THE KING’S BUSINESS
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character of His kingship (ch. 6:14, 15, see also Matt. 7 :21, 22) . John gives the reason for our Lord’s iack of confidence in the many who believed on Him at this time, and it is a reason full of meaning and suggestion, “He knew all men.” Our Lord had a thorough understanding of human nature. He could not be imposed upon by any mere appearance of faith and spiritual life, or by mere outward profession. He is just the same today and He knows that much that is offered to Him as faith is not faith, that much that appears to be life is not life, that much outward profession does not stand for any real fact of inner experience. Over and over again John ascribes to Jesus this deep insight into and thorough-going knowledge of what is in man (ch. 1 :43, 47- 50; 4:16-18; 6:64,70, 71; 13:21-27; 21:17). Such a knowledge of men demanded omniscience on Jesus’ part; for only God knows the hearts of men (2 Chron. 6:30; Jer. 17:9, 10). Our Lord knew not only the heart of one man, but He knew all men, their inmost life, all their thoughts, emotions, desires, and He so knows each of us today. Surely the One who thus knew men was God (cf. ch. 1:1). In Him dwelt all the fulness of the godhead bodily (Col. 2:9). John in his words here is simply working out in practical illustration his theme as announced in the opening of the Gospel (John 1 :1, 14). His Divine knowledge of men corresponds on the intellectual side to the mighty acts that He wrought which demanded the power of God for their accomplishment on the physical side. In the 25th verse we have the same truth about our Lord’s knowledge of men restated with more fulness of detail. It is characteristic of John’s style to emphasize the truth by a restatement of it in another and sometimes more detailed form (see ch.
1:1, 2, 3; 1 John 1:5; 2:7, 8, 9-11). So complete was our Lord’s knowledge of all men that He had absolutely no need that any one should tell Him anything about any man. He Himself knew. He was absolutely independent of man; there was a Divine fulness of knowledge in Himself. Just as the Spirit of God speaks of Jehovah through Jeremiah in the Old Testament (Jer. 17:9, 10; 20:12 cf. Rev. 2 :23), so John speaks of the Lord Jesus here; in other words, our Lord Jesus occupied the same place in John’s thought that Jehovah did in the thought of God-inspired men in the Old Testament. The word translated “knew” is in the imperfect tense denoting a habitual state of mind; in other words it was not merely on occasions, now and then, that Jesus knew what was in man, He knew it all the time. The heart of man lay open before Him just as it lies open before God (Heb. 4:13). John’s words contain the strongest possible affirmation of our Lord’s absolute and unlimited knowledge of man. He is God in His knowledge as well as in His power: how precious this thought of our Saviour is to those who look to Him as a Saviour; He knows all our sins and weaknesses, all our need of help, and, therefore, knows just how to meet our need; He hears all our prayers and sees the longing and aspiration which we hesitate to put into prayer. He is able to grant an answer to every petition, to pardon every sin. But, on the other hand, how awful is this conception of our Lord for those who must meet Him in judgment. There is no hope for the hypocrite or deceiver, or of any one who clings to his sins. We may succeed in deceiving our fellowmen, we can not deceive Him; He is always knowing what is in us, and He is the One who is to conduct the future judgment (John 5 :22, 23; Acts 17:30, 31). There will
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