John 6:66 Commentary and Bible Study

It was at this point that many of the supposed disciples who had gathered around him during his long Galilean ministry now turned back and walked no more with him. Christ however knew that the twelve – or rather eleven of them – were not going to leave him, and for their encouragement he prompts them to express their faith in contrast to those who now left him. ‘Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?’ He knew that they would not. It is not a question that is asked because Christ Jesus the Lord needed to know the answer. He is evoking their profession of faith. He is encouraging them to state where they stand. They must not be discouraged by the great falling away they have witnessed; God’s work in their hearts does not leave them as unstable disciples who could fall at any moment. They are different to these others for they have had an irreversible work of God done in their hearts by the Spirit and they can never lose what he has given them.