Conversation Points for John 16:12-15

Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?

Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• This section focuses on the functions the Paraclete will hold within the faith community, to guide the community in truth.
• The word “to bear” bastazo refers to the physical act of bearing a heavy load. Here Jesus uses it metaphorically to describe the struggles the disciples will face in the future. The disciples cannot anticipate what their future will hold, so Jesus cannot yet teach them the lessons they will need to get through their future. Bultmann writes, “The believer can only measure the significance and claims of what he has to undergo when he actually meets it. He anticipates the future in faith, not foreknowledge.”
• The title “Spirit of truth” demonstrates that the Paraclete is trustworthy and connects the Paraclete to Jesus who is the truth (John 14:6; 18:37).
• The word used for guide in 16:13a is hodegeo, which is a compound of the roots of “way” (hodos) and “lead” (ago), so John 16:13a literally reads “lead in the way of truth.” There’s a sense of teaching and journeying contained in this phrase.
• The word translated “to declare” means to speak what has been heard. So when Jesus said the Spirit will “declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:13c), this does not refer to prophecy or prediction. The Paraclete does not predict the future, rather the Paraclete will proclaim to them the same teachings of Jesus in the new and changing circumstances of the world.

Works Sourced:
O’Day, Gail. “The Gospel of John.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume IX. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.