John 14:4-11
We should mark in these verses how much better Jesus speaks of believers than they speak of themselves. He says to His disciples, “Ye know whither I go, and ye know the way.” And yet Thomas at once breaks in with the remark, “We know neither the whither nor the way.” The apparent contradiction demands explanation. It is more seeming than real.
Certainly, in one point of view, the knowledge of the disciples was very small. They knew little, before the crucifixion and resurrection, compared to what they might have known, and little compared to what they afterwards knew after the day of Pentecost. About our Lord’s purpose in coming into the world, about His sacrificial death and substitution for us on the cross, their ignorance was glaring and great. It might well be said, that they “knew in part” only, and were “children in understanding.” (1 Cor. 13:12; 14:20)