John 16:31Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Then, since they say "Now we know" as though offering Him some gratitude, He answers: You still need much in order to come to perfection. You are not yet perfect in anything.

Even now you will deliver Me over to the enemies. Such fear will seize you that you will not even be able to withdraw together. Yet I shall suffer no harm from this.

Do you see how His word is again adapted to their understanding? This is precisely what He reproves in them, that they constantly need such condescension.

Since they had said, "Behold, now You speak plainly and speak no parable" (v. 29), and therefore, "We believe You" (v. 30), He shows that even now, when they believe, they do not yet believe. He does not admit their words. He says this with the future in view.

Thus He showed at the same time that they had not yet been established in perfect faith, since they had not yet tasted communion with the Spirit. He offered as proof the cowardice that would soon be revealed in them.

He also appears to bring them no small benefit by foretelling what was about to happen to them. For they would be more firmly and strongly convinced that He is God by nature when they learned that He knows all things.

Behold, He says, the time is not far off. Rather, it is already coming, when, leaving "Me alone," you will go away "to your own." This can be expressed more clearly thus. When you yield to powerless cowardice, you will care only for your own life. Preferring your own safety to the love owed to the Teacher, you will withdraw to whatever places you find.

Is this, then, why you "now believe," if you have not yet removed from yourselves the shameful charge of cowardice, since you have not yet received boldness through the Spirit?

That the blessed disciples turned to flight, unable to endure the assault of the Jews when the traitor came leading an impious band of soldiers and officers' servants, admits not the slightest doubt. Then they left Christ "alone."

We say "alone" only in the sense that no one remained with Him from those who had usually followed Him and stayed with Him. For He was not alone as God from God, and in God by nature and indivisibly.

Christ also spoke this for us in a human manner. He teaches that, if time sometimes brings upon us temptation, persecution, or something similar, and calls us to glorious danger, I mean for the sake of piety, we must not lose hope of escape.

This remains true even if none of the like-minded brethren helps us, defending us as far as he can, and by his shared mind, as it were, dividing with us the danger threatening us.

For even if they turned to burdensome flight and showed in excessive measure an unconquerable cowardice, still we must be confident that God is not weakened because of this. He alone will be able to save the one devoted to Him.

We are not "alone," even if no one should be present, as I have just said, when we have almighty God as defender, helper, and protector. He shields us by His most merciful protection, according to the Psalmist's word: "O Lord, with the shield of Your good pleasure You have crowned us" (Ps 5:13).

We say this now not because we consider attachment to life a good thing when it is necessary for us to end bodily life with glory, struggling and contending against temptations for God's sake. Rather, we say it so that we may believe the opposite. Even if there are none who wish and strive to do this together with us, we must not despair. For we shall not be "alone" when God is present with us.

Finally, indicating to them their age, which according to the inner man was still small and immature, Jesus answered them: "Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, and has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me" (Jn 16:31-32).

A little earlier He had said: "I leave the world and go to the Father." Now He says: "The Father is with Me." Who goes to one who remains with him?

But this is a word for one who understands, and a parable for one who does not understand. Yet what is still incomprehensible to children is in some way absorbed by them.

Even if He does not give them solid food, because they cannot yet take it in, He does not deny them milk (cf. 1 Cor 3:2). This food led them to see that He knows all things and has no need that anyone should question Him (cf. Jn 16:30).

But the Lord warned them not to trust this momentary feeling too much. This faith of theirs would soon fall beneath the heavy weight of other feelings. They would leave Him alone, the very One in whom they now claimed to believe.

Nevertheless, this sincere, deep, childlike confession of faith was precious to the Lord in these decisive moments. These eleven simple Galileans had understood, accepted, and loved Him as the Messiah by feeling.

For now that was enough. Another Comforter would come and enlighten their mind and strengthen their will. For now even this was enough, and the Lord could end His discourse with a prayer of thanksgiving to God, His heavenly Father.

He does so. But first He makes the disciples understand that their faith will become perfect for their high future ministry only later, when the Holy Spirit illumines it. Now it will not withstand the temptation before it.

By mentioning this near temptation, He undoubtedly intends to strengthen their faith against that very temptation, as far as this is possible on their part.

"Do you now believe?" the Lord asks. Do you think that your faith in Me has now attained the strength and firmness of unshakable faith, contrary to My words that you will reach perfection after My departure from you, when another Comforter comes to you?

No. Your present faith will not withstand the very first trial to which it will soon be subjected, in a few hours.

"Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, and has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take courage: I have overcome the world."

Let the malice of earth and Hades arise. The Father is with Him. Therefore His work, for which He came into the world, will lose nothing from the malice of His enemies. It will even be glorified by victory over the malice of the world.

This truth had to serve as a support for His disciples during His sufferings. This same truth will always be fruitful in His Church.

How can a Christian fail to be firm in sorrows, when the One in whom he believes is so close to the heavenly Father, and is His Son?

It now seemed to them that they had understood the full depth of the mystery of the Lord's coming, and that they had grasped it with their human reason. But understanding the mysteries of the Godhead is granted only by the Holy Spirit, whom they had not yet received.

Human reason cannot comprehend them. Therefore, by His question, "Do you now believe?" the Lord chiefly indicates that the disciples themselves do not understand what they are saying.

They claim that only now have they learned and understood everything, and that because of this they believe. If they had not loved the Lord and believed in Him, they would long since have departed from Him, as some others did (Jn 6:66).

But they were attached in soul to the Lord, though of course they still did not understand much.

Continuing His speech, the Lord points out another side of the disciples' mistaken assurance. When they asserted, "Now we believe," the Lord indicated that grace-filled faith had long since touched their hearts. They truly both believed and loved.

Yet, on the other hand, the Knower of hearts showed them that their faith was not firm, as they wished to persuade themselves when they said, "We believe that You came forth from God."

For the hour had already come, when the Lord was going to the brook Kidron. Then they would run in different directions, maddened by fear, and would hide in their dwellings. They would instantly forget their solemn declaration of faith.

A few minutes after this assurance, they leave their dearly loved Teacher, humanly speaking, alone. But the Lord does not reproach them. He only foretells the future.

The firmness and immovability of faith would be established in the disciples' hearts by the Lord's Resurrection and by their sanctification through the Holy Spirit. The strength of man is weak when it is not strengthened by the Spirit of God.

Humanly speaking, the Lord remains alone, and the man Christ Jesus is alone before the crowd of enemies. Yet this is God, who by His Sacrifice works the salvation of men, and in His Being is one with the Father.

The Lord expresses this in the words: "I am not alone, because the Father is with Me." Cf. above Jn 8:29: "The Father has not left Me alone," and Jn 10:30: "I and the Father are one."