Sticking with Jesus in a World quick to abandon Him
6:59 HE SAID THIS WHILE TEACHING IN THE SYNAGOGUE IN CAPERNAUM.
6:60 ON HEARING IT, MANY OF HIS DISCIPLES SAID, “THIS IS A HARD TEACHING. WHO CAN ACCEPT IT?”
6:61 AWARE THAT HIS DISCIPLES WERE GRUMBLING ABOUT THIS, JESUS SAID TO THEM, “DOES THIS OFFEND YOU?
6:62 WHAT IF YOU SEE THE SON OF MAN ASCEND TO WHERE HE WAS BEFORE!
6:63 THE SPIRIT GIVES LIFE; THE FLESH COUNTS FOR NOTHING. THE WORDS I HAVE SPOKEN TO YOU ARE SPIRIT AND THEY ARE LIFE.
6:64 YET THERE ARE SOME OF YOU WHO DO NOT BELIEVE.” FOR JESUS HAD KNOWN FROM THE BEGINNING WHICH OF THEM DID NOT BELIEVE AND WHO WOULD BETRAY HIM.
6:65 HE WENT ON TO SAY, “THIS IS WHY I TOLD YOU THAT NO ONE CAN COME TO ME UNLESS THE FATHER HAS ENABLED HIM.”
6:66 FROM THIS TIME MANY OF HIS DISCIPLES TURNED BACK AND NO LONGER FOLLOWED HIM.
6:67 “YOU DO NOT WANT TO LEAVE TOO, DO YOU?” JESUS ASKED THE TWELVE.
6:68 SIMON PETER ANSWERED HIM, “LORD, TO WHOM SHALL WE GO? YOU HAVE THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE.
6:69 WE BELIEVE AND KNOW THAT YOU ARE THE HOLY ONE OF GOD.”
6:70 THEN JESUS REPLIED, “HAVE I NOT CHOSEN YOU, THE TWELVE? YET ONE OF YOU IS A DEVIL!”
6:71 (HE MEANT JUDAS, THE SON OF SIMON ISCARIOT, WHO, THOUGH ONE OF THE TWELVE, WAS LATER TO BETRAY HIM.)
