These things I have spoken unto you that ye may not be offended.
Jesus is warning His followers about the treatment the world will give them. He tells them in advance for one reason: so their faith will not give way when persecution comes.
The danger here is not hurt feelings. It is a faith that gives way. One writer points to what most likely causes it.
"I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away" (16:1) — or, as older translations put it, "that you should not be offended," that is, made to stumble. Persecution from heartless people might not seem so strange. But persecution from the professed people of God, who had a zeal for God, might stagger some. It is the same today. We may expect persecution from unconverted, godless people. Persecution from professing Christians, for the truth's sake, seems to some almost impossible to understand. Yet it happens.
The warning itself is an act of care. It targets what these men still assumed and what they did not yet know.
The thoughtful and tender love of the Lord looks ahead to the suffering of His own. So He gives them this loving warning, so that they would not stumble when persecution came. Without it, two things could have tripped them up. Their natural prejudices came from their ties to the old order that was closing. And they knew nothing yet of the new Christian era about to dawn. Faced with persecution, that could have made them stumble. The later history of the disciples will prove how much the warning was needed.
One faithful man in the Gospels almost went down under this pressure. The same writer uses him to show where the disciples were exposed.
John the Baptist, in his day, came close to being offended. Treatment so foreign to his thoughts gave his faith a severe shock. His faithful witness landed him in prison. He did not know the mind of the Lord, so he sent Him a message: "Are you the one who is to come?" The answer came back: "Blessed is the one who is not offended by me." The disciples faced this same danger. They were filled with the false hope that Israel would be set free at once, so they were not ready for persecution from Israel. Their false expectations left them open to being offended.
The Lord handles the strong and the weak differently in trial. His words here take account of those least able to bear the shock.
Many among the Jews were going to stumble. They expected anything but sorrow, shame, and groundless hatred to be the lot of those who follow the Messiah. But the Lord kindly thinks of His own. He uses trial for the blessing of the strong, yet He would also shield and strengthen the weak. He does this in two ways: by warning them of the world's undying ill-will, and by telling them the Holy Spirit is coming to add His testimony to theirs, when the world persecutes the servants as it persecuted their Master. How precious are the words He has spoken!
He speaks the words now. They do their work later, when the persecution comes.
In the days to come, the persecution would bring the Lord's words back to mind. It would comfort the disciples' hearts with a fresh sense of the knowledge that saw it all in advance, and the love that warned them. Until then there had been no need to speak of these things, for the Lord was there to shelter and guard them. These things belonged to the time of His absence, not the time of His presence.
This warning is not a footnote to the blessing. It is the other half of the same position.
He says, in effect, "You are identified with Me in My position before the Father, with all the favour and blessing that belongs to it. But you are also identified with Me in My position of reproach and rejection before the world. If you have all the assets that come with My place before the Father, do not be surprised to find you have My liabilities in relation to the world."
- Foreknown. Nothing that hits a believer takes Christ by surprise; He spoke of it in advance.
- Forewarned. The warning is love in action. He speaks first so that nothing shakes their faith — not even attacks from religious people, the hardest kind to understand.
- Fortified. He aims His words at the weak, not only the strong. With the warning comes a promise: the Holy Spirit will add His testimony to theirs.
- Filed away. The words wait for the hour of trouble. Remembering them then brings comfort: He knew, and He told us.
- Followed. We share His place before the Father. We also share His rejection by the world. The blessing and the reproach come together.
They shall put you out of the synagogues; but the hour is coming that every one who kills you will think to render service to God;
Jesus is preparing His disciples for life after He leaves them. The shock in His warning is not the violence. It is the motive: the men who kill His followers will be sure they are serving God.
The verse names two blows. One writer separates them: one that a whole community carries out, and one that any single person could take up.
Men would take two ways to get rid of Christians and their testimony. One was public, when men put on a show of the utmost zeal for God's authority and holiness. The other was open to any single person, even to the point of death, to wipe out criminals not fit to live. It is impossible to imagine hatred more deadly, yet approved by all, than this. Anyone who wished might take it on himself to kill a follower of Christ — though official authority still stood behind him. He would do it not only without punishment, but claiming to do God a religious service by it.
To modern ears, being shut out of a synagogue sounds mild. For a Jew it was social death, and the commentary spells out what it swept away.
Being thrown out of the synagogue was the severest religious punishment. Death was the last act of judicial power. This is the treatment they must expect. To anyone not settled in the faith these consequences would seem terrible. To our nature it is no light thing to lose religious rites and friendships. It is no light thing to hear your name thrown out as evil, or to have people treat you as a moral leper, unfit to mix with your own nation or family.
One writer points back to the man born blind, whom the leaders threw out after Jesus healed him.
They would be put out of the synagogues (v. 2), just as the man who was cured of blindness had been (John 9:34). For a Jew this was a dreadful experience, because it meant rejection by his own people.
This persecution does not come from people who reject religion. It comes from religion itself.
The Lord's warning prepares them not only for persecution, but for religious persecution... This religious persecution would come from religious motives. "Whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God." So the greater the sincerity, the more ruthless the persecution. But this persecution would come from ignorance of the Father and the Son. And this is how it has been with every form of religious persecution. It has been truly said, "As it was with the Jews who persecuted Christians, so with the Christians who have persecuted Christians. Things have been done 'to the glory of God,' and 'in the name of Christ,' of which He who looks down from heaven would only say, 'They have not known the Father nor Me.'"
The verse breaks a popular idea: that a person acting from conviction must be roughly right.
Man walks in darkness, because he is darkness. His conscience is darkness, and false teaching blinds his mind as well. Whatever a man does from conscience he always does with intensity, even when his conscience is blinded and his action is wrong. A person may be very conscientious in resisting the truth. What people call conscientious action is often nothing in God's sight but the conduct of someone Satan has thoroughly blinded.
So the answer is not a stronger conscience but light from God.
People sometimes say that if you only act from conscience you cannot go far wrong. But in Paul we have a man whose very conscientiousness made him the chief of sinners. It is not conscience that saves, but the light of the knowledge of God as it has shone out in Christ.
Saul of Tarsus is the clearest case. He hunted believers to the death before he became the apostle Paul.
Acts 8:3; Acts 9:1-2; 1 Timothy 1:13 give us a commentary on verses 2 and 3 of our chapter. Saul of Tarsus persecuted this way to the death, and he did it ignorantly in his unbelief. At that time he certainly knew neither the Father nor the Son.
The Lord gave this warning to steady them, not to frighten them. The warning itself was an act of care.
In tender concern for our weakness, the Lord, through His servants, has warned us in advance of what we have to expect among His professing people. Two important things follow. First, only the light of the Scriptures lets us read the state of professing Christianity correctly. Second, if we do not know the teaching of the Word of God, we are open to disappointments and deceptions of every possible kind.
- Ignorance — the Lord names the root cause in the next breath. They act this way because they have not known the Father or the Son.
- Blindness — that ignorance darkens the conscience, until killing a believer feels like serving God. Sincerity makes the cruelty worse, not softer.
- Cost — the disciple pays twice: cut off from family, nation and religious life, and then cut down.
- Proof — Saul of Tarsus lived this verse out. He persecuted believers to the death in ignorant unbelief, knowing neither the Father nor the Son.
- Forewarning — the Lord told them first, in tender concern for their weakness, so the blow would not take them by surprise.
and these things they will do because they have not known the Father nor me.
The Lord has just warned His followers about what is coming: they will be thrown out of the synagogue, and some will be killed by people who think they are serving God. Here He gives the reason — the persecutors do not know the Father or the Son.
This ignorance was not caused by a lack of evidence.
Verse 3. "And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me." God had given them every proof of who Christ was, yet despite all that God could give, they rejected Him. "And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness…"
The same reason that explains the hatred also comforts those who suffer it. And it becomes a test of any religion.
He gives His own the comfort of knowing — in such hours, which might be full of bitter grief, and beforehand as well — that all the contempt and suffering they might endure from the world was for His sake. It came from the world's ignorance of the One who sent Him, ignorance of the Father. How deeply true that is! It would be impossible for a religion that claims God's name to persecute if it really knew the One who sent Christ.
This persecution is religious, not political. It costs the disciples their place in the community, and it comes from people who are sincere.
The Lord's warning prepares them not only for persecution, but for religious persecution. The disciples of Christ would be put out of the synagogue, and that meant losing all fellowship — in family life, in social life and in public life (John 9:22). This religious persecution would come from religious motives. "Whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God." So the greater the sincerity, the more ruthless the persecution. But this persecution would come from ignorance of the Father and the Son. And so it has been with every form of religious persecution. Someone has said, and said it truly, "As it was with the Jews who persecuted Christians, so with the Christians who have persecuted Christians. Things have been done 'to the glory of God' and 'in the name of Christ' about which He who looks down from heaven would only say, 'They have not known the Father nor Me.'"
One man's life shows exactly what the Lord described.
Acts 8:3; Acts 9:1-2; and 1 Timothy 1:13 give us a commentary on verses 2 and 3 of our chapter. Saul of Tarsus persecuted this way to the death, and he did it in ignorance, in his unbelief. At that time he knew neither the Father nor the Son.
The same case shows what the disciples could expect from such men, and where hope still lay.
But because they were ignorant of the Father and the Son, they would think they were serving God by killing them… They were to expect no relenting, for men who murder out of conscience never relent — it is the power of Satan. Yet they are not beyond conversion, as we know from Paul.
The Lord says this to steady His followers before the blow lands.
But believers should not become bitter or discouraged under such persecution. It came from ignorance — not just ignorance of certain principles, but ignorance of the Father and the Son as Persons (v. 3). The Lord warned them in advance so that, when these things happened, they would remember His perfect wisdom, and that He was truly in control of everything that took place. What calmness and rest this would give in the face of such trouble!
The verse names what the persecutors lacked. One writer asks whether believers today really hold it.
This is what is missing today: the knowledge of the Father and the Son. I do not mean that any true believer is without this knowledge. What I mean is this: I fear we do not have these divine Persons as our constant guests. We know forgiveness, and, like Martha, we may be busy with much service. But what do we know of the sweetness beyond words of welcoming the Father and the Son into the secret of our own souls?
- Cause. The violence of verse 2 has one root, and the Lord names it: they have not known the Father or the Son.
- Test. Turn the cause around and it becomes a test. A religion that really knew the One who sent Christ could not persecute.
- Sincerity. Not knowing does not soften the hand; it hardens it. The more sincere the persecutor, the more ruthless the persecution.
- Proof. Saul of Tarsus lived out these words. He acted in ignorance and unbelief, and he would not relent — yet he was not beyond conversion.
- Comfort. The cause is ignorance, not the Lord losing control. So His people can meet persecution with calm instead of bitterness. And they hold as their own treasure the very knowledge the world lacks.
But I have spoken these things to you, that when their hour shall have come, ye may remember them, that I have said [them] unto you. But I did not say these things unto you from [the] beginning, because I was with you.
Jesus has just warned His followers that people will kill them and think they are serving God. Here He tells them why He is saying it now. Two things hold the verse together: a purpose, "that you may remember," and a reason for His earlier silence, "because I was with you."
Jesus is planting something for the future. The warning would do its work later, when the blow fell.
In the days to come, the persecution would bring the Lord's words back to mind. It would comfort the disciples' hearts with a fresh sense of the knowledge that saw it all in advance, and of the love that warned them beforehand. Until now the need to speak of these things had not arisen, for the Lord was present to shelter and guard them. These things belonged to the time of His absence, not the time of His presence.
The trouble He named was not vague. It was expulsion from the synagogue, and then death itself.
Excommunication was the most severe religious punishment, and death was the final act of judicial power. This was the treatment they must expect. To anyone not settled in the faith these outcomes would seem terrible. To nature it is no small thing to lose your religious rites and community. It is no small thing to have your name thrown out as evil, and to be seen as a moral leper, unfit to mix with your own nation or family. Then death: cut off from life here, and the consequences may reach even to those nearest and dearest. All this is hard, very hard, to flesh and blood. And some, we learn from Acts 26:11, shrank back from such terrible treatment. They kept their lives and their place in the synagogue by speaking against the name they had claimed to honour. None of them, of course, were among the eleven apostles.
The second half of the verse answers an obvious question. If this was coming, why had He not said it before? The answer is His own presence with them.
The Lord was preparing the disciples for harsher treatment from the professing people of God than from those who knew nothing of Him. So now He lets them know what they must suffer. He does it so that they might gather comfort in that very hour by remembering His words. He knew the trial that was coming, and He told them of it. So they could trust His assurance of love and blessing, of deliverance and glory. Besides, He explains why He had not spoken of these things before. He was with them, their shield and helper; and what need was there to say a word? But as He was about to leave them, it was right to speak, and it would help everything to work for good.
Remembering His words would do more than soften the shock.
He tells them of these things before they happen, so that they might not be caught off guard. The truth about these matters would put them on their guard. Their own countrymen would disown them, treating them as law-breakers… As these things came to pass their confidence would be strengthened in the One who had told them about them beforehand. He did not tell them these things earlier because He protected them while He was with them. What comfort He sought to bring them now, showing how fully He knew, cared and felt for them.
Remembering would also steady them in the moment. He spoke ahead "so that, when these things happened, they would remember His perfect wisdom, in control of all that took place. What calmness and rest this would give in the face of such suffering!" (L. M. Grant)
The same method guards believers today. The warning comes first, so that memory can steady us later.
The first means of defence is to remember the words of the apostles, who spoke beforehand about the coming of these sorrowful evils… The Lord Himself sought to strengthen His disciples in the same way… So, in tender concern for our weakness, the Lord has warned us through His servants about what we must expect among His professing people. Two important things follow. First, only in the light of the Scriptures can we read the state of professing Christianity rightly. Second, if we do not know the teaching of the Word of God, we are open to disappointments and deceptions of every possible kind.
- Foreknown. Nothing that hits the believer takes Christ by surprise. He named the synagogue and the sword before either came.
- Forewarned. He spoke not to frighten but to arm — the warning is love working ahead of the trouble.
- Sheltered. He stayed silent at the start because He Himself absorbed every attack while He was present.
- Remembered. In "their hour" the stored word does its work. Remembering that He said it turns terror into proof of His wisdom and care.
- Guarded. The same pattern protects us now. Knowing Scripture ahead of time keeps us from disappointment and deception.