John 16

Evangelical Heritage Version

No Greater Love—in Joy

16 “I have told you these things so that you will not fall away. ² They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who murders you will think he is offering a service to God. ³ They will do these things because they have not known the Father or me. ⁴ But I have told you these things so that when their^[a] time comes, you may remember that I told them to you. I did not tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you.

⁵ “But now I am going away to him who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ ⁶ Yet because I have told you these things, sorrow has filled your heart. ⁷ Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth: It is good for you that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸ When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment: ⁹ about sin, because they do not believe in me; ¹⁰ about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; ¹¹ about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

¹² “I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³ But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into^[b] all truth. For he will not speak on his own, but whatever he hears he will speak. He will also declare to you what is to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵ Everything the Father has is mine. This is why I said that he takes from what is mine and will declare it to you.

¹⁶ “In a little while you are not going to see me anymore, and again in a little while you will see me, because I am going away to the Father.”^[c]

¹⁷ Therefore some of his disciples asked one another, “What does he mean when he tells us, ‘In a little while you are not going to see me, and again in a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going away to the Father’?” ¹⁸ So they kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he’s saying.”

¹⁹ Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you trying to determine with one another what I meant by saying, ‘In a little while you are not going to see me, and again in a little while you will see me’? ²⁰ Amen, Amen, I tell you: You will weep and wail, but the world will rejoice. You will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy. ²¹ A woman giving birth has pain, because her time has come. But when she has delivered the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, because of her joy that a person has been born into the world.

²² “So you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again. Your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. ²³ In that day you will not ask me anything. Amen, Amen, I tell you: Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. ²⁴ Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask, and you will receive, so that your joy may be made complete.

²⁵ “I have told you these things using figurative language. A time is coming when I will no longer speak to you using figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. ²⁶ In that day you will ask in my name, and I am not telling you that I will make requests of the Father on your behalf. ²⁷ For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. ²⁸ I came from the Father and have come into the world. Now I am going to leave the world and go to the Father.”

²⁹ “Yes!” his disciples said. “Now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative language. ³⁰ Now we know that you know everything and do not need to have anyone ask you anything. For this reason we believe that you came from God.”

³¹ Jesus answered them, “Now do you believe? ³² Listen, a time is coming, in fact it is here, when you will be scattered, everyone to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not going to be alone, because the Father is with me. ³³ I have told you these things, so that you may have peace in me. In this world you are going to have trouble. But be courageous! I have overcome the world.”