The more of God we know, the more responsible we are before God for our knowing. The deeper we penetrate into God's truth, the greater is the weight we carry for God's truth. I'm so glad that Jesus understands our limitations and feeds us His truth one bite at a time!
Jesus said, "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now" (John 16:12). God's revelation is given piecemeal and progressively down through history. Here, Jesus refutes the false notion that only the gospel accounts were inspired. Jesus pre-authenticates the rest of the New Testament Scriptures with these words. More revelation was coming as God progressively revealed Himself in the collection of writings called the New Testament.
Yet Jesus is thinking of more than historical progression with these words. Jesus allows for our spiritual immaturity. He accommodates Himself to our level of spiritual growth. He gives the disciples and, by extension, us the knowledge we can bear at any given time. The verb "to bear" (βασταζειν) means 1) to carry or 2) to endure (BAGD, p. 137). The word can refer to carrying a literal burden such as a jar of water (Mark 14:13) or the cross (John 19:17). It can also be used figuratively for carrying the cross (Luke 14:27) or the burden of keeping the law (Acts 15:10). We also bear a burden in the sense of enduring the heat of the day ((Matthew 20:12) or enduring the weaknesses of weaker Christians (Romans 15:1).
We, unlike the disciples, have the full canon of Scripture to examine, but we, like the disciples, may not be able to carry the full burden which comes with that knowledge. We may not be able to stand up under the weight of greater knowledge so Jesus accommodates our weakness as he grows us stronger in the knowledge of His truth. He helps us understand His truth progressively - one bite at a time.
The Spirit of Truth will guide us and teach us (John 16:13) in His truth as we are able to bear the knowledge we need to grow. Jesus doesn't unload His theological dump truck on us all at once. He feeds us daily at His dinner table so we can assimilate His truth into our lives. He illuminates His truth on a "need to know" basis. He teaches us what we need to know when we need to know it and not before we can bear it.
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