Chapter VI · (continued 2)
Reading edition
68, 69. Then Simon Peter answered. As in Matt. 16:16, he speaks quickly, for all.—Lord, to whom shall we go? To go away from Christ is to go out even here into the darkness; unto loneliness, hopelessness, despair.—Thou hast the words of eternal life. As Martha’s utterance of her faith in John 11:27, so Peter’s declaration here is not wholly responsive to the discourse that has preceded. He does not fully comprehend the meaning of that personal feeding on Christ of which the Lord has been speaking; but he believes that Christ’s words, though he does not fully understand them, are words of, that is full of, eternal life, and that he is the Messiah and the Son of God. And in this faith he is content to await humbly till the full meaning of Christ’s enigmatical discourse shall be revealed to him, as it could not be till Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension, and the descent of the Holy Spirit.
70 Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a[259] devil?
71 He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.
70, 71. Have not I chosen you twelve? Chosen them, not to be heirs of eternal life, but to be apostles; in the inner circle of his disciples; receiving his most sacred influence and intimate instruction. And one of you is a devil. Not the devil; not merely devilish; but belonging to the kingdom of the devil; one of his ministers and agents. To Christ all men belong to either the one or the other kingdom.He here, as it were, looks forward to the time when Judas should have gone to his own place, forecasts his future, and characterizes him in the present by what he is to be when the germinal sin, now in him, has brought forth its final fruit. On the character of Judas Iscariot, see Vol. I, p. 307, Note on character and career of Judas Iscariot.