I have yet many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now.
On the last night before the cross, Jesus breaks off mid-teaching. The limit is not in what He has to give, but in what His disciples can take. So how did the rest ever reach them — and has it reached us?
These men were close to Him, yet they did not have all He wanted to give them. One writer marks the point when that changed:
So the disciples, favoured as they were, were far from knowing all that the Lord wanted for them. He would have told them if their state had allowed it. They could enter into all the truth only after redemption was accomplished, Christ was raised from the dead, and the Holy Spirit was given — not before.
"You cannot bear them" sounds like a comment on their slowness. One writer rules that out:
It was not that they were lacking in intelligence. They could not bear or understand the truths that He wanted to tell them, because they had not yet received the gift of the Holy Spirit... Only after He had come could every believer have the power and the potential to understand every truth put before them. No Christian should be ignorant of the mind of the Lord. It is not a question of natural ability. It is a question of being in a moral condition, with a teachable mind and a desire to learn. Then the indwelling Spirit gives the power to understand and learn the truth of God.
The truths held back waited on two things: cleansed consciences, and a Man glorified in heaven.
The Spirit, when given, was to supply what the disciples in their state at that time could not bear... The Lord truly had many things to say, kept back for the Holy Spirit. They waited for the time when the disciples would have their consciences purged and could come near with boldness into the holy places, and when a Man glorified in heaven gave the fitting occasion for displaying all that is in God.
Notice what the Lord does with what He cannot say: He does not force it on them, and He does not let them lose it either.
Many things He had to say to them, but then they could not bear them. He would not therefore press on them what they were not in a condition to receive. Would they lose by that? Should they afterwards have to speak of an opportunity they had not used, lost for ever? No. He would provide against that. The Comforter sent by Him would come, and guide them into all the truth.
What was partial while He stood among them becomes complete when the Spirit arrives:
His disciples could only understand so much. So in His teaching the Lord was limited to making known what was only partial. But when the Spirit came there would be full revelation. No longer partial teaching, but open communication from the Father and the Son, through the Spirit — and so unlimited fullness for us.
Two things follow from the verse — one about how truth is given, one about where revelation ends:
These words show that truth is revealed as God's people are in a position and state to take it in. Before redemption was accomplished and the Spirit given, the disciples could not receive the truth which the Lord later ministered through the apostles by the Spirit. They also show that the revelation of truth reaches its finality when the Spirit comes, since He guides into ALL truth. This agrees with Paul's word that it was given to him "to fulfil [or, complete] the Word of God" (Col. 1:25). He does not mean the completing of the collection of Bible books — apparently John did that — but the completing of the subjects of revelation, the whole circle of revealed truth.
So the Spirit's ongoing work is not the addition of fresh messages. It is applying what He has already written:
This is how the Spirit guides into all truth without giving new revelations. He opens and applies His own writings to meet the needs of the church.
The Lord's care for what each hearer could take shows up again in the Epistles:
So we see that the Lord recognised spiritual growth in His hearers. On one occasion He had many things to say, but the apostles were then unable to bear them (John 16:12). When, however, the Spirit of truth came at Pentecost they were led forward into all truth. But in the Epistles, as in the Gospels, we find that the ministry of the truth took each person's progress into account. Paul fed some with "milk," and others with "meat" (1 Cor. 3:2; Heb. 5:12).
- Cause — The pause was on their side, not His; He had more to say and would have said it if their state had allowed.
- Not ability — Their problem was not intelligence. They had not yet received the Spirit.
- Gift — What opened the rest: redemption accomplished, Christ raised, a Man glorified in heaven, and the Spirit given.
- Reach — The delay cost them nothing. What He held back came in full through the Spirit, who guides into all the truth.
- Result — Revelation has reached its end. The Spirit adds no new messages. He opens what He has already written, as the church needs it.
But when *he* is come, the Spirit of truth, he shall guide you into all the truth for he shall not speak from himself; but whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak; and he will announce to you what is coming.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.