John 16:25

John 16:25. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs; an hour cometh when I shall no longer speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall tell you plainly concerning the Father. Jesus is now about to close His last discourse. At this point, accordingly, He refers to the method of teaching, of which He was giving them illustration at the moment, for the purpose of bringing out by contrast the glory of the period upon which the disciples were about to enter. On the word ‘proverbs,' comp. on chap. John 10:6. The contrast suggested is not between figurative and direct speech, or between enigmatical and clear sayings. Jesus had used few figures, and He had taught with the utmost simplicity and plainness of language. But the effect of His teaching had depended upon the authority of the Teacher, not on the spiritual insight of the pupil. The Teacher alone had Himself ‘seen' what He described (chap. John 6:46), and it had been His aim to make His pupils understand it. Now, however, that stage of instruction was to come to a close, and the pupils, in ripened manhood, were themselves under the direct teaching of the Spirit to ‘see.' That this is the case, is clear from the fact that the ‘hour' of John 16:25 and the ‘day' of John 16:26 were an hour and a day when Jesus was to be personally removed from His disciples, and when the ‘Spirit of the truth' was to take His place. The contrast, therefore, between ‘in proverbs' and ‘plainly' is to be sought in the difference between outward teaching of every kind and that internal teaching which comes from the illuminating influence of the Spirit of God, and which is the best, the only true, teaching. The Spirit shall be given after Jesus goes away, and the disciples shall see in their own free and independent insight what as yet they received only upon the authority of their Master.