💫WEB · John 16:15
What does John 16:15 mean?
"All things whatever the Father has are mine; therefore I said that he takes of mine, and will declare it to you."
— John 16:15 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
“I have yet many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now.
However when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak from himself; but whatever he hears, he will speak. He will declare to you things that are coming.
He will glorify me, for he will take from what is mine, and will declare it to you.
All things whatever the Father has are mine; therefore I said that he takes of mine, and will declare it to you.
A little while, and you will not see me. Again a little while, and you will see me.”
Some of his disciples therefore said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you won’t see me, and again a little while, and you will see me;’ and, ‘Because I go to the Father’?”
They said therefore, “What is this that he says, ‘A little while’? We don’t know what he is saying.”
Explanation
John 16:15 comes near the end of Jesus's final extended teaching to his disciples before his arrest and crucifixion, a section of John's Gospel often called the Upper Room Discourse. In plain language, Jesus is saying that everything belonging to the Father also belongs to him, and that this is why the Holy Spirit, who will come after Jesus departs, will take from what is his and reveal it to the disciples. It's a statement about shared divine ownership and shared divine communication: the Spirit isn't introducing something foreign or new, but is disclosing what already belongs to both the Father and the Son.
The immediate context is John 16:12-14, where Jesus tells the disciples that the Spirit of truth will guide them into all truth, speak only what he hears, and glorify Jesus by declaring to them "what is to come." The disciples are anxious and confused because Jesus has just told them he is going away. Jesus reassures them that his departure isn't abandonment; instead, the Spirit will continue his work among them, teaching and revealing truth after Jesus is physically gone. Verse 15 functions as Jesus's explanation for why the Spirit's ministry counts as glorifying him and revealing what is his: because there is no meaningful distinction between what the Father possesses and what Jesus possesses.
Theologically, this verse is one of several places in John where Jesus asserts full equality and unity with the Father (compare John 10:30, "I and the Father are one," and John 17:10, "all things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine"). The claim
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