John 6:66-71

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Vv. 66-71.

1. The design of the discourse of this sixth chapter, so far as the apostles were concerned, was undoubtedly to strengthen their faith by calling their thoughts to the mystery of the union of the soul with Christ. We have in this chapter the two kinds of evidence, that of the works and that of the words. The dependence of the latter on the former, and the higher character of the latter, are strikingly exhibited here. In this regard the chapter is a central one of this Gospel.

2. The evangelist gives in John 6:68-69 a new declaration of the apostles' faith. Peter and his associates did not fully understand the words of Jesus, but, in connection with the growth of their love and faith in the progress of their life with Him until now, they found in them no “hard saying,” as the others did, but only a new utterance of truth which was to be received and studied in the time to come. They believed that He was the Holy One of God, and that He had the words of eternal life, and so, in the presence of these profound thoughts and sayings, they were ready to listen and wait for greater light. It cannot be supposed that, at the time of the first miracle at Cana, their minds could have opened at all to such sayings. There had been a steady and continuous development since then.

3. As related to the evidence for the truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (John 20:31), this chapter carries the reader's thought into the region of His life-giving power the inward union of His life with that of the believer as essential to the eternal life of the soul more fully than the Chapter s which precede. There is no mere repetition of what goes before, but a suggestion of a new thought, and of a thought which belongs here in the natural order of the growth of the apostles' own inner life and of the proof of the truth for other minds. The Holy One of God as the source of eternal life the words of Peter's confession contain the thought of the discourse and the belief of the Twelve as it was now moving forward.

4. The explanation of the difficulties connected with the choice of Judas is to be found in the fact that Jesus acted in accordance with the providential plan of the world's life. We carry back the difficulty thus to the region of the Divine counsels, and there it is only to be placed with the mysteries of other human lives. The case of Judas was a remarkable one, because of the conspicuous position which his betrayal of Jesus gave him. But the wonder of all living, as related to moral discipline, losses and victories, is beyond the limit of our earthly vision.