The disciples felt sure of their faith. Jesus knew that within hours it would be shaken. Barnes says, "This question was evidently asked to put them on a full examination of their hearts." They thought they had a faith that would endure every trial, but they were about to go through scenes that would test it. Gill agrees that Jesus was not denying they believed. He was "Not as calling their faith in question; or as denying they had any," but reproving "their security, vain confidence and boasting."

Jesus answers His own question with a warning: "Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me" (John 16:32). Then He gives them peace: "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). That same night, "all the disciples forsook him, and fled" (Matthew 26:56).

Gill notes that the words may also be read as a statement, "ye do believe now," and says the Syriac and Arabic versions (early translations of the New Testament into those languages) read them as a command, "believe ye now." Barnes instead says those versions read it as a statement, "Ye do now believe," and adds that the sense is not affected. Either way, the point lands the same: their faith was real but untested. Barnes explains "every man to his own" as "to his own home," following the KJV margin, and points to Matthew 26:31, where Jesus says all of them would be offended because of Him that night.

Jesus knew His friends would fail Him within hours, and He told them so. Yet His words did not end with their failure. They ended with peace: "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace" (John 16:33).

His strength did not depend on theirs. "I am not alone, because the Father is with me" (John 16:32). Barnes says simply, "His Father was his friend. He had all along trusted in God." The disciples' faith would be shaken, but the One they believed in would not be.