Many had just walked away, and Jesus turned to His closest followers. Barnes says, "This was the time to try them," and that "God compels none to remain with him against their will." Gill sees tenderness in it: it was "said out of a tender regard and strong affection for them," and, he adds, Jesus might also say it to "strengthen their faith in him, and cause them the more to cleave to him, with full purpose of heart, when others left him." The question gave the twelve a real choice and called them to make it.

Simon Peter answered for the group: "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God" (John 6:68-69). Barnes says this "implied their firm conviction that Jesus was the Messiah." Jesus replied with a sobering question: "Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" (John 6:70). John explains that He meant Judas Iscariot (John 6:71).

The KJV "Will ye" does not mean "Are you going to?" The Greek verb is thelete, "do you wish" or "do you want," so the ESV reads, "Do you want to go away as well?" The question begins with the Greek word mē, and reads literally, "Not you also wish to go away?"

"The twelve" were the inner circle Jesus had chosen (John 6:70).

This question shows that Jesus does not hold anyone by force. Barnes writes that "God compels none to remain with him against their will." Jesus let those disciples go, and He gave the twelve the same freedom. Yet He did not ask coldly. Gill hears love in the question and suggests it may also have been meant to make them cling to Him more firmly.

The question drew out one of the great confessions in John's Gospel: "thou hast the words of eternal life" (John 6:68). Barnes adds that "it is always a time to try real Christians when many professed disciples become cold and turn back." Matthew Henry writes, "When we are tempted to backslide or turn away, it is good to remember first principles, and to keep to them."