John 3:30

Ver. 30. “ He must increase, but I must decrease. ” Here is the expression which forms the connecting link between the two parts of the discourse, announcing the second and summing up the first. The friend of the bridegroom had, at the beginning of the relation, the principal part; it was he alone who appeared. But, in proportion as the relation develops itself, his part diminishes he must disappear and leave the bridegroom to become the sole person. This is the position of John the Baptist; he accepts it, and desires no other. No one could have invented this admirable saying, a permanent motto of every true servant of Christ.

At this point, Bengel, Tholuck, Olshausen and others, make the discourse of the Baptist end, and the reflections of the evangelist begin. They rest principally on the Johannean character of the style in what follows, and on the reproduction of certain thoughts of the conversation with Nicodemus (see, especially, John 3:31-32). To pronounce a decision, we must study the discourse even to the end. But, in itself, it would be scarcely natural that the words of John 3:30, he must increase, should not be developed in what follows, as the other words, and I must decrease, have been in what precedes.