly Pro 1:1 – proverbs Eze 20:49 – Doth Mat 10:27 – I tell Mar 8:32 – openly Joh 11:14 – plainly Joh 14:8 – show
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
5
Proverbs means a figure of speech, and Jesus evidently refers to his comparison of the expectant mother. The time cometh meant the occasion when the apostles were to receive the Holy Spirit In baptismal measure. As that would guide them “into all truth,” they would not require any explanatory passages.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
The passage we have now read is a very remarkable portion of Scripture, for two reasons. On the one hand, it forms a suitable conclusion to our Lord’s long parting address to His disciples. It was meet and right that such a solemn sermon should have a solemn ending. On the other hand it contains the most general and unanimous profession of belief that we ever find the Apostles making:-“Now are we sure that Thou knowest all things: . . . by this we believe that Thou camest forth from God.”
That there are things hard to be understood in the passage it would be useless to deny. But there lie on its surface three plain and profitable lessons, to which we may usefully confine our attention.
We learn, for one thing, that clear knowledge of God the Father is one of the foundations of the Christian religion. Our Lord says to His disciples, “The time cometh when I shall show you plainly of the Father.” He does not say, we should mark, “I will show you plainly about myself.” It is the Father whom He promises to show.
The wisdom of this remarkable saying is very deep. There are few subjects of which men know so little in reality as the character and attributes of God the Father. It is not for nothing that it is written, “No man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son shall reveal Him.” (Mat 11:27.) “The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” (Joh 1:18.) Thousands fancy that they know the Father because they think of Him as great, and almighty, and all-hearing, and wise, and eternal, but they think no further. To think of Him as just and yet the justifier of the sinner who believes in Jesus,-as the God who sent His Son to suffer and die,-as God in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself,-as God specially well-pleased with the atoning sacrifice of His Son, whereby His law is honored;-to think of God the Father in this way is not given to most men. No wonder that our Master says, “I will show you plainly of the Father.”
Let it be part of our daily prayers, that we may know more of “the only true God,” as well as of Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Let us beware alike of the mistakes which some make, who speak of God as if there was no Christ; and of the mistakes which others make, who speak of Christ as if there was no God. Let us seek to know all three Persons in the blessed Trinity, and give to each One the honor due to him. Let us lay hold firmly of the great truth, that the Gospel of our salvation is the result of the eternal counsels of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and that we are as thoroughly debtors to the love of the Father, as to the love of the Spirit, or the love of the Son. No one has learned of Christ so deeply as the man who is ever drawing nearer to the Father through the Son,-ever feeling more childlike confidence in Him,-and ever understanding more thoroughly that in Christ, God is not an angry judge, but a loving Father and Friend.
We learn, for another thing, in this passage, that our Lord Jesus Christ makes much of a little grace, and speaks kindly of those who have it. We see Him saying to the disciples: “The Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved Me, and have believed that I came out from God.”
How weak was the faith and love of the Apostles! How soon, in a very few hours, they were buried under a cloud of unbelief and cowardice! These very men whom Jesus commends for loving and believing, before the morning sun arose, forsook Him and fled. Yet, weak as their graces were, they were real and true and genuine. They were graces which hundreds of learned priests and scribes and Pharisees never attained, and, not attaining, died miserably in their sins.
Let us take great comfort in this blessed truth. The Savior of sinners will not cast off them that believe in Him, because they are babes in faith and knowledge. He will not break the bruised reed or quench the smoking flax. He can see reality under much infirmity, and where He sees it, He is graciously pleased. The followers of such a Savior may well be bold and confident. They have a Friend who despises not the least member of His flock, and casts out none who come to Him, however weak and feeble, if they are only true.
We learn, for another thing, in this passage, that the best Christians know but little of their own hearts. We see the disciples professing loudly, “Now Thou speakest plainly,-now we are sure,-now we believe.” Brave words these! And yet the very men that spoke them, in a very short time were scattered like timid sheep, and left their Master alone.
We need not doubt that the profession of the eleven was real and sincere. They honestly meant what they said. But they did not know themselves. They did not know what they were capable of doing under the pressure of the fear of man and of strong temptation. They had not rightly estimated the weakness of the flesh, the power of the devil, the feebleness of their own resolutions, the shallowness of their own faith. All this they had yet to learn by painful experience. Like young recruits, they had yet to learn that it is one thing to know the soldier’s drill and wear the uniform, and quite another thing to be steadfast in the day of battle.
Let us mark these things, and learn wisdom. The true secret of spiritual strength is self-distrust and deep humility. “When I am weak,” said a great Christian, “then am I strong.” (2Co 12:10.) None of us, perhaps, have the least idea how much we might fall if placed suddenly under the influence of strong temptation. Happy is he who never forgets the words, “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall;” and, remembering our Lord’s disciples, prays daily: “Hold Thou me up and then I shall be safe.”
We learn, lastly, from this passage, that Christ is the true source of peace. We read that our Lord winds up all His discourse with these soothing words: “These things have I spoken unto you, that ye might have peace.” The end and scope of His parting address, He would have us know, is to draw us nearer to Himself as the only fountain of comfort. He does not tell us that we shall have no trouble in the world. He holds out no promise of freedom from tribulation, while we are in the body. But He bids us rest in the thought that He has fought our battle and won a victory for us. Though tried, and troubled, and vexed with things here below, we shall not be destroyed. “Be of good cheer,” is His parting charge: “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
Let us lean back our souls on these comfortable words, and take courage. The storms of trial and persecution may sometimes beat heavily on us; but let them only drive us closer to Christ. The sorrows, and losses, and crosses, and disappointments of our life may often make us feel sorely cast down; but let them only make us tighten our hold on Christ. Armed with this very promise let us, under every cross, come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Let us often say to our souls, “Why art thou cast down, and why art thou disquieted?” And let us often say to our gracious Master,-“Lord, didst not Thou say, Be of good cheer? Lord, do as Thou hast said, and cheer us to the end.”
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Notes-
v25.-[These things…proverbs.] Our Lord seems here to begin winding up and concluding His discourse. The expression “these things,” seems to me to apply to all that He had been saying since Judas went out, and He was alone with the eleven. “All these things I have been saying to you in language which you have not been able fully to understand, insomuch that I seem to have been speaking to you in parables or proverbs.” The Greek word rendered “proverb” is only used five times in the New Testament, and in Joh 10:6 is translated parable.
Besser observes here, “From the very first words of our Lord’s farewell discourse,-‘In my Father’s house are many mansions,’-up to the words concerning the travailing woman, the heavenly purport of the discourse is enwrapped in various similes and parables.”
Do we not learn here that ministers must not refrain from telling their hearers many truths, which at the time they do not fully comprehend, in the hope that they will seek more knowledge, and comprehend afterwards the meaning of the things taught?
[But the time cometh…Father.] I believe the “time” here mentioned must be the time between our Lord’s resurrection and ascension, the great forty days when He taught the eleven disciples more fully than He had taught them before, and spoke more openly of the things of His Father.-I say this with diffidence. But I can see no other time to which our Lord could refer excepting this. It is evidently some personal instruction that He means, and not instruction by the invisible agency of the Holy Ghost. “The time is very close at hand, when my sacrifice on the cross having been accomplished, and my resurrection having taken place, I will show you openly and plainly the things concerning my Father, who I am, and what my relation to Him, and will no longer use parables and figures to convey my meaning.”
The promise MAY possibly include the continual teaching of the Holy Spirit, which our Lord would give His disciples after His ascension; but the language seems rather to point to direct teaching from our Lord’s own mouth. Moreover, it is an “hour” that cometh, in the Greek, and not a continuous period of time. So in Joh 16:32, “the hour” means a time close at hand.
v26.-[At that day…ask in my name.] I believe this sentence must mean, “In the day following my resurrection, when the full nature of my mission and office is at last understood, you will begin to pray and ask in my name. Hitherto you have not done it. When I have risen from the dead, and opened your understandings, you will begin to do it.”
I see insuperable objection to any other view. The “day” spoken of cannot be the day of Christ’s second advent, because prayer will not be needed then. Nor yet can it be the whole period of time between Christ’s first and second advent, because the passage which it is here bound up with belongs specially to the Apostles. (See Joh 16:27.) There remains, in my judgment, no reasonable explanation except the one already given.
[And I say not…pray…Father…you.] The meaning of this sentence seems to be, “It is not necessary to say that I will pray the Father to hear you and grant your requests. Not only shall I of course do this, but my Father also will willingly hear your prayer.” This is the most natural meaning of the passage, in my judgment.
It is singular that the Greek word rendered “pray” at the end of the verse, is the same that is used in Joh 16:23 to signify “ask questions,” or “make inquiry.” But it is worth notice that the word seems specially used when our Lord is described as “praying” to the Father. (See Joh 17:9; Joh 17:20.)
v27.-[For the Father Himself, etc.] This verse is a continuation of the encouragement contained in the verse before. “You need not doubt the Father doing for you all that you ask in my name, because He loveth you for having loved Me, and believed my divine mission. He loves all who love Me, and believe on Me.” (See Joh 14:23.)
Anton paraphrases the verse, “Ye need not so think of my intercession as if the Father were not Himself well disposed, but must first be coerced into kindness. No! He Himself loveth you, and Himself ordained my intercession.”
We should notice here how graciously our Lord acknowledges the grace there was in the disciples, with all their weakness. When myriads of Jews regarded Jesus as an impostor, the eleven loved Him and believed in Him. Jesus never forgets to honour true grace, however much it may be mingled with infirmity.
v28.-[I came forth, etc.] This verse seems a farewell summary of the true nature of our Lord’s office and mission. It grows out of the last clause of the preceding verse. “You have believed that I came out from God. In so believing you have done well, for so it is. For the last time I repeat that my mission is divine. I came forth from the Father, and came into the world to be man’s Redeemer; and now, my work being finished, I am about to leave the world, and to go back again to my Father.” This deep sentence contains more than at first sight appears. It points backward to our Lord’s persecution; it points forward to His resurrection and ascension into glory.
Augustine, quoted by Burgon, remarks, “When Christ came forth from the Father, He so came into the world as never to leave the Father; and He so left the world and went unto the Father as never to leave the world.”
v29.-[His disciples said, etc.] The words of the disciples seem to be a reference to our Lord’s statement in the twenty-fifth verse, that “the time was coming when He would no more speak in proverbs, but show them plainly concerning the Father.” The eleven appear to catch at that promise. “Even now Thou art speaking to us more plainly than we have ever heard Thee speaking before, and not in figurative language.”
v30.-[Now are we sure, etc.] This is a peculiar verse. It is hard to see what there was in our Lord’s statement in Joh 16:28, to carry such conviction to the minds of the eleven, and to make them see things about their Master so much more clearly than they had seen them before. But the precise reason why words affect men’s minds, and lay hold on their attention at one time and not at another, is a deep mystery, and hard to explain. The very same truths which a man hears from one mouth and is utterly unimpressed, come home to him with such power from another mouth, that he will declare he never heard them before! Nay, more: the very same speaker who is heard without attention one day, is heard another day teaching the very same things with the deepest interest, by the same hearers, and they will tell you they never heard them before!
The words, “We are sure,” are literally, “We know.” They mean, “We know now that Thou knowest all things concerning Thyself, Thy mission, and the Father.”
The words, “Thou needest not that any man should ask Thee,” mean, “Thou hast told us so plainly who and what Thou art, that there is no need for any one to ask Thee questions, or seek further explanation.”
The words, “By this we believe,” must mean, “We are convinced and persuaded by the statement Thou hast just made,” in Joh 16:28.
v31.-[Jesus answered…now believe.] In this verse our Lord warns the eleven of their self-ignorance. They thought they believed. They did not doubt their own faith. Let them not be too confident. They would soon find they had an evil root of unbelief within. Never do we find our Lord flattering His disciples. Warnings against self-confidence need to be continually pressed on believers. Nothing is so deceptive as feeling and excitement in religion. We know not the weakness of our hearts.
Alford thinks that “do ye now believe,” should not be rendered as a question, but as an affirmation. “You now believe, I know.” The Greek admits of either view. I prefer the question.
v32.-[Behold the hour…leave Me alone.] In this sentence our Lord reveals to His confident hearers, the amazing fact that they, even they, would in a very short time forsake Him, desert Him, run away, and fail in faith altogether. “Behold!” He begins, to denote how wonderful it was, “the hour cometh, yea, is now come. This very night, before the sun rises, the thing is immediately going to take place. Ye shall be scattered, like sheep fleeing from a wolf, one running one way and another another, every man going off to his own things, his own friends, or his own house, or his own place of refuge. Ye shall leave Me alone. You will actually allow Me to be taken off by myself as a prisoner to the high priests and to Pontius Pilate, and not so much as one of you will stand by Me.”
How little the best of believers know of their own hearts, or understand how they may behave in times of trial! If any men were ever fully and fairly warned of their coming failure, the disciples were. We can only suppose that they did not understand our Lord, or did not realize the magnitude of the trial coming on them, or fancied that He would work some miracle at the last moment, for His deliverance.
The Greek phrase rendered “His own,” means literally, “His own things.” It may either be “His own business,” or as the margin renders it, “His own home.”
[And yet…not alone…with Me.] In this teaching and touching sentence, our Lord reminds His disciples that their desertion would not deprive Him of all comfort. “And yet, when you are scattered, and have left Me, I am not entirely alone, because the Father is always with Me.”
We need not doubt that one great end of the sentence was to teach the disciples where they must look themselves in their own future trials. They must never forget that God the Father would always be near them and with them, even in the darkest times. A sense of God’s presence is one great source of the comfort of believers. The last promise in Matthew, before the ascension, was, “I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” (Mat 28:20.)
John Huss, the famous martyr, who was burned at Constance, is said to have drawn special comfort from this passage, during the lonely imprisonment which preceded his death.
v33.-[These things…peace.] In this concluding verse our Lord sums up the reasons why He has spoken the things contained in this whole discourse. “All these things I have spoken for this one great end,-that you may have inward peace by resting your souls on Me, and keeping up close communion with Me.” It is one great secret of comfort in our religion to draw all our consolation from Christ, and live on Him. “He is our peace.” (Eph 2:14.)
[In the world…tribulation.] Here our Lord tells the eleven, plainly and honestly, that they must expect trouble and persecution from the world. He does not conceal that the way to heaven is not smooth and strewed with flowers. On the contrary, “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” (2Ti 3:12.) To keep back from young beginners in religion the cross and the battle, is not teaching as Christ taught.
[But be…good cheer…overcome…world.] Here our Lord winds up all by bidding the disciples take courage, cheer up, be confident, and go forward without fear. The world in which they lived was a vanquished enemy. He, their Master, had “overcome the world.” This means, I believe, not merely that He had given them an example of successful fighting by overcoming the fear of the world and the flattery of the world, but something far more important. He had overcome the Prince of this world, and was just about to win His final victory over him on the cross. Hence His disciples must remember that they were contending with an enemy already sorely beaten. “Ye need not fear the world, because I am just leading captive its King, and about to triumph over him on the cross.”
Luther, quoted by Besser, here remarks, “Thus is the ‘goodnight’ said, and the hand shaken. But very forcibly does He conclude with that very thing around which His whole discourse has turned. Let not your heart be troubled. Be of good cheer.”
No devout commentator, I think, can leave this wonderful chapter without deeply feeling how little we understand of the depths of Scripture. There are many words and sentences in it about which we can only give conjectures, and must admit our inability to speak positively. Nowhere in Scripture, I must honestly confess, do commentators appear to me to contribute so little light to the text, as in their interpretation of this chapter.
Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
Joh 16:25. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs; an hour cometh when I shall no longer speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall tell you plainly concerning the Father. Jesus is now about to close His last discourse. At this point, accordingly, He refers to the method of teaching, of which He was giving them illustration at the moment, for the purpose of bringing out by contrast the glory of the period upon which the disciples were about to enter. On the word proverbs, comp. on chap. Joh 10:6. The contrast suggested is not between figurative and direct speech, or between enigmatical and clear sayings. Jesus had used few figures, and He had taught with the utmost simplicity and plainness of language. But the effect of His teaching had depended upon the authority of the Teacher, not on the spiritual insight of the pupil. The Teacher alone had Himself seen what He described (chap. Joh 6:46), and it had been His aim to make His pupils understand it. Now, however, that stage of instruction was to come to a close, and the pupils, in ripened manhood, were themselves under the direct teaching of the Spirit to see. That this is the case, is clear from the fact that the hour of Joh 16:25 and the day of Joh 16:26 were an hour and a day when Jesus was to be personally removed from His disciples, and when the Spirit of the truth was to take His place. The contrast, therefore, between in proverbs and plainly is to be sought in the difference between outward teaching of every kind and that internal teaching which comes from the illuminating influence of the Spirit of God, and which is the best, the only true, teaching. The Spirit shall be given after Jesus goes away, and the disciples shall see in their own free and independent insight what as yet they received only upon the authority of their Master.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Here our Saviour tells his disciples that although he had spoken many things to them in dark parables and figurative expressions, yet now the time was approaching, namely, the Comforter’s coming, when he would, by the Holy Ghost, clearly enlighten their understandings in the knowledge of divine mysteries, and the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, and particularly in the knowledge of God as his Father, and their Father in him.
Hence learn, 1. That the clearest truths will be but parables, proverbs, and dark myteries, even to disciples themselves, till the Holy Spirit enlightens their understandings.
2. That the clear and full manifestation of divine truth was reserved till the coming of the comforter, who did communicate it to the apostles, and by them to the church, or body of Christians: I, by him, will shew you plainly of the Father.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Joh 16:25-28. These things Though very weighty and important; have I spoken unto you in proverbs In the obscurity of parables, which have appeared dark and mysterious to you; but the time cometh, &c. You may comfort yourselves with this thought, that the time is at hand when I shall speak unto you no more in proverbs No more in that obscure manner; but I shall show you plainly of the Father Shall, by the teaching of my Spirit, declare to you, in plain terms, the whole counsel of God relating to the erection of his church and the salvation of men. At that day ye shall ask in my name, &c. I repeat it to you again, that after my ascension you shall offer up all your addresses unto the Father, through my mediation; I say not that I will pray the Father for you I do not mean that I will solicit the Father in your behalf, as if he were unwilling to bestow on you the blessings you stand in need of; for the Father himself loveth you In a peculiar manner; and therefore will be always ready to grant your requests, and to watch over you with paternal affection and care; because ye have loved me With sincerity and fervency; and have believed that I came out from God As the Messenger of his grace to men; and have accordingly relied on me with such steadfastness, that you have ventured your all upon that belief. And you have therein acted a very prudent and happy part; for indeed I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world For purposes of infinite importance to the glory of God and the happiness of the human race; again Having finished the work I came to do, I leave the world and go to the Father From whom I came, with whom I shall continually abide, and into whose presence I will shortly conduct you, putting you in possession of a more glorious kingdom than you ever expected, or could expect on earth.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 25-33.
1. That the time referred to in Joh 16:25 ff. is the same with that described in Joh 16:20-24 is indicated by the fact that the same great characteristic of the period mentioned is here set forth as in the previous verses:the communication with the Father in the name of Christ. It is also indicated by the fact that after the of Joh 16:25 there is no distinct suggestion of a new subject, such as we find in Joh 15:12; Joh 15:18.
2. The force of the words … of Joh 16:26 is undoubtedly this: that the presentation of a request from Himself would not be necessary, because the Father would have an independent personal love for them on the ground of their acceptance of Him and love towards Him. The words I do not say, instead of an expression such as I deny that I will, or say that I will not, as well as the very nature of the relation between Jesus and the discipleswe may add, the indications elsewhere given of Jesus as an intercessorshow that He does not mean to deny that He will thus ask the Father for them. He did not need, indeed, to assure them of this, for they could not doubt that it would be so. But the one thought here is, that they might have confidence, when approaching the Father in prayer, that He had a personal love for them, and, by reason of this, would be ready to answer their petitionsand this would be a vital element in their future permanent joy.
3. The words of the disciples in Joh 16:29-30, which have a special reference to Joh 16:28, in its connection with what precedes, are a new declaration and measure of their belief. Coming, as this declaration does, at the close of the discourses and conversations of Jesus in chs. 13-16, it must be regarded as their profession of faith in view of this latest and most remarkable , in the sphere, not of works, but of words; and, by its position and its contents taken together, it shows an increase in their belief beyond any former utterance.
4. In Joh 16:31-32 Jesus acknowledges their faith ( is an affirmation, not a question), and, at the same time, reminds them that it is not yet perfected. It will show its remaining weakness as the approaching evils and dangers come. Therefore He has spoken to them all the words of this discourse (the of Joh 16:33 points back to the whole of chs. 15, 16), that they may have peace and good courage in the midst of tribulation, being assured that He has overcome the world.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
16:25 {7} These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father.
(7) The Holy Spirit, who was poured upon the apostles after the ascension of Christ, instructed both them in all the central mysteries and secrets of our salvation, and also the Church by them, and he will also instruct the Church until the end of the world.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
8. The clarification of Jesus’ destination 16:25-33
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
"These things I have spoken unto you" (NASB) indicates another transition in the discourse (cf. Joh 14:25; Joh 16:1; Joh 16:4; Joh 16:33; Joh 17:1). Jesus acknowledged that He had not been giving direct answers to His disciples’ questions. He had been speaking enigmatically or cryptically. The Greek phrase en paroimias has this meaning elsewhere (cf. Joh 10:6). Jesus was referring to His entire discourse, not just His illustration about the woman (Joh 16:21). He evidently did this to avoid presenting what lay ahead in such stark reality that the disciples could not accept it (Joh 16:12).
The coming hour when Jesus would no longer speak figuratively to them but clearly (Gr. parresia, cf. Joh 10:24; Joh 11:14) probably refers to the time following His resurrection and ascension. Then He and the Spirit would help the disciples understand the meaning of what He had said earlier (cf. Act 1:3).
Jesus used parables to teach the multitudes because they were not ready to receive clear teaching (Mar 4:33-34). He interpreted some of His parables for the disciples because they could receive some clear teaching. However, He also used enigmatic language with the disciples because even they were not ready to understand some things yet.