John 16:1
“I have told you these things so that you will not fall away.
BSB
ASV
These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be caused to stumble.
KJV
These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.
These things - The things spoken in the two previous chapters, promising them divine aid and directing them in the path of duty. Be offended - For the meaning of the word offend, see the notes at Mat 5:29. It means here the same as to stumble or fall - that is, to apostatize. He proceeds immediately to tell them, what he had often apprised them of, that they would be subject to great persecutions and trials. He was also himself about to be removed by death. They were to go into an unfriendly world.
These things I have spoken to you. He again states that none of those things which he has spoken are superfluous; for, since wars and contests await them, it is necessary that they should be provided beforehand with the necessary arms. Yet he also means that, if they meditate deeply on this doctrine, they will be fully prepared for resistance.
The disciples of Christ are apt to be offended at the cross; and the offence of the cross is a dangerous temptation, even to good men, to turn back from the ways of God, or turn aside out of them, or drive on heavily in them; to quit either their integrity or their comfort. It is not for nothing that a suffering time is called an hour of temptation.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
1 Peter 2:8and, “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word—and to this they were appointed.
leads to
And He will be a sanctuary—but to both houses of Israel a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, to the dwellers of Jerusalem a trap and a snare.
but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
To you who believe, then, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”
Why not? Because their pursuit was not by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,
What if God, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction?
Through
Matthew 13:21But since he has no root, he remains for only a season. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.
leads to
Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of Me.”
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
For if you possess these qualities and continue to grow in them, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Through
Matthew 24:10At that time many will fall away and will betray and hate one another,
leads to
Do not rely on a friend; do not trust in a companion. Seal the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms.
