John 13:33

John 13:33-34 . Little children — An expression intended to signify both their weakness and his tenderness and compassion; as if he had said, Ye whom I love with parental tenderness, and whom my heart pities under all your trials and sorrows; yet a little while, &c. — That is, It is but a very little while longer that I am to continue with you: a few hours more will part us; and ye shall seek me — Shall wish for my presence and converse when I am gone; and as I said to the Jews, (see John 7:34 ; John 8:21 ,) Whither I go ye cannot come — Not yet, being not yet prepared for it. A new commandment — As if he had said, But observe my parting words, and let them be written on your very hearts; for I give you what I may properly call a new commandment, enjoining a higher degree of mutual love than has generally been possessed and manifested among pious people to each other; a command which I press upon you by new motives, and a new example, and which from henceforth I would have you to consider as confirmed by a new sanction, and to keep ever fresh in your memories. The expression, which, says Dr.

Doddridge, “signifies much more than merely a renewed command, is a strong and lively intimation, that the engagements to mutual love, peculiar in the Christian dispensation, are so singular and so cogent, that all other men, when compared with its votaries, may seem uninstructed in the school of friendship, and Jesus may appear, as it were, the first professor of that divine science.” “He called this a new commandment,” observes Dr. Macknight, “not because mutual love had never been enjoined on mankind before, but because it was a precept of peculiar excellence, for the word new in the Hebrew language [often] denotes excellence and truth, as appears from Psalm 33:3 ; Mark 1:27 ; Revelation 2:17 ; and because they were to exercise it under a new relation, according to a new measure, and from new motives. They were to love one another in the relation of his disciples, and with that degree of love which he had shown to them, for they were to lay down their lives for the brethren, 1 John 3:16 . Withal they were to love from the consideration of his love, and in order to prove themselves his genuine disciples, by the warmth of their mutual affection.” So also Dr. Campbell: “Our Lord, by this, warns his disciples against taking for their model any example of affection whereunto the age could furnish them; or, indeed, any example less than the love which he all along, especially in his death, manifested for them.”

John 13:33 . This result was to be forthwith achieved: εὐθὺς δοξάσει αὐτόν , which at once is interpreted to the discipies in the explicit statement Τεκνία , ἔτι μικρὸν μεθʼ ὑμῶν εἰμι . Τεκνία is frequent in 1 John; here only in the Gospel. Lightfoot (p. 1098) says: “Discipulus cujusvis vocatur ejus filius”; but here there is a tenderness in the expression not so accounted for. ἔτι μικρὸν , “yet a little,” i.e. , it is only for a little longer; cf. John 7:33 . This announcement, formerly made to the Jews ( John 7:33 , John 8:21 ; John 8:24 ), He now, ἄρτι , makes to the disciples; arousing their attention to what follows, as His last injunctions. In view of the temper they had that evening displayed and the necessity for united action and unanimous testimony He first lays upon them the commandment to love one another.

Little children (τεκνία) Diminutive, occurring only here in the Gospel, but repeatedly in the First Epistle. Nowhere else in the New Testament. Now (ἄρτι) In John 13:31, now is νῦν, which marks the point of time absolutely. Ἄρτι marks the point of time as related to the past or to the future. Thus, "from the days of John the Baptist until now" (ἄρτι, Matthew 11:12). "Thinkest thou that I cannot now (ἄρτι) pray to my Father?" though succor has been delayed all along till now (Matthew 26:53). Here the word implies that the sorrowful announcement of Jesus' departure from His disciples had been withheld until the present. The time was now come.

{4} Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you. (4) The eternal glory will flow little by little from the head into the members. But meanwhile, we must take good heed that we run the race of this life in brotherly love.

33-35. Little children—From the height of His own glory He now descends, with sweet pity, to His "little children," all now His own. This term of endearment, nowhere else used in the Gospels, and once only employed by Paul (Ga 4:19), is appropriated by the beloved disciple himself, who no fewer than seven times employs it in his first Epistle. Ye shall seek me—feel the want of Me. as I said to the Jews—(Joh 7:34; 8:21). But oh in what a different sense!

Our Saviour’s time of death being very nigh, (for it was the next day), he begins to speak of it to his disciples more freely and plainly, and to let them know that he, though now dying, bare a fatherly tender affection to them: he calls them little children. Parents have a natural affection to their children; a more tender affection to their children when little, because in their tender age they are more ignorant, and unable to provide for themselves. We find this compellation used by Christ’s apostles, Galatians 4:19 1Jo 2:1,28 . And he tells them, that he had but now a little time to be with them before his death, and not long after his resurrection; in which, too, his converse was not such with them as it hitherto had been. Whither I go, ye cannot come; he told this to the Jews in John 7:31 , and now he tells them the same, that they would miss him when he was gone, and should seek him; but even the disciples at present could not follow him to heaven, whither he was going. The unbelieving Jews should never follow him thither, but even those who were his disciples, who were born again, and whom he loved as little children are beloved by their parents, should not yet follow him; his work in the world was done, but they had yet a great deal of work in it to do.

John 13:33 . Τέκνια , little children ) In this passage, when putting forward the precept of love, He for the first time so calls them. Comp. ch. John 21:5 .[339]— τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις , unto the Jews ) In this one passage alone, when speaking with the disciples, He calls them Jews, never on any other occasion, except to the Samaritan woman, to Caiaphas, and to Pilate, once only to each of these persons; ch. John 4:22 ; John 18:20 ; John 18:36 . Also in chapters 14–17. He never uses the appellation, Jews or Israel.— ζητήσετέ με , ye shall seek Me ) He does not add, ye shall not find Me [as He did to the Jews].— οὐ δύνασθε , ye cannot ) They were not as yet matured enough for that: John 13:36 , “Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now ; but thou shalt follow Me afterwards .”— ἄρτι , now ) He was unwilling to say this to the disciples sooner: whereas to unbelievers He said it sooner [at an earlier period]. [339] After the resurrection at the Sea of Tiberias, Jesus, when not yet recognised by the disciples, addresses them with the appellation, which might have reminded them of His love, “ Children , have ye any meat?”—E. and T.

33 . Little children ] Nowhere else in the Gospels does Christ use this expression of tender affection ( teknia ), which springs from the thought of His orphaned disciples. S. John appears never to have forgotten it. It occurs frequently in his First Epistle ( 1 John 2:1 ; 1 John 2:12 ; 1 John 2:28 , John 3:7 ; John 3:18 , John 4:4 , John 5:21 ), and perhaps nowhere else in the N.T. In Galatians 4:19 the reading is doubtful. ‘Children’ in John 21:5 is a different word ( paidia ). a little while ] See on John 7:33-34 , John 8:21 . Ye shall seek me ] Christ does not add, as He did to the Jews, ‘and shall not find Me,’ still less: ‘ye shall die in your sin.’ Rather, ‘ye shall seek Me: and though ye cannot come whither I go, yet ye shall find Me by continuing to be My disciples and loving one another.’ The expression ‘the Jews’ is rare in Christ’s discourses; comp. John 4:22 , John 18:20 ; John 18:36 .

(33) Little children, yet a little while I am with you. —The thought of His own glory brings with it the thought of their state of orphanage when He shall have departed from them, and He addresses them as “Little children,” with a word of tenderness spoken only here by Him. The word impressed itself upon the mind of St. John, and it occurs elsewhere in the New Testament only in his First Epistle ( 1John 2:1 ; 1John 2:12 ; 1John 2:28 ; 1John 3:7 ; 1John 3:18 ; 1John 4:4 ; 1John 5:21 ), and in an uncertain reading in the striking words of St. Paul, “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” (See Note on Galatians 4:19 , and comp. Introduction, p. 371.) For the remainder of the verse, see Notes on John 7:33-34; John 8:21.

Little children - An expression of great tenderness, denoting his deep interest in their welfare. As he was about to leave them, he endeavors to mitigate their grief by the most tender expressions of attachment, showing that he felt for them the deep interest in their welfare which a parent feels for his children. The word "children" is often given to Christians as implying: 1. that God is their Father, and that they sustain toward him that endearing relation, Romans 8:14-15. 2. as denoting their need of teaching and guidance, as children need the aid and counsel of a father. See the corresponding term "babes" used in 1 Corinthians 3:1; 1 Peter 2:2. 3. It is used, as it is here, as an expression of tenderness and affection. See Galatians 4:19; 1 John 2:1, 1 John 2:12, 1 John 2:28; 1 John 3:7, 1 John 3:18; 1 John 4:4; 1 John 5:21. Yet a little while I am with you - He did not conceal the fact that he was soon to leave them. There is something exceedingly tender in this address. It shows that he loved them to the end; that as their friend and guide, as a man, he felt deeply at the thoughts of parting from them, and leaving them to a cold and unfeeling world. A parting scene at death is always one of tenderness; and it is well when, like this, there is the presence of the Savior to break the agony of the parting pang, and to console us with the words of his grace. As I said unto the Jews - See John 7:34.

So now I say to you - That is, they could not follow him then, John 13:36; John 14:2. He was about to die and return to God, and for a time they must be willing to be separated from him. But he consoled them John 13:36 with the assurance that the separation would be only temporary, and that they should afterward follow him.