I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now.
All Commentaries on John 16:12 Go To John 16
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Having said then, you cannot bear them now, but then you shall be able, and, The Holy Spirit shall lead you into all truth; lest this should make them suppose that the Holy Spirit was the superior, He adds, ForHe shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak.
In this way then He raised their spirits; for there is nothing for which mankind so long, as the knowledge of the future. He relieves them from all anxiety on this account, by showing that dangers would not fall upon them unawares. Then to show that He could have told them all the truth into which the Holy Spirit would lead them, He adds, He shall glorify Me.
And because He had said, You have one Master, even Christ (Matt23:8), that they might not be prevented by this from admitting the Holy Spirit as well, Headds, For He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it to you. DIDYMUS. To receive must betaken here in a sense agreeable to the Divine Nature. As the Son in giving is not deprived of what He gives, nor imparts to others with any loss of His own, so too the Holy Spirit does not receive what before He had not; for if He received what before He had not, the gift being transferred to another, the giver would be thereby a loser. We must understand then that the Holy Spirit receives from the Son that which belonged to His nature, and that there are not two substances implied, one giving and the other receiving, but one substance only. In like manner the Son too is said to receive from the Father that wherein He Himself subsists. For neither is the Son any thing but what is given Him by the Father, nor the Holy Spirit any substance but that which is given Him by the Son.
