When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. 27 And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.
1 “I have told you this so that you may not fall away. 2 They will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God. 3 They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me. 4 I have told you this so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you.
Jesus continues to prepare His disciples for life after His death, resurrection, and return to the Father. He has already spoken of the world’s hatred and rejection of those who belong to Him. Now He tells them that they will not bear witness alone.
Jesus says, “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me” (v. 26). The Advocate is the Holy Spirit, the divine Helper whom Jesus sends from the Father. Here Jesus is speaking especially of the Spirit’s mission to the disciples, but His words also prepare us for the language Christians profess in the Creed when they say that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son.” The Creed helps the Church confess the deep unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Spirit comes from God and is called “the Spirit of truth” because God is truth. He does not lead believers into confusion or away from Christ. He makes the truth of Christ known and strengthens believers to remain faithful to that truth.
The Holy Spirit testifies to Jesus. He helps the disciples understand more deeply who Jesus is, what He has taught, and why His death and resurrection are the saving work of God. Later in this same discourse, Jesus says that the Spirit “will guide you to all truth” and “will glorify me” (John 16:13-14). The Spirit’s work is always joined to Christ and directed toward Christ.
Jesus then says, “And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning” (v. 27). The disciples have heard His words, seen His works, and lived with Him during His public ministry. Their testimony begins as eyewitness testimony, but it will continue in the life of the Church. The same Spirit who testifies to Christ strengthens the disciples to testify to Him, and through their witness the Gospel will be handed on to later generations.
This helps explain what Christian witness means. Christian witness is not simply speaking about religious ideas. It is bearing faithful testimony to Christ by word, conduct, courage, and perseverance. The first disciples did this as eyewitnesses of Jesus’ ministry, death, and resurrection. Later believers do this by receiving the apostolic witness and living in fidelity to Christ. Saint Peter says that Christians should be ready to give an explanation for their hope, “but do it with gentleness and reverence” (1 Peter 3:15-16).
Jesus then explains why He is telling them these things: “so that you may not fall away” (v. 1). He does not hide the cost of discipleship from them. He warns them before persecution comes so that hardship will not make them think that God has abandoned them or that His plan has failed.
The opposition Jesus describes is serious. “They will expel you from the synagogues” (v. 2). For the first Jewish believers in Christ, this meant being cut off from the worshiping and social life of their people. Jesus also warns that some will even kill His followers while thinking they are “offering worship to God” (v. 2). Saul of Tarsus, before his conversion, shows how this could happen. He later admitted that he had opposed the name of Jesus and persecuted His followers (Acts 26:9-11).
Jesus gives the deepest reason for this persecution: “They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me” (v. 3). Their opposition is rooted in a refusal to know God, even though He has revealed Himself through His Son and through the works of His Son. In John’s Gospel, to reject Jesus is to reject the One who sent Him (John 5:23; John 12:44-45). This is why the rejection of Christ’s disciples is also a rejection of Christ’s word.
Jesus speaks these words to His disciples so that they will remember His words when trial comes. “I have told you this so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you” (v. 4). The “hour” here is the hour of persecution. Jesus wants His disciples to stand firm when that hour arrives.
In every generation, faithful witness to Christ may bring misunderstanding, rejection, or loss. The Christian does not seek conflict, and he does not measure faithfulness by approval. The Spirit of truth strengthens Christ’s witnesses by drawing them toward prayer, truth, repentance, charity, and steady obedience to Christ. These are ordinary signs that the Spirit is at work in a believer’s life.
The same Lord who warned His disciples about opposition also gave them the Spirit of truth, so that they could remember His word, remain faithful, and continue bearing witness to Him in the world. Those who follow Christ are not left to face the world by their own strength. The Spirit testifies to Christ, and He strengthens those who bear witness to Christ.
Lord Jesus, send Your Spirit of truth to strengthen our faith. Help us to know You, remain faithful to Your word, and bear witness to You with courage, charity, and peace. Amen.
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Sources and References
- New American Bible, Revised Edition. John 15:26—16:4a; notes on John 15:26 and 16:2.
- Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch, Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2010), 192.
- José María Casciaro, gen. ed., The Navarre Bible: New Testament, Expanded Edition (Dublin: Four Courts Press; New York: Scepter Publishers, 2008), 426–427.
- Raymond E. Brown, “The Gospel According to John,” in The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, ed. Raymond E. Brown, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland E. Murphy (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990), 976, §§192–193.
- José Enrique Aguilar Chiu et al., eds., The Paulist Biblical Commentary (New York: Paulist Press, 2018), 1163–1164.
- John J. Collins, Gina Hens-Piazza, Barbara Reid OP, and Donald Senior CP, eds., The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century, Third Fully Revised Edition, with a Foreword by Pope Francis (London: Bloomsbury; New York: T&T Clark, 2022), 1430–1431.
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