Scripture Daily

Context No. 1504 of 4322 · John

Context · Reflection

John 16:12-16: in context

12“I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now. 13However, when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak from himself; but whatever he hears, he will speak. He will declare to you things that are coming. 14He will glorify me, for he will take from what is mine and will declare it to you. 15All things that the Father has are mine; therefore I said that he takes of mine and will declare it to you. 16“A little while, and you will not see me. Again a little while, and you will see me.”

In his farewell to his disciples, Jesus tells them there is more he wants to say than they can yet receive. I still have many things to tell you, he says, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth, taking what is mine and declaring it to you, and glorifying me. And he adds a word about his going and returning: a little while, and you will not see me; and again a little while, and you will see me.

The tender line is the first one: I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now. Jesus had more truth to give his disciples, but he held it back, not because he was withholding out of stinginess, but because they were not yet able to receive it; it would have been too much, more than they could bear. So he gave them what they could take, and entrusted the rest to the Spirit, who would lead them into it as they became able. There is a great gentleness in that, and it tells us something about how God teaches. He does not overwhelm us with all the truth at once, dumping on us more than we can carry; he leads us into truth gradually, giving us what we can bear now and holding the rest until we are ready for it. The things we could not have understood or borne earlier in our lives, he reveals in their time, as we grow able to receive them. This is a comfort in two directions. It comforts us when we do not understand everything, when there are truths and mysteries still beyond us; God knows we cannot bear it all now, and leads us on patiently. And it assures us there is more to come, that our present understanding is not the end, that the Spirit will go on leading us into truth we are not yet ready for. God gives truth as we can bear it, no more and no less, and he is not finished teaching us. The many things we cannot bear now, he will show us in their time.

Can I trust God's patient, gradual way of teaching, that he gives me truth as I can bear it and holds the rest until I am ready, so that my present lack of understanding is not the end but a stage in his leading me on?

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