Does John 16:13 apply to us today, or did that only apply to the original apostles during their lifetime?
QUESTION:
Does John 16:13 apply to us today, or did that only apply to the original apostles during their lifetime? “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”
John 16:13
ANSWER:
It totally applies. But there are a couple things to think about:
In context, you can see Jesus is prepping his apostles for his departure. He was just talking to the 12. Referring to the coming instruction for what was going to (now we know, but they didn’t) be the outward spread of the Gospel and Gods kingdom. The NT wasn’t written yet, and Jesus wanted to silence the idea that was going to arise “I’ll listen to Jesus but not Peter or Paul’s teaching etc etc.” he wanted to drive home the idea that after he’s gone, He will send His very own spirit to lead them to write the New Testament and finish “the canon” as His supreme proof and word.
The Greek phrase “all the truth” is spot on. Other translations say “all truth”.
This passage is HUGE in setting up for us the “Hierarchy” of the trinity. Here Jesus shows us that the Spirit ALWAYS speaks what he hears from Jesus and Jesus is ONLY doing what the Father is doing. This and other places in scripture solidify the allusion to the trinity and the roles.
This is why when someone claims to have a “special revelation” and it doesn’t have anything to do with Christ it’s highly likely that it’s not the Holy Spirit doing the talking.
“Things that are to come” - for sure was talking about the writing and formation of Gods written revelation of what we call scripture. However, this still refers to the Holy Spirits role in our lives day to day as he lives in us and speaks to us. He will ALWAYS only speak what Jesus says.