Judas has his name given in full as an indictment. John did not pass judgment on him for the enormity of his crime, but just related the facts and lets the reader make his own judgments.

Judas was chosen by Jesus to be one of His disciples, and yet He was not “chosen” to receive eternal life (John 13:18).

John 13:18  “I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill the scripture: ‘He who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me.’

He was one of the twelve and yet he went to hell. Going to church, doing things — even great things — for God, even having a position in the church does not guarantee your salvation. The only thing that does is if you by faith receive Christ and give yourself completely to Him. His Words are words of eternal life, but they must be believed and received to give that life.

“devil” =  diabolos = devil, false accuser, slanderer. “Metaphorically applied to a man who, by opposing the cause of God, may be said to act the part of the devil or to side with him.” (Strong’s)

Notice the emotion expressed by Jesus here. Those who reject Him grieve the heart of Christ, but those who wholeheartedly accept Him and what He says bring Him great pleasure and satisfaction.

“believe” = the tense in the Greek is perfect active indicative. “We have come to believe and still believe.”

“know” = to know; or gain an intimate knowledge of. This same word is used metaphorically of sexual intercourse. The tense is also perfect active indicative and this could read “We have come to know and still know.”

The disciples had come into a faith and intimate knowledge of Jesus and what He had said which had only grown and been reinforced by what they had seen and heard while with Him. The order is important here; you can’t know if you haven’t first believed. They believed and then they knew that He was the Holy One of God.

Believing and knowing is the sure cure against falling away. Do you believe and know Jesus? Or are you riding on the fence, hoping you are saved but not wanting to give yourself fully to Him? Jesus is the One sent from God and when one gets to know Him, one will never leave Him, for there is none that can compare to Him.

Unsurprisingly, Peter is the one to respond to the question of Jesus. He was often the spokesman for the group — not, as Matthew Henry observes, because he had more of the ear of his Master than the other disciples, but because he had more of his own tongue than they. He is impetuous and prone to incredibly stupid remarks but also to unbelievably great ones. Here he utters one of his highest. The disciples have already made their decision and Peter mouths it for them. Jesus utters words of eternal life; can anyone do better than that?

“the words” = is a mistranslation. There is no article “the” so this should read “You have words of eternal life.” If the translation were correct it would imply a formula, which it does not. When we come to know the life-giving words of Jesus, we will never forsake Him, and neither would the Twelve.

At the start of Jesus’ ministry large numbers of people had started following Jesus, even to the extent that He had to leave Judea to avoid the large crowds. With the advent of the miracle of the feeding of the 5000, the multitude would have made Him king and placed their allegiance under His direction. But then Jesus had more fully revealed Who He was and what He stood for and they did not like it. The multitude went away disappointed; then many of His disciples deserted Him; and now for the big test: what would the twelve disciples in His innermost circle, the ones He had chosen Himself, now do?

Jesus laid down the challenge with the opportunity for them to leave, but the question was worded so as to expect a negative answer. Jesus was confidently looking for these men to be loyal to Him.

It is good to note that God always gives us a choice.

Joshua 24:15  But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

“from this time” = “upon this” (KJV) could also mean “for this reason.”

“back” = eis opiso = to the rear, or to the behind things. Could be translated “they went away to the things they left behind.” Godet sees this as “more than simple defection; they denote the return of these people to their ordinary occupations, which they had abandoned in order continuously to follow the Lord.”

Not liking what was said and not accepting its consequences was a temptation that resulted in rejecting Christ. Looking back ended in going back. When the recently released Israelites looked back (Num 11:4-6) they remembered the good things from their former way of life but completely forgot the overwhelmingly worse bad things, i.e. slavery, murder of their children, etc. When we look back, our memories become one-sided and we often choose the comfortable and lose the best. That is why God does not want us to look longingly back at our former way of life (Gen 19:26, Luke 9:62).

Num 11:4-6  The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”

Gen 19:26  But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Luke 9:62  Jesus replied, “No-one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

Jesus had sifted the true disciples “from the false, and the deep from the shallow.” (Morris 382) Whether they were following Him because they thought Him to be a rabbi who taught great things, or they believed Him to be the Messiah who would set up His earthly kingdom, or perhaps just for the sake of the material benefits of bread, fish, and healing which He had been providing, whatever their reasons, they now deserted Him. His claims had proven that he was not just a rabbi, He did not fit their expectations of the Messiah, and His demands upon them were too great for them to continue following, even for the material benefits associated with it. Following Him now proved to be something completely different from anything they had anticipated. Following Him was now impossible apart from a total commitment, which they were unwilling to make.

“This is why . . .” = Jesus had previously told them this so that they would understand when some did not believe.“Unbelief is to be expected apart from a divine miracle. It is impossible for anyone to come to Christ without the Father’s giving him the grace to do so. Left to himself the sinner prefers his sin. Conversion is always a work of grace.” (Morris 387)

It was foretold in scripture that they would not believe (Isa 53:1). Why not? Because they didn’t mix the life-giving words of Christ with faith (Heb 4:2). “Failure to believe kills the life in the words of Jesus.” (RWP) Human knowledge and wisdom can not ascend to the truths of which Jesus has been speaking; only faith may attain them.

Isa 53:1  Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

Heb 4:2  For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.

Matthew Henry observes that “Among those who are nominal Christians there are many who are real infidels.” Many may seem to follow Jesus and do all the right things and yet not have a living relationship with Him.

Mt 7:21-23  “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

We see the outward actions but the Lord sees the heart. Eventually the unbelief of hypocrites becomes evident to all, but Christ knows it from the beginning. The disciples thought Judas was one of them, but Jesus knew differently. He sees our hearts and knows us through and through, which makes Him the perfect Judge. For us to judge others is to usurp His rightful position (Mt 7:1).

Mt 7:1  “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.

Jesus knew that His words would cause the loss of many disciples, and yet He spoke them (Mt 10:34). Don’t hesitate to speak what God has told you to say, regardless of the consequences, but make certain that it is God giving you the words and not someone else wanting to cause division.

Mt 10:34  “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

“The spirit gives life;” contrast this with the Rabbinic view that the Law gives life: “Great is the Law, for it gives life to them that practice it both in this world and in the world to come” (qt’d in Morris 384).

“the flesh counts for nothing” = is a principle which applies to their interpretation of what Jesus has said and also to us today. Their eating of His physical body would do them no good; and all of our good works produced by an act of our flesh will also be worthless.

“The words…” = the words of Jesus are creative; they bring life much as the words of God, as recorded in Genesis, brought into existence all things.

John 5:24  “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

Jesus had just instructed them that all He had said should be interpreted in the spiritual and not the physical. His words are spirit and they apply to the spiritual realm as does the life of which he has been speaking.

There is an incredibly important principle here that we dare not miss. If we live our lives in the spirit, they will be full of life and vitality. If we live them in the flesh, all that we do will be worthless.

Biblically, flesh speaks of our human nature. It is literally the soft part of our bodies that surrounds our bones. We are beings composed of spirit, soul, and body. Our spirits are the part of us which is connected to the spirit world. God’s intention is that our souls (composed of our mind, will, and emotions) should choose to follow Him and not to give in to the lusts of the flesh. However, when man fell, man’s soul chose to give into the body and its passions instead of obeying God, and as a consequence, we are now fleshly beings.

We are fleshly because we are born that way. It has been handed down from Adam and is even more certain than our genetic code. We take on flesh because our parents were flesh, and the only way we can be spiritual is for us to be born that way. Thus God’s plan is for us to die to our flesh and be reborn as a spiritual person. This can only be done through the sacrifice of Jesus and this process is called “salvation.”

Our flesh can never please God because it is corrupt through and through. This is true both of those who are sinners and those who have accepted the salvation freely given by Christ. The flesh is completely opposed to God and it is impossible for it to submit to His will (Rom 8:6-8). There is no possibility for peaceful co-existence. God is not pleased with what we do, but by the source with which we do it. We can do the most righteous things, but if they are done out of our self and our own strength, it does not make God happy. The most excellent deeds, if done in the flesh, bring as much displeasure from God as the most wicked ones would. Our deeds must spring from a trust in and reliance upon the Holy Spirit, or else they are carnal and rejected by God. God’s verdict is that the flesh counts for nothing and it must die.

Rom 8:6-8  The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

When God saved us, He made us brand new, but it was our spirits that He made new, and not our flesh. By making our spirits new He gives us the power to choose to follow Him. Our flesh is still the same, but now we have the ability to choose to die to it and live for Christ. This comes simply by believing upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

God never intended to make our flesh better. He just made it possible for us to choose to let the Holy Spirit do His work in and through us. If we have accepted His salvation, then we have killed the power sin has over us (Rom 6:6, Gal 5:24), but we still must walk by the Spirit so we won’t gratify the flesh’s desires (Gal 5:16-17). Jesus delivers us from the power of sin and enables us to live daily for Him by his Holy Spirit living within us, but it is still up to us to choose.

Rom 6:6  For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—

Gal 5:24  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.

Gal 5:16-17  So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.

We are made brand new in the deepest part of our beings, but it takes time to work its way out from in there. It is not natural for a Christian to be fleshly, unless he is a new Christian 1 Cor 3:1-3.

1 Cor 3:1-3  Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ.  I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?The church is without the power it should have today and the reason is that its members live weak, fleshly lives. Individually, we are miserable, weak, and pathetic. We keep falling into the same sins and there is no power in our lives. Why? Because we are not making right choices. We are choosing the things that satisfy our bodies and our flesh instead of the things of God. Jesus said that the flesh accounts for nothing. Only the Spirit gives life. Which will you choose to live your life by?

The sentence is a question and thus unfinished, with no indication as to how Jesus intended it. Perhaps the implication is that if they stumbled at His words of Him being the Bread from Heaven, how much more would they stumble if He told them that He, a man, was going to ascend back to heaven from which He came.